'UN's Budget Will Suffer Unless It Stops Attacking Israel'

"Israel is currently spearheading a move that could see multiple members exit the UNHRC unless it relinquishes its anti-Israel bias. Both Israel and the U.S. left the agency in the past but eventually resumed their membership, hoping things would change.

Israel has now presented two key demands: The cancellation of the annual UNHRC session that focuses solely on alleged human rights violations committed by Israel against the Palestinians; and disbanding the committee tasked with maintaining a database of companies doing business beyond the Green Line, in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.

'There are hundreds of thousands of refugees in Syria and human rights are being violated in Iran, Libya, Yemen and North Korea, but the Human Rights Council is obsessed with Israel. That's outrageous,' [Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny] Danon said.

'The decision to create a database of companies doing business beyond the Green Line is very dangerous to Israel, because it's not a group like the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement boycotting Israel -- it's an official U.N. body that wants to publish a blacklist calling for a boycott of Israel,' he explained.

'This list will include both Israel Hayom and Haaretz, as both newspapers are distributed in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood. All Israeli banks and every company, big or small, would face worldwide restrictions, and there will be a call not to do business with them. The committee's deliberations are scheduled to conclude at the end of the year, which is when they're supposed to publish the list. It reminds me of dark periods [in history].'

Q: What can be done against this decision?

'The United States can change the situation now. Our presence and that of the U.S. and other enlightened countries on the council lends it legitimacy. We're taking initiative because if things don't change, the UNHRC's budget won't go through and a group of countries will walk out. We will be advising our friends not to legitimize this body and, moreover, render it irrelevant over its blatant bias.

'The U.S. contributes 25% of the U.N.'s budget,' he continued. 'The General Assembly and Security Council aside, the U.N. has a host of agencies, such as the Human Rights Council, UNESCO, the World Health Organization and UNICEF. These agencies are obsessed with Israel. I'm currently pursuing a move by which the chairpersons of these organizations will be disqualified if it is found that in the past they were biased toward certain populations or countries..."