After US, Israel halts participation in UN Human Rights Council
Jerusalem: A day after US President Donald Trump announced America's withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Sa'ar, said on Wednesday that Israel would also join the US in its decision not to participate in the UNHRC.
Sa'ar expressed Israel's support for Trump's decision, calling it a step in the right direction.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister said, "Israel welcomes President Trump's decision not to participate in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Israel joins the United States and will not participate in the UNHRC."
He called the UNHRC to have "traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and instead obsessively demonizes the one democracy in the Middle East - Israel. This body has focused on attacking a democratic country and propagating antisemitism, instead of promoting human rights."
"The discrimination against us is clear: In the UNHRC, Israel is the only country with an agenda item dedicated solely to it. Israel has been subjected to over 100 condemnatory resolutions, over 20% of all resolutions ever passed in the Council - more than against Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela combined. Israel will not accept this discrimination any longer!" he added.
The announcement from the Israeli Foreign Minister came amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the United States.
US President Trump announced America's departure from the "anti-semitic" UN Human Rights Council and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which drew a lot of flak over the allegations of links with Hamas. Trump made the announcement during a joint press conference with Israeli PM Netanyahu in Washington, DC on Tuesday (local time).
"I'm also pleased to announce that this afternoon the United States withdrew from the anti-semitic UN Human Rights Council and ended all of the support for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which funnelled money to Hamas and which was very disloyal to humanity. Today I also took action to restore our maximum pressure policy on the Iranian regime. And we will once again enforce the most aggressive possible sanctions, drive Iranian oil exports to zero, and diminish the regime's capacity to fund terror throughout the region and the world," the US President added.
Israeli PM Netanyahu arrived in the US on Sunday to discuss the Gaza ceasefire agreement as well as plans for the Middle East with Trump, Al Jazeera reported.
The Israeli PM is also expected to have a meeting with the US military leaders and members of Congress, Al Jazeera reported. These meetings will be held over several days.
During the visit of the Israeli Prime Minister, Donald Trump said during the joint conference, "The bonds of friendship and affection between the American and Israeli people have endured for generations, and they are absolutely unbreakable."
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