The United Nations Economic and Social Council approved a resolution Friday which endorsed a report by the UN Human Rights Commission accusing Israel of mistreatment of the Arabs in the administered territories.
The vote was 34-2, with the United States and Canada opposing the resolution, and 12 abstaining. The abstaining votes were cast by the Western nations on the council. Two unexpected votes supporting the criticism of Israel were those of Portugal, which indicated it will establish diplomatic ties with Israel, and Mexico, which has been assuring Israel of its support in the UN after voting for the resolution equating Zionism with racism.
An Israeli Mission source said Israel also was disappointed by the votes for the resolution from Argentina and Brazil.
The resolution, sponsored by Egypt, Syria and Jordan, “commended” the human rights commission for “the action taken in connection with the protection of human rights in the occupied Arab territories”; and requested the commission to continue its efforts “for the protection of human rights in the occupied Arab territories.”
UN observers said reports of the human rights commission were usually accepted and filed with little formality and that a resolution in support for a human rights report, adopted against a particular country, was without UN precedent.
ANOTHER SELECTIVE ACTION
The voting followed a statement to the UN agency by Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog who called the resolution “yet another step in the apparently insatiable quest of the Arab states to collect anti-Israel resolutions in the United Nations” and one which “unmasks the reaction of the Arab states to the widespread concern of many representatives here about the selectiveness and one sidedness of this organization in dealing with the questions of human rights.”
Herzog said that by considering the resolution the council was “firmly and explicitly closing its eyes to the summary executions, the mass death sentences, the brutal suppression of minorities, the detention without trials, and the arrest and tortures of dissidents taking place throughout the world.”
Herzog said the “absurdity of singling out Israel” over conditions in Israeli prisons was made clear by the fact that Israel permits regular visits to prisoners by the International Red Cross and by its recent invitation to the International League for Human Rights “to inspect conditions in Israel’s prisons.”
He challenged the sponsors of “this hypocritical resolution to extend the some invitation for international inspection of their own prisons,” He added that “the human rights situation in the territories under Israeli administration can stand comparison with that of any society represented here, let alone of those who have sponsored and support this resolution.”
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