Just Fancy That – Israel to Boycott Human Rights Council

This is an old post dating back to 2013!

Well Israel is always boasting about its unique achievements.  Here is another one.  It is the first country to boycott the toothless UN Human Rights Council.  As the Greeks once said, those whom the gods wish to destroy they first drive mad.

Tony Greenstein

The Only Democracy in the Middle East Boycotts Human Rights 

Israel expected to boycott U.N. rights scrutiny session

(Reuters) - Israel is expected to boycott a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council next week despite the United States urging its ally to show up for an examination of its record, the U.S. ambassador said on Thursday.

UN HQ

The Jewish state is scheduled to be in the dock of the Geneva rights forum on Tuesday, January 29 as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, the council's regular scrutiny of all United Nations member states.

"They (Israeli officials) signaled that they want it postponed. It is very unlikely they will participate on the 29th,"

Israel has long complained about criticsm from UN HRC

Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, U.S. human rights ambassador, told reporters in Geneva.
If the review goes ahead, Israel would likely face criticism for its practices in the Palestinian territories, including treatment of detainees, settlement expansion and its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip which Palestinians say is collective punishment of the enclave's 1.6 million residents.
Arab states would be expected to denounce Israel's deadly air strikes on Hamas-ruled Gaza last November, launched with the declared aim of ending rocket barrages.

Israel's last review was in December 2008, when it attended. A boycott would be unprecedented and diplomats fear other countries might follow suit to avoid scrutiny of their own human rights records.
Israel suspended relations with the council last May because of what it called an inherent bias against it, and has informally told the council's president that it wants the session postponed, a U.N. spokesman said.

"A decision will be taken in the event Israel does not show up for its UPR, the council will decide on a course of action. States are working very hard behind the scenes to come up with a solution," council spokesman Rolando Gomez told Reuters.

The Israeli authorities refused to co-operate with a fact-finding mission investigating settlements

A team of U.N. investigators, set up by the council last year, is due to report soon on whether Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories violate international human rights law. Washington cast the only vote against the initiative brought by the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinians said on Wednesday they would complain about Israel to the International Criminal Court if the Jewish state proceeds with plans to build housing on land the Palestinians want for a future state.

"We see a strong bias against Israel that has not gone away," U.S. Ambassador Donahoe said.

"We have encouraged Israel to come to the UPR, to tell its story, to present its own narrative of its human rights situation. We think it is a good opportunity to do that."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Roche and Robin Pomeroy)

SAUDI ARABIA - CHAIRMAN OF THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

The Day Satire Died

Listening to BBC 24 coverage is couldn't believe they put on a creature by the name of Fahad Naza.  I submitted a complaint at the outrageous nature of BBC coverage which will no doubt be kicked into the long grass.

Tony Greenstein

I had the misfortune to listen to a Fahad Naza or something similar explaining the difficulties the Saudi regime faced in the wake of 47 executions.  The BBC has an appalling record in respect of prettifying the Saudi regime but putting this creature on to defend the executions was despicable, even by your standards.

If this was the Russian regime and Putin you would have adopted a completely different approach and emphasised the question of human rights.  That didn't get a look in.

This reptile even described the 47 executed as having gone through and exhausted the Saudi judicial appeal process when it is a matter of fact that there is no such process.  There are merely arbitrary decisions handed down by Saudi judges in coordination with the regime and appeals and trials held in the absence of the accused's lawyers and without any evidence being produced and subject to challenge.

Naza described the Saudi regime as being forced into having to take the action it did, because of 'terrorism' when he might have mentioned it is this very regime that has long sponsored terrorism, Isis included.  He also 'forgot' to mention the Shi'ite cleric who had been guilty of nothing more than political opposition to the vicious Saudi regime.  We know nothing about the other people murdered except that no trial in Saudi Arabia is fair.

What the BBC of course did not do, given your complicity in bolstering the Saudi regime over the years, is mention the hypocrisy of the Saudis chairing the UN Human Rights Council and the British governments hypocrisy in supporting and voting for their election to that position.  That, unlike the breaking of diplomatic relations with Iran, was not considered newsworthy.  I wonder why other than the slavish adherence to British foreign policy norms.

It is difficult to believe that the BBC can get any lower.  But then you always manage it.  Your coverage is just a grovelling echo of David Cameron's amoral approach to the Saudi barbarians.