New Year’s resolution? Abolish the U.N. "Human Rights" Council

"At the turn of a new year, people traditionally make resolutions to improve themselves. So, what is the United Nations setting itself to do better in 2022?

Answer: Launching an onslaught against Israel even more malicious and far-reaching than the U.N.’s previous attempts to delegitimize and destroy it.

In the past week, the U.N. General Assembly approved an annual $5 million budget for a commission of inquiry, led by the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, which has unprecedented scope to demonize Israel.

The ostensible context for this inquiry, which was launched in a resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in May, was the conflict that month when, under attack from thousands of rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza to kill Israeli civilians, Israel launched Operation Guardian of the Walls to defend itself.

Of the 236 Gazans who were killed during that conflict, at least 114 were members of terrorist organizations and 21 were killed by fellow Gazans as a result of rocket misfire.

The inquiry, however, has been set up as a kangaroo court. It’s not just that the UNHRC resolution failed to mention the rocket onslaught against Israeli civilians by Hamas, or its use of Gazan civilians as human shields.

The inquiry has clearly been set up to find Israel guilty of the human rights crimes of which it is both innocent and the victim — and furthermore, to declare it guilty of such crimes not just in Gaza and the 'West Bank' but within Israel itself.

Moreover, its remit includes 'all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.'

So, it’s poised to accuse Israel of the purported crime of its very existence going back to its creation in 1948, as well as libel it with the false charge of 'apartheid' which has become the defining smear of Israel-bashing circles.

Worse still, its scope and reach are astonishing and unprecedented. As Anne Bayefsky points out in a devastating article for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the commission will have 24 permanent staff members. This compares to 20 permanent staffers for the council’s branch covering all of Asia, Pacific and the Middle East, or more than 60 percent of the world’s population.

And its aim is to single out Israelis for criminal charges.

To that end, it will have four full-time lawyers, plus a 'forensic expert' to 'report on medico-legal issues,' and a 'military adviser' to pronounce on 'de jure command responsibility' and liaise with law enforcement officials.

This is designed to cripple Israel’s capacity to defend itself against murderous and existential attack. 'In effect, the budget of this U.N. inquisition funds the creation of a law firm inside the U.N. dedicated to manufacturing charges and mounting a global chase to arrest and incarcerate Israeli Jews,' Bayefsky writes...

This is not just Israel’s problem. As long as the West ignores the profound corruption of the UNHRC, it corrupts itself.

How to make the world a better place in 2022? Shut down the UNHRC."