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UN Human Rights Council's Permanent Agenda Item on Israel Should Be Abolished
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt - A fair-minded observer would find it curious that, of all the situations in the world, only Israel and the Palestinian territories are permanently on the agenda of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Amid the horrors of Syria's civil war, the brutal detention camps in North Korea, the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma, a dedicated place on the HRC agenda - known as Item 7 - is reserved solely for Israel. By any standard of fairness or proportion, elevating this dispute above all others cannot be sensible; indeed it is an unhelpful illusion to suppose that Israel's conduct deserves special scrutiny. Instead of promoting reconciliation and compromise, Item 7 strengthens the hard and trampled road of self-righteousness, a narrative that one side alone holds a monopoly of fault. Two years ago, the United Kingdom said that unless the situation changed, we would vote against all texts proposed under Item 7. Sadly, our concerns have not been heeded. So I have decided that we will do exactly what we said: Britain will now oppose every Item 7 resolution.