New Zealand votes to fund unprecedented attack on Israel

18 January, 2022

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The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution establishing an ongoing Commission of Inquiry which has unprecedented scope to demonise Israel. With a vote from New Zealand, the Commission has been granted a budget of more than US$5,000,000 per annum, allowing it to hire approximately 24 full-time staff members, for an indefinite period of time. For comparison, there are 20 permanent staff for the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) branch covering all of Asia.

No such open-ended investigation has ever been levelled against any other UN member state. This is just the latest evidence of institutional bias from the United Nations, and the UNHRC in particular. Since its establishment in 2006, the UNHRC has set up 32 investigative bodies, with nine – nearly a third – of these focused exclusively on Israel.

What makes this probe particularly egregious is not only its eye-watering budget and indefinite period, but also the terms of reference and the appointed commissioners.

The Commission was ostensibly set up to investigate the conflict between Hamas and Israel in May 2021. They have asked for submissions and it seems clear that the only target in mind is Israel – there is no mention of Hamas or any other terror group. The focus is clearly and uniquely on Israel.

The Commission is currently led by South Africa’s Navi Pillay, who served as the UN High Commissioner for human rights and has displayed a consistent, well-documented animus toward Israel. Her accusations of illegal Israeli conduct during the Gaza flotilla raid of 2010 were later refuted by a UN commission headed by Sir Geoffrey Palmer.

Pillay is a leading champion of the UN Durban conference’s antisemitic mantra that the Jewish state is a racist state. As High Commissioner during the 2008-09 and 2014 Gaza wars, Pillay played a pivotal role in promoting the Goldstone report, which was famously rejected by the lead author in 2011. Since leaving office, she’s made a habit of promoting BDS and falsely accusing Israel of apartheid.

The two other members of the Commission are Millon Kothari and Chris Sidoti, both with public records of anti-Israel extremism and Palestinian partisanship.

For the above reasons, some of the few democratic countries at the United Nations have opposed the probe.
The United States opposed the move, saying it

“perpetuates a practice of unfairly singling out Israel in the UN and, like prior US administrations, we strongly oppose such treatment of Israel,”US representative

A representative from Australia said “We oppose anti-Israel bias,” and said the mandate for this particular inquiry “is excessively broad” and “over-resourced,”. And the Canadian representative said this probe was a particularly “unacceptable outlier” and that the resources needed were “significantly larger than” those allocated for “all of the investigations we approved resources for today.”

The Israel Institute of New Zealand has written to Foreign Minister Mahuta to understand if she was fully briefed about the probe and whether she supports it or is willing to join traditional allied democracies and condemn the unfair treatment of the Jewish nation.

If you want to respond to the Commission request for submissions, use the form below with our pre-prepared text responding to their framework:

First name

Last name

Subject

Your message
Dear Commission, I am writing in response to your request for submissions. Representatives of The United States, Australia, and Canada have all voiced concern about the unprecedented nature of this open-ended and expensive probe that seems to perpetuate the institutional racism of the United Nations against Israel. I note that the people appointed to the Commission have all been publicly vocal in their animosity against Israel, rendering any claim of "independence" farcical. Nevertheless, the inquiry seems to be proceeding and so I submit the following, in accordance with your stated framework: 1. Underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict in and between the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel; as well as systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity; The root cause of all the tensions and instability between Israel and the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, is the complete unwillingness of the Arab leadership to acknowledge Israel’s existence is permanent, legal, historical and moral, and its insistence on rejection of this reality. The Arab leadership is opposed to Israel’s existence and prefers conflict over peace as is demonstrated daily and has been for 73+ years. The conflict has no racial or ethnic roots. It might well have religious aspects as the PA and Hamas operate as fundamentalist, radical, Islamic supremacist organizations, thus any non-Muslim entity is offensive to them,,,. Hence they have significantly reduced the Christian populations in their respective regions and eliminated the Jews completely,. In contrast, the Christian and Arab populations of Israel continue to rise,. Further, there is no “systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity” in Israel. The 20% Arab population (predominantly Muslim) have equal voting rights and protection under law. An Arab party is part of the current government, and Arab Israelis have excelled in all aspects of Israeli society - including the IDF, judiciary, sports, and popular entertainment. There are also positive steps taken by the Israeli government to support Arab communities. 2. Facts and circumstances regarding alleged violations of international humanitarian law and alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021; Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are responsible for incitement to violence, abuses of human rights and attacks on civilians and attempts to destroy Israel. Every conflict between Gaza and Israel was initiated by Hamas which brutally took control of the territory after Israel withdrew in 2005. That is fact and thousands of rockets fired into Israel prove it, as do terror tunnels and fire balloons and smoking tires. They are not for the well-being of their citizens and Hamas punish any who don’t obey them or who seek peace with Israel. In contrast, Israel has an independent judicial system, including a Supreme Court that is one of the most respected judicial authorities in the world in seeking to grapple with the difficult problems brought on by democracies engaged in battles with terrorist organisations and hybrid terror-armies. 3. Identification of those responsible (for the violence in May 2021); Clearly the leadership of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and all of their associated entities are responsible for crimes against humanity, breaches of human rights, terror and the rewarding of terror, terror training at UNRWA operated schools and camps,, and encouraging violence on Arabic media. An interim analysis of the May conflict by military experts clearly states “Israel’s response (to terror acts) was measured, carefully calibrated and sought to eliminate threats to its population and territory within the law. In particular, the IDF scrupulously observed International Humanitarian Law, specifically the principles of necessity, proportionality distinction and precautions.” The experts go on to discuss the causes of the conflict and conclude “The proximate cause of the May conflict was a power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.” and identify Hamas as the group primarily responsible for the violence A similar conclusion was reached by independent international law experts, who highlighted both Israel’s right to self defense and Hamas’ use of Palestinian civilians as human shields,. 4. Recommendations on accountability measures, with a view to avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring legal accountability, including individual criminal and command responsibility; This inquiry must deal with facts and hold the terrorists, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, accountable for their many crimes, their promotion and conducting of terror, the murder of innocent people, and their constant incitement. Nothing will change as long as the Hamas Charter promotes the destruction of Israel, death to Jews, and the leadership refuses to negotiate a permanent peace. Likewise nothing will change as long as the PA educational system promotes violence against Israelis. Accountability requires action and the UNHRC has taken no action against the perpetrators of terror, namely Hamas and the PA, and their accomplices, funders, associates and support organizations. Singling out Israel for defending her citizens cannot advance peace. It is a perversion of the noble goals of the United Nations and the Human Rights Council in particular. Recommendations on measures to be taken by third States to ensure respect for international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Since the very premise of this inquiry is based on falsehoods and anti-Israel sentiments and fabrications, there is no expectation that recommendations to hold the guilty accountable will ever be adopted, yet alone implemented. If peace is ever to be achieved between the Palestinian Arabs and the Israeli government, the change has to come from the Arabs. Israel wants peace. The Arab Palestinian leaders want the destruction of Israel. Today, peace exists with the realists and the Arab countries that want more for their citizens than the “dead or else” wishes of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Third party countries, like Aotearoa New Zealand, can hold the Arab governing bodies accountable: cut off PA funding for pay-for-slay policies; refuse to fund UNRWA and move the responsibility for real refugees to where it rightfully belongs with UNHCR; and eliminate the training of terrorists and so-called martyrs. Third party states, like Aotearoa New Zealand, can call for a thorough investigation of the fraud and embezzlement that is suspected by the PA, who are not developing opportunities for young Arabs nor promoting peace, and cut off funds and support for Hamas which spends donor development funds on building terror tunnels, rockets and other forms of destruction of Israel. I hope you will reconsider this inquiry and I hope that my government will speak out against the institutional racism of the United Nations in a similar way to the condemnation of the Durban Conference in which egregious antisemitism was overtly manifest. Sincerely,