RAMALLAH, June 6, 2017 (WAFA) – The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, is going to personally attend the 35th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) scheduled to start on Tuesday in Geneva in order to defend and fight for Israel, according to Palestine’s representative to the UNHRC Ibrahim Khreisheh.
He told Voice of Palestine radio that Haley has come to Geneva with a specific task and that is to assail the UNHRC allegedly for singling out Israel for criticism and to pressure the 47 member states into canceling UNHRC’s Agenda Item Seven: “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”
The US State Department had in March “strongly and unequivocally” opposed the UNHCR adoption of Item Seven on its agenda describing it as “yet another reminder of that body’s long-standing bias against Israel.”
Khreisheh said that as part of Item Seven of the council’s agenda, the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra‘ad Al Hussein will be expected to present the council on June 19 with a report on Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories.
Haley, a strong advocate for Israel, is expected to arrive in Tel Aviv on Wednesday on an official visit, her first since she became UN ambassador.
Her visit coincides with the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights. The UN considers the Israeli occupation illegal and illegitimate and demands that Israel must end its control of these Arab territories.
K.F./M.K.
