Israel boycotts Human Rights Council, no plans to exit other UN bodies

By AFP

Israel on Thursday said that it was not planning to withdraw from other United Nations bodies besides the Human Rights Council, which it is boycotting over perceived bias and "anti-Semitism".

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Wednesday announced that his country would halt its participation in the UN's top rights body, charging on X that it "focused on attacking a democratic country and propagating anti-Semitism, instead of promoting human rights".

The move came a day after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying that Washington, which is already in the process of pulling out of the World Health Organization, would withdraw from a number of other UN bodies, including the rights council.

Daniel Meron, Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said that the two announcements were "not coordinated", and that his country was not currently considering halting its participation in other UN fora.

"We are just talking now about the Human Rights Council... Let's leave it at that," he said.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva shortly after delivering a letter from Saar to the council president detailing the Israeli decision, Meron stressed that the move was "nothing against the United Nations" as a whole.

"We work with the UN where it is not biased," he said.

'Dramatic reform'

Israel and its allies have long accused the top UN rights body of bias, pointing among other things to the fact that Israel is the only country to have a dedicated agenda item, meaning it is systematically discussed at every regular council session.

The country is subject to more resolutions than "Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela combined", Saar said.

Meron insisted on the need for "dramatic reform" of the council.

He said that the body had especially "failed Israel" since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, charging that it "did not condemn the terrorists forcefully".

He also maintained that experts and investigation teams mandated by the council to examine the rights situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories "perpetrate anti-Semitic myths and stereotypes".

"In the face of this blatant anti-Semitism perpetrated by mandate holders, the Human Rights Council is silent," he said.

Israel has boycotted the council twice previously and was already refusing to participate in discussions surrounding the rights situation in the Palestinian territories.

In response to Wednesday's boycott announcement, council spokesman Pascal Sim highlighted that Israel, like the United States, was not currently one of the rights body's 47 member states.

Observer states cannot "withdraw from the council", he explained.

Meron said that Israel simply would "not enter the meetings of the council".

Asked if his country would participate in the so-called Universal Periodic Review of its rights situation, which all UN members regularly undergo, he pointed out that the next one was two years away.

"Hopefully things will resonate enough that things will change and we'll be able to come back," he said.