Israeli FM urges 26 countries to oppose anti-Israel motion at UN on Gaza protests

Acting Foreign Minister Israel Katz sends an urgent letter to 26 foreign ministers of important and friendly member countries of the UN Human Rights Council, ahead of a vote on a resolution against Israel on Thursday.

The resolution calls for the legal implementation of a report issued by the council’s examination commission on the events at the Gaza border protests, which accused Israel of possible crimes against humanity.

In his letter, Katz says the commission’s mandate was “biased and distorted” and that the report ignored Hamas’s involvement in the violence at the border and disregarded Israel’s right to defend itself.

“An automatic majority of hostile countries converts the victim of Hamas’s aggression into the guilty party and tries to deprive Israel of its right of self-defense,” Katz says. “We demand that the friendly member countries of the council will oppose the decision on the report, which harms the only democracy in the Middle East and encourages the continuation of Hamas’s infamous terrorism.”

— Raphael Ahren