Germany plays a double game when it comes to Israel and human rights

Three policies of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) are discriminatory against Israel: The fact that any conference on human rights must hold a separate discussion on Israel, that Israel is the only country that does not belong to any regional group at the UNHRC and the disproportionate condemnation of Israel by the UNHRC. Despite all of that Israel joined the UNHRC due to German pressure.

At Germany’s behest, Israel renewed this week its cooperation with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) after boycotting the controversial body for nearly two years. Its boycott was motivated by the UNHRC’s threefold discriminatory policy toward Israel: singling it out for special discussion in every human rights conference; baring its election to the council by virtue of Israel not belonging to any regional grouping; and subjecting it to more condemnations than any other country.

Israel was guaranteed that this unfair treatment will end if it renews its cooperation with the UNHRC.

The UNHRC Charter has a special article (Article 7) which stipulates that any conference on human rights must hold a separate discussion on Israel. This stipulation applies only to Israel, and no other country in the world is subject to such treatment – not even actual and horrendous human rights abusers such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, China or Sudan. This “Israel-only” clause was adopted by the UNHRC in 2007. At the time it was criticized by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who publicly voiced disbelief at such bizarre treatment of a democracy given the range and scope of human rights violations throughout the world.

The second discriminatory policy has to do with the fact that Israel is the only country that does not belong to any regional group at the UNHRC, thus making it ineligible to be elected to UN bodies. Israel does not belong to the “Asia-Pacific Group,” because this group includes the Middle East and because Arab countries refuse to accept Israel. At the UN in New York, Israel finally became a permanent member of the West European and Others Group (which includes Turkey) in 2004, but in Geneva, it is still excluded. This exclusion makes Israel the only country that is ineligible to the UNHRC. As former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, this exclusion is inconsistent with the basic principle of equality among UN members.

The third discrimination has to do with the disproportionate condemnation of Israel by the UNHRC. In its March 2013 session, for instance, the UNHRC adopted six resolutions against Israel, and only four for the rest of the world combined (the four other resolutions condemned Syria, Iran, Myanmar and Sri Lanka). There were no resolutions about the gross and systematic violations of human rights in countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, or Zimbabwe. This disproportionate and discriminatory policy characterized the UNHRC way before Israel decided to pull out. But the fact that the UNHRC fails to condemn actual human rights offenders should come as no surprise, since many of these offenders are among the 47 elected members of the committee. Indeed, in two weeks, the UNHRC will welcome among its newly elected members China, Cuba, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

So why did Israel decide to rejoin this tragi-comic fraud?

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