Today's the day - Israel won't be there

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Monday that Israel will not show up on Tuesday for its 'universal periodic review at the United Nations' so-called 'human rights council.' Israel has been boycotting the council since March 2012 when it appointed a 'special commission' to 'investigate' Israel's 'human rights violations' in Judea and Samaria. The council is due to debate that commission's report on March 16. Israel is not cooperating with the commission.

“For the time being, there is no change in our policy to withhold all contacts and cooperation with the UNHRC,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. “As the UPR is an UNHRC activity, we are not planning on taking part in it.”

On January 10, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Eviatar Manor called UNHRC President Remigiusz Henczel and asked for a postponement.

It was the first contact between Israel and the council since last March. Henczel asked the ambassador to submit a formal request.

The problem was made public two weeks ago, when Israel was absent from a meeting in which three states were chosen by lottery to oversee its UPR.

Behind the scenes, a number of countries – including the United States – have pushed Israel to participate in the process, fearing Israel’s non-participation would set a precedent for other countries to boycott it.

...

Council spokesman Rolando Gomez said he hoped Israel would choose to participate in Tuesday’s proceedings, which move forward regardless.

“Regarding Israel’s scheduled UPR for tomorrow, the way things are looking now there are two scenarios,” he said. “The first is that a delegation from Israel shows up at the council meeting and undergoes their universal periodic review. The second is that they do not turn up, and the council decides on a course of action,” he said. He did not specify what that action could be.

The US Ambassador to the UNHRC Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said last week that the council had a strong bias against Israel that had not gone away.

Still, she said, “We have encouraged Israel to come to the UPR, to tell its story, to present its own narrative of its human rights situation. We think it is a good opportunity to do that.”

It's about time that a western democracy called out the farce of the 'human rights council.' Since the United States under Obama has insisted on castrating its foreign policy, Israel is apparently the only country with the junk to stand up to the biased council. I will be very proud of this country if it doesn't show up, and very disappointed if it does.