60 YEARS ON, ISRAEL-BASHING DIMINISHES MESSAGE OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
By Yossi Melman
Ha’aretz
Dec 11 2008
Israel
Even the chairman of the session could not keep silent. The Nigerian
Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva called on participants
to treat each other respectfully. His request was a direct response
to the speech by the Iranian ambassador who, as is the custom of
his government, called Israel "the Zionist entity," and not by its
official name. The chairman’s words were also meant to protest the
fiery, if expected, speeches of the envoys from the Arab and Muslim
countries who attacked Israel one after the other. The most prominent
was the Yemeni ambassador, who called Israel’s actions against the
Palestinians the greatest atrocities in human history. No less.
He had not heard about the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks,
the Holocaust of the Jews, and the genocide in Rwanda, the horrors
of the Balkan wars. He did not remember that 40 years ago, his own
country had been attacked with chemical weapons by the Egyptian army.
The occasion, last Thursday, was a meeting of the UN Human Rights
Council. The discussion was being held close to the date the world
will mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Out of the declaration grew a number of bureaucratic bodies to
deal with this important issue, among them the Human Rights Commission
and the Human Rights Council, established at the beginning of 2006. One
of its most important instruments is the Universal Periodic Review:
an accounting by each UN member of the status of human rights in
its country: the attitude to ethnic minorities, religions, women,
the gay community, freedom of the press, etc. Other countries respond
and make suggestions for improvement.
Some in Israel thought that the issue of the territories should not
be part of the review, since the matter comes up so often in other UN
bodies, and that the focus should be on Israel within the Green Line.
However, it was eventually decided that it would be improper not to
mention the situation in the territories. Israel’s representatives,
headed by the ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Ya’ar,
told the council that Israel was living with terror and therefore some
human rights are not absolute. Israel’s representatives also said
that the separation wall had proven itself efficient in preventing
suicide bombers.
They noted the large number of human rights groups operating in Israel;
governmental, judicial, and non-governmental. Israel’s representatives
acknowledged there was room for improvement and pledged to seriously
discuss the council’s recommendations The democratic countries
praised Israel’s report, although they expressed reservations about
certain issues, such as the situation of the Negev Bedouin. However,
the blood of the Arabs and the Muslims was boiling. Their central
recommendation was that Israel put an end to the "racist" occupation,
as the Syrian representative expressed it.
"The Human Rights Council is a political body," Leshno-Ya’ar told
Haaretz. "We would like to learn from the experience of others in
this issue, but we do not need the review process to remind us of the
history in the territories. The recommendations of the Arab countries
are political, and not only do they not advance the cause of human
rights, they even do it harm."
The Human Rights Council consists of 47 members, with an automatic
majority of third-world countries, led by Pakistan, Algeria,
Egypt and Cuba. The council appears to be making almost obsessive
efforts to denounce homosexuality and stop texts that are critical
of religions. The Western countries see these steps as attempts to
deflect criticism from the serious human-rights situation in the
other countries. The United States has decided not to continue its
membership in the council.