On backdrop of Gaza escalation, Israel-Europe rift widens
On the backdrop of the Gaza escalation and European abstention at the UN Human Rights Council vote, mistrust keeps growing between Jerusalem and Brussels.
PARIS — Spokespeople and decision-makers in Jerusalem were outraged with the decision adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council May 27 to establish an international permanent commission of inquiry to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes.
Twenty-four countries voted in favor of the decision, including states with an ambivalent human rights record, such as Bangladesh, Cuba and Pakistan. Austria, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Germany, Malawi, Marshall Islands, the United Kingdom and Uruguay voted against it — all traditional allies of Israel in the international arena. But for decision-makers in Jerusalem, the abstention of European Union members Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland, along with some other countries, was particularly troubling and disconcerting.
An Israeli diplomat told Al-Monitor that globally speaking, the number of countries supporting anti-Israeli decisions in UN bodies have been diminishing in the past decade, and a similar trend has been observed over countries abstaining in such votes. On the other hand, he estimated that the European countries who abstained May 27 might have adopted that position in order to facilitate the way for the United States to reenter the UN agency it had left during the Trump administration. Israel, he thought, should have expected an even more negative vote result.
For Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the May 27 vote was especially biased. Not only did it not refer to the 4,300 Hamas rockets launched at Israel during the last escalation round, it also established for the first time ever a permanent commission of inquiry. The Foreign Ministry kept floating the number of resolutions condemning Israel adopted by the UN agency. Israel was condemned 95 times, in comparison to North Korea that was condemned 14 times for human rights violations, Eritrea was condemned 10 times, Syria 36 times and China never condemned at all.
