Human rights abusers on the UN's Human Rights (sic) Council
Israel just received a great honor from the UN Human Rights (sic!) Council. The grossly misnamed Council, whose members include such notorious human rights abusers as Bangladesh, Congo, Cuba, Djibouti, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and Uganda among others, has decided, according to a report in the Washington Free Beacon, "for an international campaign of legal attacks and economic warfare on a group of American companies that do business in Israel, including Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar Inc., and Motorola Solutions Inc."
The Human Rights Council (HRC), a body dominated by Islamic countries and known for its hostility to, and heavy focus on, the Jewish State, issued the report. The George W. Bush administration refused to participate in the HRC, but President Barack Obama joined it soon after taking office.
And who did Obama appoint as his envoy, or "special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestianian territories" for the HRC? An intensely anti Israel, anti Jewish "American college professor Richard Falk, a 9/11 "truther" who once posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on his personal blog."
Oh, and of course Professor Rapporteur Falk is...Jewish.
But why exactly is this charge an honor for Israel? Most of the members of the Human Rights Council are notorious abusers of human rights against women, homosexuals, children, men, Christians, Jews, animists, Buddhists, Hindus, or whatever religion,racial or ethnic group is not the majority, the rich, the poor.
Singling out Israel for alleged abuses against an alleged Palestinian people while the accusers' own countries are engulfed in misery, while the alleged Palestinians are safer than their next door neighbors who are being routinely slaughtered by their own people reveals Israel's high standards of behavior while exposing the accusers' horrible abuses.
And of course more people will question the value of the UN as a whole, the HRC in particular.
Or should. I have no illusions that either will happen but it will be in the background if the report's recommendations are enforced.
What will happen if they are enforced?
"The costs to companies and businesses of failing to respect international humanitarian law are considerable," the report warns, "including damage to a company's public image, impact on shareholder decisions and share price and could result in employees being criminally responsible for rights abuses."
The report warns American employees of targeted companies that they face legal risks. "Employees of companies can face investigation and prosecution for human rights violations committed irrespective of where the violation was committed." In addition to legal action against American employees of targeted companies, the Special Rapporteur "concludes that all companies that operate in or otherwise have dealings with Israeli settlements should be boycotted."The companies should "be prepared to accept any consequences-reputation, financial, or legal-of continuing operations."
Should the companies continue doing business in Israel, the Human Rights Council "calls on civil society to actively pursue legal and political redress against non-complying business" and "to vigorously pursue initiatives to boycott, divest and sanction the businesses highlighted in this report" and "calls on the international community to consider requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice" to punish the businesses.
How about a call for the international community to consider requesting an advisory opinion from decent people everywhere to punish the human rights abusers of the UN's Human Rights Council? Nah, too logical.