Press Releases

Israel's withdrawal from the Human Rights Council

- Israel continues to refuse to be held accountable -

4th April 2012 – BADIL Resource center. BADIL notes Israel’s withdrawal from the Human Rights Council with great dismay and little surprise. Israel has made its unwarranted and vociferous protest of UN human rights bodies’ oversight a matter of practice and policy. While Israel argues that the Human Rights Council has disproportionately focused on Israel’s human rights abuses since its creation in 2006, it has lodged similar critique against other bodies and mechanisms that highlight its egregious practices. This consistent practice indicates that the issue is not bias, as Israel claims, but rather an aversion to accountability to human rights norms and international law.

Among the State’s most egregious violations is its non-compliance with UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which call upon Israel to withdraw from the Territory it occupied in 1967. Though this includes East Jerusalem, Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem in 1980. Neither the UN, nor Israel’s strongest ally, the US have recognized said annexation as evidenced by its refusal to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Still, little to nothing has been done to challenge said annexation and today, the route of Israel’s Annexation Wall together with a system of bypass roads and settlements as well as a Judaization process within Jerusalem have removed East Jerusalem beyond the control and reach of most Palestinians. In effect, Israel has worked to entrench its unilateral annexation a fact on the ground beyond the purview of international law.

Additionally, Israel’s rejection of the jurisdiction of UN agencies and bodies demonstrates a pattern and practice of non-compliance and hostility. Consider the following:

  • 2001: The U.S. and Israel walked out of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in the South African city of Durban over a draft resolution that criticized Israel and equated Zionism with racism.
  • 2004: Israel refused to participate in proceedings related to the International Court of Justice deliberation on the route of the Separation barrier, even before the proceedings began. Upon issuance of its Advisory Opinion in 2004, Israel declared the decision non-binding because the Court did not accept Israel’s interpretation of self-defense
  • 2008: Israel denied entry to Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, because it claimed that his Human Rights Council mandate was "profoundly distorted and conceived as an anti-Israel initiative.”
  • 2009: In the aftermath of Israel’s 22-day aerial and ground offensive against the Gaza Strip, Israel refused entry to the Fact-Finding Delegation to and rejected the Delegation’s mandate and findings before the Mission had even commenced.

Israel’s rejection of the HRC’s mandate to investigate the impact of West Bank settlements on Palestinian lives and self-determination is consistent with its aversion to compliance with human rights norms. BADIL notes this trend with dismay and urges High Contracting Members of the Geneva Conventions, State members of the relevant treaty-making bodies, the UN Secretariat and Agencies to encourage Israel to comply with said norms as a fulfillment of its duties as a UN member state.