[JURIST] Israeli deputy permanent representative to the UN Daniel Carmon [official website] on Tuesday accused [text, DOC] the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website; JURIST news archive] of "targeting Israel in an obsessive and discriminatory fashion" and "fail[ing] to uphold the basic standards of human rights in an impartial, universal, non-selective, and objective manner." Addressing a plenary session of the UN General Assembly [official website] following consideration of a UNHRC report, Carmon pointed to seven UNHRC resolutions "condemning" Israel in the past year, as well as recent special sessions on Israel:

While the one-sided resolutions and special sessions that target Israel are grave cause for concern for the credibility of the Council, the institutional framework established against Israel by the Council threatens its very integrity and legitimacy.

Israel is the subject of the Council’s only country-specific agenda item. The continued obsession with Israel serves to divert the attention of the Human Rights Council from legitimate human rights abuses around the world, and such politicization of the human rights agenda demonstrates the Council’s commitment to political point scoring, rather than to the protection of human rights.

Furthermore, the Council clings to the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories. This mandate presumes Israeli violations and precludes the Special Rapporteur from discussing honestly human rights in a holistic and impartial manner. Palestinian terrorism that deliberately targets Israeli civilians thus receives immunity.