The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) strongly condemned a United Nationd Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution calling for the creation of a “blacklist” of companies operating in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

The resolution, approved during the UNHRC session in Geneva last Thursday, was initiated by the Palestinian Authority and a number of Arab states and was supported by 32 member states, with 15 abstaining and none opposing.

In this session alone, at least five resolutions were directed at Israel. This is in stark contrast to the one resolution dealing with Syria and the one resolution dealing with Iran.

Marvin D. Nathan, ADL National Chair, and Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, said, “With its rash resolution ordering the creation of a ‘blacklist’ database of companies doing business in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights, the UN Human Rights Council has opened another initiative in its aggressively biased and inordinate anti-Israel activity, intent on targeting, labeling and isolating the Jewish state.”

“This blacklist is a gift for proponents of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and will undoubtedly become an important resource for BDS activists seeking to attack Israel,” they added.

“In a period of unprecedented distrust between the parties, the international community should be encouraging steps which build trust rather than seeking to penalize one side through punitive steps. International bodies like the council should act in accordance with the vision of a two-state solution not to undermine its prospects,” they said.

“While we appreciate the reported U.S. and European efforts to lobby the Palestinians to drop the blacklist clause, we are disappointed that the UNHRC European states did not vote to oppose the resolution,” said Nathan and Greenblatt.

ZOA President Morton A. Klein said in a statement’’During the past week, Islamic State terrorists murdered dozens of innocent people and wounded hundreds more at an American ticket counter at a Brussels airport, a Brussels train station, a restaurant in Turkey where an Israeli tour group was visiting, and an Iraqi soccer stadium; a Taliban suicide bomber murdered 65 and wounded 300 Christians celebrating Easter in Pakistan; and Palestinian Arab terrorists continued their 6-month wave of terror, in which Palestinian Arab terrorists, incited by Palestinian Authority and Hamas unity government leaders, murdered 34 and maimed over 400 innocent Jewish Israelis in knife, shooting and car-ramming attacks. Yet, in an “alternate reality fantasy world” in Geneva, the UNHRC passed five false, absurd, hypocritical resolutions condemning Israel. It is utterly shameful that the UNHRC spends its time condemning Israel – when Israel is a top terrorism victim, the only democracy in the Middle East, and has an exemplary human rights record.’’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the resolution and said that 'the UNHRC has become an anti-Israeli circus with their attacks on the only democracy in the Middle East and their disregard for the gross violations in Iran, Syria and North Korea.”

He called on “responsible governments” not to respect the UN resolution that discriminates against Israel.

Last week, pro-Israel organisations staged a demonstration in Geneva to denounce the ‘’hypocrisy’’ of the United Nations Human Rights Council and its bias against Israel.

by Maud Swinnen