Palestinians slam US after pullout from UN rights council

A senior Palestinian official said Wednesday the United States was advancing “international anarchy” after it withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council over its “chronic bias against Israel.”

Palestine Liberation Organization secretary general Saeb Erekat said the US move aligned it with “Israel’s colonization of Palestine, rather than the rule of international law and UN resolutions.”

The US on Tuesday announced its decision to leave the council, condemning the “hypocrisy” of its members and its “unrelenting bias” against Israel.

The Geneva-based body was established in 2006 to promote and protect human rights worldwide, but its pronouncements and reports have often infuriated the US — in particular, the council’s relentless focus on Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, announced the pullout Tuesday, calling the body “a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.”

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Haley said the US had given the human rights body “opportunity after opportunity” to make changes. She criticized the council for “its chronic bias against Israel,” and also pointed out that it includes accused human rights abusers such as China, Cuba, Venezuela and Congo.

Erekat accused the US of pulling out because it had failed to “normalize” Israeli settlement expansion and “other systematic violations of Palestinian national and human rights.”

“The Trump administration continues its efforts to promote international anarchy by withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council,” the Palestinian official said.

Israel welcomed the US decision, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling the UN Human Rights Council a “biased, hostile, anti-Israel organization.”

“Instead of dealing with regimes that systematically violate human rights, the UNHRC obsessively focuses on Israel, the one genuine democracy in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said.

Israel is the only country that has a dedicated agenda item at council meetings, one defended in particular by the Arab bloc of countries.

The Palestinians have frozen all official diplomatic ties with the United States since Donald Trump’s decision in December to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

Erekat said the Palestinians would “continue to work with the international community and organizations” despite “the threats and tactics of intimidation and extortion by the Trump administration.”