NEW YORK - The World Jewish Congress reiterated its firm stance that peace between Palestinians and Israelis must be reached through a direct diplomatic process, and cannot be imposed by external parties. 
The WJC expressed its deep concern over a one-sided two-day forum being held by the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the UN headquarters in New York, under the banner “Ending the Occupation.”
The WJC called on the international community to support efforts to resume face-to-face negotiations, rather than encouraging unilateral Palestinian moves and rhetoric. It also called on the UN to dissolve the biased Committee and other bodies of its kind.
To highlight the one-sided nature of the UN event, the World Jewish Congress set up a symbolic protest opposite the headquarters, positioning an empty table adorned with Palestinian and Israeli flags to represent that the appropriate forum for the peace process is at the negotiations table, and not inside the UN.
The World Jewish Congress said in a statement:
“This week, a United Nations body will once again vilify the State of Israel.
"The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People is hosting a two-day anti-Israel forum at the UN headquarters in New York on June 29 and June 30.
"This committee is the only UN body dedicated to an individual group of people, despite the many pressing human rights concerns facing peoples around the world.
"Established in November 1975 after the UN General Assembly passed its notorious ‘Zionism-equals-racism’ resolution, the Committee continues to encourage that poisonous notion.
"While it claims to support the Middle East peace process and the achievement of a two-state solution, the Committee in fact regularly disparages Israel and administers events questioning its legitimacy.
"The World Jewish Congress, representing more than 100 Jewish communities worldwide, is committed to dialogue and negotiations as the only means to achieving a diplomatic solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"We cannot however support any body or organization that promotes unilateral moves at the expense of Israel and its security.
"The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People embodies the institutional bias that has taken hold in the UN, an international body already so antagonistic toward Israel.
"As winds of change take hold, we urge the UN to dissolve this and other committees of its kind, to ensure a fair and just representation of the entire international community.”
Photographs: World Jewish Congress sets up symbolic 'negotiations table' outside of the UN headquarters in New York. June 29, 2017. (Courtesy: World Jewish Congress)
