Israel accused the United Nations of continuous discrimination against the Jewish State, with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and urged the world body to implement immediate reforms within its human rights agency. Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Aviva Raz Sechter said, “The continuous discrimination against Israel in the Human Rights Council, embodied in the infamous item 7, and the unparalleled number of one-sided biased and political resolutions adopted regularly by the automatic majority of its members testify not only to the unfair treatment of the state of Israel, but also to the deficiencies of the Council itself and its agenda,” she said, while stressing that Israel’s relations with the Palestinians will continue to be Jerusalem’s highest priority, in seeking a solution to the decades old conflict that would allow both peoples to “live side by side in peace and security.”
Ambassador Sechter also pointed to Israeli concerns with regard to the situation in the Gaza Strip, and underlined Israel’s support for reconstruction of the enclaves’ civilian infrastructures. That said, the Israeli diplomat emphasized that the Jewish state could not stand idly by when the Islamist Palestinian organizations continue to pursue a destructive path of terrorism. Ambassador Sechter noted, “We are concerned about the situation in the Gaza Strip as much as others — probably even more. We highly support the reconstruction of its civilian infrastructures but will not stand idly by when funds and funding for the needs of the Gaza citizens are diverted by Hamas and other terror organizations to smuggle weapons, build attack tunnels that aim to reach our residential areas, and develop other infrastructure and capabilities against our population. Nor will we stand idly by as Israeli citizens are being held by the Hamas and the remains of our soldiers have not been returned in gross violation of international humanitarian law,” she said in a meeting of the world body’s Human Rights council.