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Monday, February 28, 2022

"Palestine" ignores Ukraine at the UNHRC, and (as always) is fixated on demonizing Israel



The UN Human Rights Council opened its 49th session today in Geneva where it was decided to hold an urgent debate on Ukraine. 

Many high ranking national officials spoke, as they always do. Most spoke about their concern over Ukraine. Many spoke about Covid-19 challenges to human rights (including Spain, Thailand, Moldova,) or worries about nuclear war (Marshall Islands), or other issues of human rights that affect the entire planet.

One, however, ignored everything else happening in the world and stuck to his only theme: Israel is evil and the world is treating Israel too well.

Here is the UN summary of Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Maliki's speech:

RIAD AL-MALKI, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine, said every year the international community met to discuss international human rights and international human rights law. But the reality for millions of victims of egregious human rights violations continued to deteriorate, the right to justice continued to be ignored, and the culture of impunity reigned. The reason behind this was double standards. Respect for international human rights and international humanitarian law should be ensured universally. This hall had borne witness to outrageous statements justifying war crimes and crimes against humanity, many committed against the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people had suffered from this, with the Israeli Government given special treatment, allowing it to commit crimes with utter impunity. Hundreds of Palestinian families lived under the intolerable threat of dispossession. Israeli settlers enjoyed legal protection, whilst the Palestinian people were punished for protecting themselves. Israel continued to expand, stripping all Palestinians from their fundamental rights. Some States rewarded Israel with special status: only double-standards and exceptionalism could explain this upside-down reality.

States that respected international law had nothing to hide; they did not bar United Nations officials, nor ban human rights defenders. When they did, they were met with justifiable international disapproval, and yet Israel banned international investigators and got away with it, as it wished for no proof of its crimes, and could count on special treatment by the international community. Palestine called on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to update the database of companies involved in illegal activities in Palestine. Exceptionalism was also applied by some Member States who continued to work against item seven on the Human Rights Council agenda.
You get that? No other nation has a dedicated permanent item on the HRC's agenda. No other nation has a database dedicated to attack companies that work on its soil. But Maliki says that the double standards are practiced by those who object to these double standards the UNHRC applies to Israel!

As of this moment, there has been only silence from the Palestinian Authority about the Ukraine crisis. Not even a statement of concern about the loss of civilian lives, or a call for a cease fire or negotiations. Not a word. Because the "State of Palestine" has only one purpose for existing: to deny the right of the Jewish state to exist. There is little interest in building a functioning society, there is no interest in helping Palestinians live dignified lives, there is no tolerance for anyone who points out that they are led by a split between two dictators who don't want to even see Palestinian unity. 

Everything is a distraction from the only purpose of the Palestinian Authority/PLO/"State of Palestine:" using any political power it gains to use against Israel. To them, the UNHRC is not a human rights body and the UN isn't an international organization and international accords are not meant to be adhered to. To them, they are all simply tools to be used to attack Israel diplomatically, and when they are used for anything else, the Palestinians are irritated that they are not the center of attention. 

You can read Maliki's entire speech here. Compare the universal messages of the other speeches with the Palestinian focus on demonizing the only Jewish state. Maliki informs the UNHRC of the supremely important human rights violation that "settlers raid the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound and provoke religious sentiments" meaning he is telling the Human Rights Council that Jews should have no human rights, no equal rights, no rights at all. 

And no one says a word.

This speech is only one of hundreds of examples proving Palestinian entity is the most self-centered, malicious member of the international community.