March 21, 2016–A demonstration in support of Israel was held in front of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. It was attended by representatives of a Christian lobby in support of Israel, StandWithUs, the World Jewish student organization, the European Jewish student organization, the World Zionist Organization and hundreds of citizens from around the world who support Israel, according cursorinfo.co.il.

Yair Lapid, leader of the party Yesh Atid and the organizer of the demonstration, said the protest was directed against “anti-Israel decisions made by the UN Human Rights Council.” He added that in recent years, the organization has become a “rights for terrorists council.”

The demonstration was timed to coincide with the opening of the current session of the Council with six new anti-Israel resolutions on its agenda. Over the past ten years, the organization has approved at least 60 such resolutions, while the total number of decisions relating to other countries is only 55, protestors said.

Lapid said the UN was not even trying to hide its support for Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations targeting Israel.

“The attitude of the UN Council towards Israel can’t even really be called biased. It’s an obsession. It’s a crazy system. What is happening today in the UN Human Rights Council is real, old-fashioned anti-Semitism in its most hideous form,” Lapid said at the demonstration. He also called for an end to funding the UN Human Rights Council.

The UN Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace its predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights. Unlike other UN agencies which monitor compliance with international conventions guaranteeing human rights and composed of independent experts, members of the Human Rights Council are the member-states, meaning its decisions are often highly politicized and far from objective.

In March 2012, Israel, at the initiative of foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, unilaterally broke with the Human Rights Council. This was done in protest against the plan to create a special commission on the issue of settlements in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.

Relations between Israel and the Human Rights Council were only restored in October of 2013. The Council has continued to consistently condemn Israel, however, publishing one-sided reports on the situation in “the territories.” Another crisis in Israel’s relations with the organization followed the Operation Protective Edge, but a complete rupture in relations has been avoided for the time being.

Full story in Russian here.