US boycotts UN Human Rights Council debate on Israel, Palestinians

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley denounces Human Rights Council's focus on Israel as a standing agenda item • State Department vows U.S. will "vote against every resolution put forth under this agenda item," encourage other countries to do same.

Yoni Hersch - Israel Hayom

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley

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Photo credit: AP

The United States on Monday boycotted a United Nations Human Rights Council session focused on Palestinian issues, pointing out what it said is "long-standing bias against Israel" that threatens the council's credibility.

Israel is the only country that faces an examination of its rights record at every one of the council's three sessions each year under a standing agenda item -- known as Item 7 -- on "Palestine and other occupied Arab territories." The current session, which lasts four weeks, ends Friday.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley issued a statement denouncing how Israel is the only country that is a permanent fixture on the 47-member body's calendar.

"It is not Syria, where the regime has systematically slaughtered and tortured its own people," she said. "It is not Iran, where public hangings are a regular occurrence. It is not North Korea, where the regime uses forced labor camps to crush its people into submission. It is Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East."

The boycott announced by the State Department comes as President Donald Trump's administration contemplates ending U.S. participation at the council. A letter from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to advocacy groups, obtained by The Associated Press last week, said the U.S. would not continue participating unless the council undergoes "considerable reform."

"Today's actions in the council are yet another reminder of that body's long-standing bias against Israel," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. "No other nation has an entire agenda item dedicated to it at the council. The continued existence of this agenda item is among the largest threats to the credibility of the council."

The State Department also said that "the United States will vote against every resolution put forth under this agenda item and is encouraging other countries to do the same."

In New York, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, upon being asked about the U.S. boycott, defended the "important" work of the council.

"Obviously, different member states have their opinions about different topics before the council to which they're entitled, but at the same time we do hope that the overall work of the council will be supported by all members," he said.

Out of more than 230 country-specific resolutions at the council since it was founded 11 years ago, more than a quarter have been focused on Israel. In a distant second place is Syria, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed since 2011, with just 19 resolutions.