Video: Muslim States at UN Seethe over EU's Pro-Israel Walkout

posted on: Oct 9, 2014

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The decision by the EU and other western countries to boycott anti-Israel proceedings at the UNHRC has many Islamic countries up in arms, as can be seen in the embedded video.

Agenda Item 7 of the UNHRC is entitled, “The Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories” and is directed atg Israel.

Pakistan, speaking for the Islamic Group at the UNHRC, expressed “deep disappointment that certain member states of the Western European and Others Group had ceased their participation under agenda item 7, which [is] particularly disturbing in the light of the latest Israeli behavior.”

The United Arab Emirates, speaking for the Arab Group, expressed “extreme discontent about the European Union’s decision to boycott this agenda item.”

Addressing the assembly, UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer lauded the boycott. In free and democratic societies, he explained, “right is preserved by an independent judiciary that is empowered to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority,” but at the United Nations, “the system works differently. Here, the majority faction has the power to decide whatever it wants; there are no limits. The minority faction has no judicial recourse, no right of appeal, no remedy.”

“Agenda Item 7 singles out one people, Israel, for differential and discriminatory treatment,” he said, noting that in 1968, a similar form of discrimination took place in Tehran, at a UN Conference celebrating 20 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “When the author of that declaration, René Cassin, saw that Israel was being singled out, he walked out early in protest.”

“Because sometimes,” Neuer continued, “non-participation speaks loudest. Sometimes, it is the only remedy that can deny the legitimacy of a bigotry which cannot otherwise be challenged or overcome.”

“Agenda Item 7 was denounced by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and human rights groups including Amnesty International,” Neuer added. The EU, US, Canada, Australia, France, Britain, Holland did not take the floor. “The free and democratic world, echoing the appeal of René Cassin, has spoken for justice.”

Gil Ronen
Israel National News