Israel has also declared that it was withdrawing from the UNHRC after the United States declared its intention to withdraw from the same body. Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said that the country had decided to withdraw from the UN body on Wednesday.
Israel joins the United States and will not participate in the UNHRC, he posted on X, formerly Twitter. The move came after a high-profile meeting between Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former US president Donald Trump. Both the US. and Israel are not members of the UNHRC but have participated as informal observers and have seats in the council’s meeting chamber.
Sa’ar said, “The UNHRC has traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and instead obsessively demonizes the one democracy in the Middle East — Israel.” He added, “This body has focused on attacking a democratic country and propagating antisemitism instead of promoting human rights.”
Israel has long accused the UNHRC of discriminating against the country. Sa’ar remarked that Israel was the only nation with an item on the agenda specifically focused exclusively on it. He also stressed that the council had adopted over 100 resolutions condemning Israel—which accounted for over 20 percent of all such resolutions ever taken, a tally higher than resolutions against nations including Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela. “Israel will not stand for this double standard anymore!!!.
President Trump made the move soon after stating his intention to move out of the UNHRC and to seriously cut its finances to UNRWA, that is, a body catering for Palestinians in the Middle East region. The U.S withdrew from funding UNRWA when information was received on the participation by some staff from the body, who had, on 7th October, 2023, launched Hamas attack on Israel. Earlier, Trump had pulled out the U.S.from the Human Rights Council in 2018 for its alleged bias against Israel. After the election of Joe Biden, the U.S. rejoined the UNHRC in 2021, but it further decided not to seek a second consecutive term on the council.