Statement by H.E. Aharon Leshno Yaar
Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations, Geneva

Statement before the vote
12th Special Session
Human Rights Council
16 October 2009

Text:

Mr. President,

Israel worried from the start of the discussions in this hall months ago that the actions would be one-sided. That the resolution, mandate, and make-up and actions of the mission would be imbalanced. But most of all, Israel was concerned that the result could not but be imbalanced and misused. 

Justice Goldstone, it seems, now understands these concerns. He told Swiss TV yesterday: [quote] "I was worried this morning when reading the draft resolution: a 36 paragraphs-text but not a word on the rockets launched on Israel by Palestinian groups". In this morning’s Le Temps, Justice Goldstone expanded that "this draft resolution saddens me because it only makes allegations against Israel. There is not one single sentence condemning Hamas as we do in the report". This time, Justice Goldstone is correct. We still argue that the report and its findings were unbalanced and deeply flawed, that nearly not enough attention was given to the actions of the terrorists. But now, even that small portion is gone.

There are still members of this Council that had no interest in the report, no interest in human rights, no interest in self defense, no interest in the actual questions that face democracies in fighting terror. Many of the speakers over the past two days showed no genuine interest in the Israelis or Palestinians other than ensuring that the glare of Geneva is never shined towards them.

Mr. President, colleagues,

My dilemma is that should the draft resolution pass today, I am not sure that I have advice to give my people. As a diplomat who strongly believes in multilateral diplomacy, the importance of human rights and the necessity of peace in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians, what do I tell Israelis about this special session? How to explain that politics, domestic agendas and in some cases, sheer cynicism have won out. That the real issues facing Israel's decision makers - how to move forward and try to make peace while protecting the people of Israel from real and present dangers - just do not interest a majority of the members of this Council. That this body, and the report it would "endorse", offers no solution to fighting against terrorists to democracies that try to ask the right questions but are forced to act in self defense.

Many honorable colleagues stated clearly that this week's meeting should not have taken place and we all know that it would not have, had any country other than Israel been involved. All of us understand the cynicism of many here today. We understand that a real discussion of human rights, or even the nuances of Justice Goldstone’s problematic report, is not the real matter on our agenda this week.

After two days of a discussion about my region, there remains one pragmatic question to ask. Do you support the importance of the promotion of peace between Israel and the Palestinians?

If you do, if you really would like to see the building of trust and dialogue between the sides, if you would like to see Israelis and Palestinians gain the confidence to take risks, if you would like to see improvements on the ground for all sides, if you want to see the moderates in the region gain ground and reject extremism, you must reject today’s proposal.