The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has singled out Israel for allegedly violating women’s rights. The multinational body, which looks after UN’s economic and social work, voted 43 to 3 in support of a resolution condemning Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, for violating women’s rights, the Geneva-based watchdog group UN Watch reported on Friday. None of the other 192 member states of the UN were rebuked for its treatment of women.
The absurdity doesn’t end just their. Among those who sat in judgement over the Jewish State included China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. The 54-nation UN body comprises of several failed states and dictatorships in Africa and the Middle East.
The UN resolution, passed on Monday, falsely blames Israel for the condition of the Palestinian women, the majority of whom live in Hamas-ruled Gaza or in the PLO-controlled Palestinian Territories. Arab women living in Israel enjoy equal rights with men in politics, economics, and the cultural sphere.
Israeli Arab women have distinguished themselves in various fields: serving as Knesset lawmakers, professors, soldiers, and diplomats. “Among Israeli Arab studying for their bachelor’s degree, women account for 72% of the total,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in June 2017.
The UN Watch reported the anti-Israel vote:
The Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Belarus were among members of the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council, a principal organ of the world body, who voted on September 14th to single out Israel as the only country in the world to be rebuked by the council this year for allegedly violating women’s rights.In a resolution adopted 43 to 3, with 8 abstentions (see breakdown below), the Jewish state was accused of being a “major obstacle” for Palestinian women “with regard to the fulfillment of their rights, and their advancement, self-reliance and integration in the development of their society.” (…)The resolution in its preamble made global references to “violence against women and girls in all its different forms and manifestations worldwide” and to the need to “eliminate all forms of violence against women” in “all regions of the world,” however Israel was the only country held up for criticism.Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela were among the countries who sponsored the resolution via the Group of 77, a bloc today made up of 134 states, and this year represented by Guyana. (…)The resolution turns a blind eye to how Palestinian women’s rights are impacted by their own governing authorities — the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza. Nor does it make any criticism or any reference at all as to how women and girls are discriminated against within patriarchal Palestinian society. On the contrary, the resolution praises what it calls “Palestinian initiatives at the legislative, administrative and security levels to advance women’s rights.”“ECOSOC’s 2020 session completely ignored the world’s worst abusers of women’s rights, refusing to pass a single resolution on the situation of women in Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, DR Congo, Iran, Chad or Saudi Arabia, all of which ranked in the top ten worst countries in the 2020 Global Gender Gap Report, produced by the World Economic Forum,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch.
The United States, Canada, and Australia were the only countries to vote against the motion. France, Ireland, and Japan voted against Israel, while Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland abstained.
India, which often portrays itself as Israel’s close ally, joined its arch-rivals China and Pakistan in preposterously condemning Israel’s record on women’s rights. In siding with Communist China and Islamist Pakistan at the UN forum, India’s Hindu Nationalist government has displayed appalling judgement to say the least. Since I closely follow Israel-India relations, I have often pointed out New Delhi’s anti-Israel record at the UN despite its diplomatic overtures to Jerusalem.
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