World Jewish Congress applauds Austria and Denmark for joining UK in rejecting anti-Israel resolutions at UNHRC

NEW YORK – World Jewish Congress CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer applauded Denmark and Austria on Thursday for joining the United Kingdom in firmly announcing plans to vote no on some anti-Israel resolutions up for debate tomorrow at United Nations Human Rights Council. Denmark and the United Kingdom have announced their plans to reject the resolutions under Permanent Item 7, which targets Israel directly and it is the only country-specific permanent item on the UNHRC’s agenda. Austria plans to vote no on Item 2, which holds Israel accountable for violence on the Gaza border.

“The World Jewish Congress and our 100 affiliated communities across the globe applaud Denmark and Austria for joining the United Kingdom in taking a principled stance to speak out publicly against the UNHRC’s obsession with Israel, and for their firm decision to reject these resolutions as fundamentally wrong, subversive, discriminatory, and undermining of the UNHRC’s mandate and its credibility,” Singer said.

“These resolutions fail to expose the accountability of the Palestinian leadership for the deterioration of human rights in the territories under their control, ignore the terrorism and oppression of Hamas towards Gaza civilians, and instead scapegoat Israel applying a severe and absurd double standard,” Singer said. “This one-sided approach directly harms the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution as the only long-term answer to Palestinian suffering, while derailing the Council from meaningful and effective debate.”

“We extend our deep gratitude to each of these countries for exposing the UNHRC’s biased and one-sided agenda and proving that they are in fact true proponents of truth, justice, and human rights,” Singer said. “We hope that this will be the beginning of a changing tide within the UNHRC, and that it will soon resume its true mandate of defending human rights around the world, without double standards or pathology.”