American envoy to UN Haley to travel to Israel next week

UNITED NATIONS — US Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has accused the United Nations of anti-Israel bias, will travel to Israel next week and deliver an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Haley will be the first US ambassador to address the rights council at a session on June 6 that will be followed by a speech on the US role at the council, the US mission said.

From June 7 to 9, Haley will hold meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during her visit to Israel and visit a UN peacekeeping mission in the region.

Haley has won applause from the Israeli government for pledging to stand up to what she has termed “Israel-bashing” at the United Nations.

She has condemned a Security Council resolution demanding that Israel halt the expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land as a “terrible mistake.”

The resolution was adopted after the former US administration refused to use its veto to block the measure and instead abstained.

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, has criticized the UN Human Rights Council as “corrupt” and there has been speculation that the United States could withdraw from the council.

Countries with questionable human rights records such as China and Saudi Arabia have seats on the UN body.

In a speech at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Haley will “address the benefits and the failings of the Council with respect to the vital mission of defending millions of people against the world’s worst cases of human rights abuse,” the US statement said.

In Geneva, Haley will also discuss the human rights crisis in Venezuela.

It will be her second visit abroad as US ambassador. Last week, she visited Syrian refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey.