Haley: UN report ‘reeks of anti-Israel bias’

Efforts by the United Nations to create a database of blacklisted companies operating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, has come under sharp criticism from Nikki Haley, the United States Ambassador to the UN, who has said it “reeks of anti-Israel bias”.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report on Monday to advise and support efforts to create the database. Haley, who has been gunning for the UN since her appointment by Trump, said: “this report is just the latest example of the Human Rights Council singling out Israel rather than focusing on the world’s actual human rights abusers”.

Her statement, which was reported by an Israeli news agency, went on to add: “not only does it undermine the credibility of the Human Rights Council on human rights issues, but it once again highlights the unfair bias of the UN when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

The report calls on the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on Israeli violations of international law. The report will be discussed at the UN Human Rights Council session on 19 June 2017.

Read: ‘Anti-Israel bias’ may cause US to quit UN rights body

The report, drafted by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia on behalf of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, lambasts Israel not only for the “occupation of Palestinian territory,” but also the “occupied Syrian Golan”.

“Israeli practices and policies in the occupied Palestinian territory and the occupied Syrian Golan violate fundamental provisions of international humanitarian and human rights law,” the report reads in part. It accused Israel of “grave violations” commenting that “certain Israeli practices may amount to forcible displacement of the protected population, a grave violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

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The report also claims Israel employs “discriminatory policies and practices, use of force that has been deemed excessive, and restrictions on the freedom of movement, including the closure on Gaza, settlement expansion, destruction of property and the exploitation of natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan,” reported Arutz Sheva.

Haley used the announcement of the publication of the new report to repeat threats made earlier by the US against the UN.  “It’s actions like these that are forcing us to evaluate the United States’ future on the Human Rights Council,” she said of the report, which was issued by the UN human rights commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.