Report: Israel to Join U.N. Rights Council
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Israel is to join a United Nations rights body with which it has been feuding for years, as a member of its European bloc, an Israeli official said on Sunday.
Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the official confirmed Israeli membership of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) in the U.N. Human Rights Council had been approved and a formal invitation was expected shortly.
Israel cut all ties with the Geneva-based council in March 2012 after the body said it would probe how Israeli settlements may be infringing on the rights of Palestinians.
Israel has come under widespread criticism for increasing construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank, including in annexed east Jerusalem.
In January, Israel became the first country to refuse to attend a periodic review of its human rights record, but ended its 18-month boycott in October when ambassador Eviator Manor appeared before the council to defend his country's record.
Local press reports said Israel had agreed to renew cooperation with the council on condition it be accepted as a member of the WEOG.
Israel has accused the UNHRC of routinely singling it at the council's annual meetings, as well as passing a number of anti-Israel resolutions.
Although geographically located in Asia, hostile Arab and Muslim states have blocked the Jewish state from joining the Asian group on the 47-member council, leaving it without representation within any geographic grouping.
"We have finally been admitted as a member of a geographic group (in Geneva), which means that our relations with the U.N. bodies in Geneva will be more or less normalized," the Jerusalem Post quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying.
"The exclusion and marginalization from which Israel suffered will start to be removed," the official told the paper.
01 December 2013, 17:01
01
From reading regular reports of the UN Human Rights Council, I have come to the conclusion that out of the nearly 200 countries around the world, there are only problems in Israel.
There are no problems in Saudi Arabia where they refuse to allow women to drive, there are no problems in Syria and Iraq where thousands of people are being killed in the civil wars on a regular basis. There are no problems in Nigeria with the Christian-Moslem battles taking hundreds of lives a month, no problems in Mali, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Iran, North Korea, Turkey..........need I go on, and of course not forgetting the problems of the Palestinians and the refugee camps in Lebanon.
As I said only in Israel are there problems of human rights.
01 December 2013, 17:31
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Outrageous. That the Wardens of the Open Air Prison in Gaza and the Wardens of the West Bank who annex occupied territories and use white phosphorus on Palestinians who endure collective punishment, who occupy territory for 38 years, who attack Syria and Lebanon with impunity and violate other countries airspace daily, should be on this council shows what a joke it really is. They will be on the Security Council and be given Veto Rights next to save the American Ambassador the trouble of speaking or raising their hand and save the American President the trouble of having to check with AIPAC to see if he has permission to make foreign policy decisions.
02 December 2013, 03:29
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JC: Gaza has a border with a friendly Arab state -- they don't need anything from Israel. In fact, Lebanon refuses to allow Israel the use of its air space for flights -- and yet you do not find this offensive. Israel of course has alternatives, as does Gaza (its border with Egypt). you also dont mention the rockets fired by Gaza into Israel civilian areas and you don't seem to recognoze Israel's obligation to protect its civilians.
Fianlly, the US and UK have killed many civilains in Iraq, Afganistan and Pakistan. China has a gulag and has severe restrictions on human rights. You don't seem to have any problems with those countries.
