Lieberman calls UN human rights group ‘ridiculous’ and ‘irrelevant’

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reacted Friday to an announcement by the UN Human Rights Council of a fact-finding mission to the West Bank by calling the organization “ridiculous” and “irrelevant,” according to Voice of Israel Radio.

Speaking in Singapore, Lieberman told President Tony Tan that Israel would not cooperate with the proposed investigation into the effects of Jewish settlements on the Arab populations of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

Lieberman said that Israel would persuade other countries, including the United States, to leave the UN agency over its blatant hypocrisy.

He told President Tan that the UNHRC had become a “theater of the absurd,” reported Arutz Sheva.

The UNHRC passed five resolutions against Israel on Thursday, including the resolution calling for the mission, triggering fierce reactions from Israeli and American diplomats.

Thirty-six countries voted in favor of a resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policy and calling on the government to reverse it as a first step toward dismantling all Jewish communities in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan.

The only country to vote against the resolutions was the United States, with Russia, China, Switzerland and Belgium, among others, voting in support of the measures.