The United States’ United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley isn’t the only one speaking out against the body’s blatant anti-Israel bias; at a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council Monday, UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson tore into the HRC, vowing to vote against any resolution offered under the anti-Israel “Agenda Item 7.”
Agenda Item 7 requires that the U.N. Human Rights Council feature a debate on “Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinians during each of its sessions,” according to JPost. The agenda item was put in place in 2007, and since then, Israel has faced a deluge of anti-Semitism, three times per year from at least 35 other member nations who list out their problems with the country in an extended airing of grievances.
The countries then vote on a series of anti-Israeli resolutions, most calling for an end to Israel’s “occupation,” or admonishing Israel for “war crimes.”
The rule applies to no other member nations, even those that commit egregious human rights abuses, like Qatar where thousands of “indentured servants” have reportedly died building soccer stadiums for the World Cup. Those human rights abuses, if not ignored completely, are dealt with, collectively, in a separate agenda item.
BREAKING: British FM @BorisJohnson announces @UN_HRC that unless they remove Agenda Item 7 which targets Israel alone in every session—a treatment he called “damaging to the cause of peace”—the UK “shall move next year to vote against all resolutions” introduced under that label. pic.twitter.com/7hBuCFjbPv
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 18, 2018
“We share the view that the dedicated Agenda Item 7 focused solely on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is disproportionate and damaging to the cause of peace, and unless things change we shall vote next year against all resolutions introduced under Item 7,” Johnson told the member nations.
Most European nations recognize Agenda Item 7 as problematic and do not address the HRC during Agenda Item 7. Some even refuse to attend. But this marks the first time that a major European nation and primary world power has said that not only will they attend sessions during Agenda Item 7, they will actively vote against anti-Israel resolutions brought during the Agenda discussion.
The move is significant. Over the past several months, the United States has been more vocal within the context of the United Nations, calling out other member nations for coddling and supporting terror groups, for propagating anti-Semitism, and for opposing the right of the Jewish people to exist. For some time, however, Nikki Haley has been going it alone.
Perhaps not anymore.