Setting the Record Straight Regarding the Most Maligned Nation at the U.N.: Israel

Israel is the most maligned and mistreated country at the U.N. We have just filed our first-ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report to the U.N. Human Rights Council defending Israel’s record on human rights and the legal basis it has for defending its citizens from attack.

The State of Israel is up for review in the upcoming U.N. UPR session. Israel is perhaps the only country in the world that is treated unfairly at the U.N., by the international community, and by international NGOs, for simply defending its existence. We often hear false accusations against Israel that it violates the rights of its Arab citizens and the rights of Arab populations living in the so-called West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The UPR sessions are no different, as the recommendations made by several countries during Israel’s previous review in January 2018 asked Israel to step up efforts to fight “inequality and discrimination” between its Jewish and Arab citizens. In reality, however, Israel does not discriminate against any of its citizens. Recommendations were also made against Israel’s lawful security measures in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

As part of our efforts to defend Israel, we set the record straight. The UPR report we have just submitted provided the U.N. real facts:

Israel’s minorities, including its Arab citizens, have full and equal civil and political rights. In fact, Israel is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women have the right to vote. 64.7% of Arab citizens of Israel voted in the 2020 election. As a result, Arab politicians held 15 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, making them the third most powerful coalition in the legislative branch. In fact, the United Arab List, an Arab political party, became part of the governing coalition in Israel. In addition, Arabs have served in cabinet positions, and several Arabs have sat on Israel’s Supreme Court. Israeli Arabs, including Israeli Arab women, have served as Israeli judges, and in 2022, Khaled Kabub “was sworn in as Israeli Supreme Court’s first Muslim justice.”

On the issue of religious freedom, our report states that Israel safeguards the Holy Places of all religions. Religious minorities have jurisdiction over their own members in matters of marriage, divorce, and burial. The report further stated:

[D]espite the fact that the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, since 1967, when Jerusalem was reunified after 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation, Israel has allowed only its Arab citizens and other Muslims to pray at the main compound. Jews are allowed to pray at the Western Wall. . . . There is no other country in the world, and particularly in the Middle East, that provides that level of religious freedom to its religious minorities—particularly at the expense of both the religious practices and rights of the majority of its citizens.

Our report also informed the U.N. the truth about the false accusations made against Israel regarding its security measures in the face of indiscriminate attacks from terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Regarding this issue, our report first informed the U.N.:

It is important to note that the term “Palestinian” is commonly used to refer to Arabs living in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) and the Gaza Strip (collectively “disputed territories”), and the disputed territories are commonly labeled as “occupied Palestinian territories,” even though no state called “Palestine” has ever existed and none exists today. In fact, what we call “Palestine” today had been for millennia the historical homeland of the Jews. Nonetheless, Arabs residing in the disputed territories and much of the international community, including countries making recommendations in the previous UPR, have assumed, without any legal basis, that a state of Palestine comprises the so-called West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

While it is important that people know how these terms are misused every day, our report also highlighted what law applies to the situation. In addition, we exposed the hypocrisy with which countries criticizing Israel make inherently conflicting arguments.

Based on the erroneous assumption that the so-called West Bank and the Gaza Strip constitute a state of Palestine, the countries criticizing Israel claim conclusively that these territories are in fact “occupied Palestinian territories” and, as such, the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) applies therein.

At the same time, however, those countries allege that Israeli security measures—which are lawful under the same LOAC—are unlawful. These are inherently inconsistent positions. Measures such as security barriers, naval blockades, military tribunals, etc. are all lawful under the LOAC. Because the security measures are lawful under the LOAC, they cannot be unlawful under general human rights law. In other words, measures (such as restrictions on freedom of movement, security barriers, blockades, etc.) that are not allowed in peacetime are lawful during an armed conflict. This is not merely a legal technicality or theory, in actual fact, Israel uses such measures strictly to defend its own citizens—including Israeli Arabs—from relentless deadly assault from the populations of the disputed territories.

Our report further stated:

Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, (PIJ) and other terrorist groups in the disputed territories commit war crimes when they indiscriminately fire thousands of rockets into Israel; use civilians as human shields; use civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools, and residential buildings for military purposes; and pay salaries and commissions to those who murder innocent Israelis. In response to such attacks, Israeli security measures are completely lawful acts of self-defense allowed under the Geneva Conventions. In taking such measures to defend its civilian population from indiscriminate attacks (including its Arab citizens), Israel also takes every precaution to avoid civilian casualties in the disputed territories.

Based on these facts, our report commended Israel for providing equal rights to its Arab citizens, taking every measure to avoid civilian casualties in the disputed territories when it responds to thousands of indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas, PIJ, and other groups, and consistently acting in accordance with international law.

As part of our work at the United Nations, we have just filed 14 UPR reports with the U.N., detailing the situation of human rights in 14 countries. Our affiliate the European Centre for Law and Justice’s (ECLJ) special consultative status at the U.N. allows us to participate in and contribute to different mechanisms at the U.N. by making both oral and written submissions.

Through a mechanism called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the U.N. Human Rights Council reviews each country every three to four years for its human rights record and makes recommendations to improve the situation of human rights. Different countries and NGOs like ours also get a chance to make recommendations.

There are usually three UPR sessions in one year, and we file about 14 reports each session. For the 43rd UPR session, we have submitted reports on Israel, France, Barbados, Botswana, Burundi, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mali, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, the Bahamas, Tonga, and the UAE, covering a wide range of issues from religious freedom to human trafficking to pro-life issues to involuntary servitude. You can find all of our reports, including our interactive map of counties we have covered, here.