US to boycott UN meeting to discuss Israeli and Palestinian conflict, citing anti-Israel bias

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The Trump administration is boycotting the Human Rights Council, saying the organisation is biased against Israel.

The Human Rights Council, a 47-member body within the United Nations in Geneva that is tasked with protecting human rights, has a permanent agenda item regarding Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The Council is currently in its 34th regular session but US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley issued a statement saying the US feels the Council is being unfair because Israel is the “only country permanently on the body’s calendar.”

She said that “other than to vote against the outrageous, one-sided, anti-Israel resolutions,” the US will not discuss the “so called” item on the US ally in the middle east.

CBS reports that targeting of Israel has “decreased in recent years.”

After the US joined the Council in 2009, the number of resolutions passed against Israel “went down to 40 percent, and further decreased to less than 20 percent in 2016.”

The US still retains is right to vote on other agenda items the Council discusses.

The State Department’s acting spokesperson Mark Toner said in a statement that it “does not serve the interests of the Council to single out one country in an unbalanced matter.”

He called the permanent agenda item on Israel “among the largest threats to the credibility of the Council.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is considering whether to withdraw completely from the Council because of the Israeli agenda item.