JERUSALEM, Israel – The United Nations is out with another report on Israel that is being condemned by critics as biased and one-sided. This one, released by the Human Rights Council, looks into the war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021.
After last year’s 11-day war, the UN Human Rights Council established a commission to investigate the conflict although its mandate went much broader.
“It’s unprecedented in terms of scope, in terms of geographic location and most significant in terms of timing. It’s meant to look at the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict stemming from the war last May but is something that can go back to before 1948 when Israel was established and in perpetuity into the future as well,” said Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum.
The 18-page report delves into the overall Israeli-Palestinian conflict and concludes by placing the blame on Israel.
It states that “the findings and recommendations relevant to the underlying root causes were overwhelming directed towards Israel and the report, therefore, reflects this.”
It cites Israel’s “occupation” as a major cause, specifically finding that “the Israeli policy and practices of establishing settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, have no legal validity, and constitute a ‘flagrant violation’ under international law and a major obstacle to peace.”
Even though Hamas and other terror groups fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, the report cites Hamas only three times and Israel 157. There is also no mention of Iran, which funded and armed Hamas during the war.
At the Geneva UN headquarters, Israeli Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner led a demonstration against the report and to “expose the real face of the Human Rights Council of the UN.”
Dashan-Leitner compares the council “to none other than terrorists.”
“In the end of the day, both the UN Council and the terrorists have the same goal – to destroy the state of Israel. The UN uses diplomatic means, fake reports, blood libels, and the terrorist organizations using military means, terror attacks and missiles against Israel,” she told CBN News.
Darshan-Leitner said the council has 10 agendas and one is devoted just to Israel. Its Commission of Inquiry is unique among all other UN bodies since it is mandated to release an annual report on the Jewish state.
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“The UN Human Rights Council is obsessively going after Israel. This is not the first time. The very first day, they have an agenda seven that requires them to discuss Israel every meeting they have. There are hundreds of countries in the world, half of them, more than half violate human rights, yet they have to discuss Israel at each and every meeting they have. So, we know that this body is totally anti-Israel,” she said.
According to Ostrovsky, the UN is employing a form of “lawfare using international law as a political means to delegitimize and attack the State of Israel.”
The International Legal Forum along with 25 other organizations released a report singling out the head of the commission, South African attorney Navi Pillay.
“Navi Pillay has already accused Israel of ‘apartheid,’ of ‘war crimes,’ of ‘crimes against humanity,’ and this is the woman who is adjudicating our supposed guilt or innocence. In any Western court of law, if you are a judge, you would never have been appointed in the first place or you would have had to recuse yourself under this kind of partiality. But in the UN, you get rewarded for anti-Semitism and hostility against Israel,” said Ostrovsky.
The report is expected to be voted on by the UN General Assembly during its fall session and may be sent to the International Criminal Court.
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