By Vic Rosenthal
The UN is moving to institutionalize its bias against Israel by means of yet another permanent function:
The United Nation’s Human Rights Council is looking to appoint John Dugard as a permanent investigator on Israel’s actions in the territories, which he has in the past compared to apartheid, Ambassador to the UN in Geneva [sic], Yitzhak Levanon, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Levanon said the appointment would be part of a move to create a mandate by which to permanently probe Israeli violations of international law in the territories until such time as Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 border.
A proposal to this effect has been presented to the Council by the Organization of the Islamic Conference but it does not mention Dugard, who published a report on the territories in January. No decision has been taken on the matter so far. The report is slated for discussion by the council next week. — Jerusalem Post
I’ve written about Dugard before (see Why we need a different UN). Just as his role as “special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967”, is defined to only include reporting on human rights violations committed by Israel (one might argue that the Palestinians, too, commit such violations when they attack Jewish settlers), the new mandate would only apply to violations of international law committed by Israel, and nobody else. What this means is that the personally biased Dugard will work within a framework that is institutionally biased. The Post article continues:
The UN body was created in June to replace the Human Rights Commission, which was scrapped because it had a faulty membership composition and repeatedly singled out Israel.
But since its inception, the 47-member body – which includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China – has continued to single out the Jewish state. It has issued eight anti-Israel resolutions, and none against any other nation. It has also held three special sessions on Israel
This is so ludicrous that it would be funny, if it did not have serious consequences. The UN campaign against Israel, seemingly coordinated with various UN-related non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), is part of a case being built against Israel in every possible venue, official as well as unofficial, following the model of what was done to the white minority government of South Africa.
Of course the difference is that Israel is not trying to exploit and maintain control of a racial minority; rather, she is trying to prevent a highly hostile population — in an occupied territory that she would as soon divest herself of if it were possible to do so securely — from waging war against her.
It seems that there is another highly hostile population fighting against Israel, this one located in lower Manhattan.