Note
"The U.N. and many other international institutions purport to be exemplars of high ideals, objective standards and a commitment to human rights. The reality is sadly quite different. Despite lofty mission statements, the actions and policies of such institutions reflect political horse-trading, narrow interests and the tyranny of the majority. Nowhere is this discrepancy between discourse and reality more evident than with regard to the treatment of Israel.
In fact, the deal-making that determines votes in institutions such as the United Nations leads frequently to outcomes that are nothing short of absurd. Countries such as Venezuela, Libya and China are elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and China chairs the UNHRC process that nominates the U.N.'s world monitor on free speech. One cannot make this up.
However, there is no clearer example of the abuse of the patina of international 'legitimacy' for political ends than the weaponizing of global forums to wage diplomatic and legal war against Israel.
From 2006-2019, the UNHRC issued 85 condemnations of Israel. During the same period, it issued 12 condemnations of North Korea, nine of Iran, one of Venezuela and zero of China, Qatar, Sudan or Somalia. Israel is the only country in the world subject to a permanent item on the UNHRC's annual agenda that is dedicated to the state's condemnation.
The anti-Israel campaign at the UNHRC entered a new phase in February 2020 in a manner that directly threatens U.S. companies and interests. On Feb. 12, the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner, at the behest of the UNHRC, published a blacklist of companies allegedly contributing to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
No other UNHRC blacklist (or, in U.N. parlance, "database") has ever been drawn up for any other territory considered disputed or occupied anywhere else in the world. This is for the simple reason that business activity in other such territories is considered legitimate. In fact, many of the world's largest corporations, including European multinationals, have extensive operations in areas considered by the U.N. to be occupied, such as northern Cyprus and Western Sahara. Only in Israel's case did the member states of the UNHRC vote to create a blacklist targeting companies engaged in lawful activity.
This is a clear case of double standards. The most widely accepted international definition of anti-Semitism, that of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, includes, as an example of modern anti-Semitism, the application of double standards to Israel alone...."