Palestinians said seeking to join 8 international treaties
As UN rights council passes 5 anti-Israel resolutions, PA looks to sign Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and UN’s Convention against Apartheid in Sports
The Palestinian Authority has in recent days filed official requests to join eight international treaties, Hadashot news reported Saturday.
The Ramallah-based government is seeking to join the UN’s International Convention against Apartheid in Sports and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, among other treaties, according to the report.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon condemned the “unilateral move” by the Palestinians.
“The Palestinian leadership is mistaken in thinking that it can establish facts on the ground by making detours and unilateral moves,” Danon said. “Instead of ignoring the United States and Israel, the Palestinians should stop encouraging terrorism and incitement.”
The news came a day after the Human Rights Council adopted five resolutions condemning Israel, one of which called on Israel to relinquish the Golan Heights strategic ridge to war-torn Syria.
The five resolutions were presented by the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation under the council’s “agenda item 7” which concerns Israel.
Israel is the only country that has a dedicated agenda item at the council, a mechanism that Israel, the US, and some European countries say is discriminatory.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley said in a statement Friday that the council was “grossly biased against Israel,” noting that it had adopted only three resolutions separately targeting North Korea, Iran, and Syria.
“When the Human Rights Council treats Israel worse than North Korea, Iran, and Syria, it is the council itself that is foolish and unworthy of its name,” said Haley.
“Our patience is not unlimited. Today’s actions make clear that the organization lacks the credibility needed to be a true advocate for human rights,” she said.
Haley has over the past year repeatedly warned that the United States was ready to walk away from the 47-member body established in 2006 to promote and protect human rights worldwide.
The resolutions also drew harsh response in Israel. On Saturday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman slammed the Council as a “sham, a mockery of the noble purposes it pretends to represent,” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the resolutions “detached from reality by the circus of the absurd known as the Human Rights Council.”
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a tweet that Israel “has no business being in the UN’s Human Rights Council.” He said its “presence there gives legitimacy to… anti-Semitic resolutions, and the farce must end.”
The PA, meanwhile, welcomed the new UN resolutions. Ramallah spokesperson Yusuf al-Mahmoud commended nations who voted in favor of the measures “for their ability to stand in the face of injustice, arrogance, and occupation, and to reject the language of threats and coercion.”
He said the resolutions “reflect an international position in favor of a just and fitting solution to the conflict.”
