NEW YORK – In response to today’s debate on the UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry on Israel, which slanders the Jewish state and reflects a deep anti-Israel bias, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder released the following statement:
“The latest attack on Israel from the UN Human Rights Council, a UN body that contains a standing agenda item against only one country in the world, must be condemned by all and retracted in full. A commission that claims to be addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but fails to mention Hamas in its founding resolution cannot be taken seriously.
“I thank the U.S. administration for its leadership on this issue, as well the many other good nations that strongly condemned the commission and call on all to join them in denying credibility to this anti-Israel slander. Confronting a country for defending its citizens, while entirely discounting the terrorist organizations that threaten them, is not to be viewed as legitimate.
“The existence of the Commission of Inquiry on Israel itself speaks to the body’s biases and perpetuates a false narrative that distorts the facts and blindly ignores Palestinian terrorism that targets civilians. As a group of UN Special Rapporteurs recently cautioned, inflammatory rhetoric during spikes of violence in the Middle East could lead Jewish persons and sites to be subjected to violence, discrimination and harassment.
“On behalf of the World Jewish Congress, I echo this concern and call on the UN Human Rights Council to disband this fatally flawed Commission of Inquiry. Maligning and isolating Israel on the international stage, as the commission attempts to do, will not bring peace. Peace can only come from a recognition that the existence of the Jewish state is undebatable.”
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