US backs Israel at UNHRC

Despite strained relations, US ambassador slams "one sided" treatment of Israel.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
UN general assembly 248.88 (photo credit: Channel 1)
UN general assembly 248.88
(photo credit: Channel 1)
The US was the only country at the United Nations Human Rights Council to vote against all three anti-Israel resolutions, which were approved Wednesday in Geneva.
It was also the only country to oppose a UNHRC resolution in support of the Palestinian right to self determination.
In the last weeks America's relationship with Israel has been strained. But in Geneva, the US took the council to task for its treatment of Israel.
"We are deeply troubled to be presented once again with a slate of resolutions so replete with controversial elements and one sided references that they shed no light and offer no redress for the real challenges in the region," said US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe.
"The council is too often exploited as a platform from which to single out Israel, which undermines its credibility," said Donahoe.
"The US strongly encourages the council to seek an alternative to highly politicized resolutions and a permanent agenda item focused on one country," said Donahue.
She suggested that this issue was best addressed under "a robust common rubric."
Both parties should examine their own human rights record, she said.
Her speech was delivered in advance of the vote on the resolution for the Palestinian right to self determination by the 47-member body.
Donahoe said that her country supported a two state solution even though it opposed the resolution.
But PLO Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi said that there was no difference between belief in a two state solution and support for the Palestinian right to self determination.
The Palestinian people now live under "the yoke of unjust and bloody occupation," said Khraishi.
He added that he hoped next year to pass a resolution that would allow Palestinians to excursive their right to a state.
On Wednesday, aside from giving its approval to Palestinian self determination, the council approved a resolution on human rights issues in what it called the "occupied Syrian Golan," as well as two resolutions on Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva Aharon Leshno Yaar said he appreciated the support of the US at the council. "We have witnessed today another anti-Israeli show," he said.
Since its inception in 2006, most of the council's resolutions which censure countries have dealt with Israel.
On Thursday the council is poised to approve a resolution which wouldcreate an independent committee to evaluate the compliance of bothIsrael and the Palestinians with the Goldstone Report.
Authored by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, the report asksboth the Israelis and the Palestinians to hold independentinvestigations into their actions in Gaza around the time of OperationCast Lead.