Israel to the U.N. “You’ve never cared for us, how do you expect us to take you seriously?”
In a short, but highly charged speech, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Eviatar Manor accused the United Nations Human Rights council in Geneva of overly focusing on Israel’s actions against the [Arabs] at the expense of other more serious human rights situations in the Middle East.
“You have an obsessive, compulsive disorder regarding Israel,” Manor said Tuesday, on the second day of the council’s 32nd session.
“Politicized debates, biased resolutions, preposterous reports, discriminatory conduct and unfounded accusations characterize the attitude of this Council and of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights towards Israel,” Manor said.
The Israeli ambassador took particular issue with a UNHRC mandate that alleged Israeli human rights violations must be addressed at every session under Agenda Item 7. Israel is the only country that is singled out in this way; all other human rights issues around the world are addressed under Agenda Item 4.
“This Council’s priorities are wide off the mark,” said Manor.
How is it, that there is “an agenda item specifically dedicated to my country when the tragedies of Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, to name but a few, are unfolding and producing a tsunami of refugees about to engulf Europe?” Manor said.
“And you expect us to take you seriously?” he asked.
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He ended with a few lines of attack against the council, charging that it “has never cared for the human rights of Israelis;” that the UNHRC “needs a moral compass;” and that it “does not and will not contribute to peace in our region.”
