The United Nations’ new Human Rights Council passed an anti-Israel resolution. Last Friday’s resolution, the only country-specific resolution passed, makes alleged Israel’s human rights violations and the “occupation” of Palestinian and other Arab territories a talking point at all future meetings. Twenty-nine of the council’s 47 countries voted for the resolution, 12 voted against, five abstained and one did not vote. Twenty-one countries also requested an emergency special session on the “escalating violence in Palestine,” expected to be held late next week. This was the first meeting of the new council, formed in March as part of an ongoing campaign for U.N. reform; advocates said a key test of the reforms’ validity would be whether the new council could avoid its predecessors’ inordinate preoccupation with Israel. David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada and a delegate to the council session in Geneva, called the resolution “a real disaster” for reform efforts. The resolution “taints the credibility of not only this particular vote but of everything that the council does,” he said.
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