March 27, 2025
AJC Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer Jason Isaacson today sent this letter urging members of the UN Human Rights Council to vote against several anti-Israel resolutions up for consideration next week.
March 27, 2025
Your Excellency:
I write on behalf of the American Jewish Committee to express our concern regarding four annual anti-Israel draft resolutions submitted to the Human Rights Council under agenda items 2 and 7. The Council is scheduled to vote on these draft resolutions on April 2, 3, and 4.
The texts of these draft resolutions are replete with expressions aimed at isolating Israel as a pariah uniquely deserving of condemnation. They assert that Israel is guilty of the most egregious violations of international law and call on states to support boycott, divestment, and sanctions against the Jewish state. Taken together, they present a grossly distorted picture of the situation.
The most outrageous is the draft resolution under agenda item 2 titled “Human Rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice.” Apart from a disingenuous and meaningless reference to “the targeting of civilians, including on October 7, 2023,” without naming the perpetrators and the victims, the draft fails to mention Hamas’s rampage of rape, torture, and murder against Israeli communities along the Israeli-Gaza border on October 7. This terrorist assault resulted in the death of more than 1,200 people and the abduction of 251, of whom 59 remain in brutal captivity. Indeed, it is this act of terrorism that instigated the current hostilities and brought about immense suffering for both Israelis and Palestinians. While failing to condemn Hamas’s atrocities, the draft purports to uphold the “legitimacy of the struggle,” which is a euphemism for endorsing terrorism, and to deny Israel the inherent right to self-defense enshrined in the UN Charter. Nor does the draft mention the rise in acts of violence and terrorism emanating from areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Conversely, Israel – and Israel alone – is condemned multiple times, including concerning unfounded claims by the discredited and biased Commission of Inquiry that Israeli forces have engaged in “targeted” violence against Palestinian women and girls.
This resolution would also create a new open-ended investigative mechanism under the authority of the Secretary-General mandated to collect evidence and to prepare case files to support criminal prosecutions, including in national, regional, and international courts, of perpetrators of crimes under international law committed since 2014 in the Palestinian areas and Israel. This proposal is unsound; a one-sided resolution could not be expected to result in the creation of a genuinely impartial mechanism. It is also unwarranted, as the proposed mechanism would be extraordinarily costly and duplicative. Indeed, numerous UN-created entities have investigated events in the Palestinian area since 2014, many of which still exist today and are engaged in ongoing scrutiny of this situation. Creating the proposed mechanism would only divert an even greater proportion of the UN’s funds for the purpose of vilifying Israel and promoting the flawed analysis of the Commission of Inquiry and other UNHRC-created entities around the world.
The draft resolution concerning “Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan” does not mention the grave violations perpetrated by the prior regime in Syria against its people, including the use of chemical weapons. Instead, it criticizes Israel, which made serious efforts to help the victims of the Syrian civil war.
All four draft resolutions ignore the historical circumstances that led to the current situation. In 1967, Israel captured the West Bank, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan in response to existential threats and unprovoked attacks by neighboring Arab states in a clear-cut case of self-defense.
Since its establishment in 2006, the Human Rights Council has continually singled out and criticized Israel. No other country has been subjected to such scrutiny and systemic bias. The Council has held 37 special sessions, of which nine were dedicated to Israel. In addition, ten of the 37 commissions of inquiry and independent fact-finding missions established by the Council have been about Israel. Israel is also the only country subject to a separate, stand-alone agenda item, which subjects it to permanent indictment. We have repeatedly expressed our concern over this unfair treatment, which undermines the Council’s credibility and emboldens Palestinians who believe they can rely on international pressure on Israel rather than make the necessary compromises for peace.
One-sided resolutions inevitably do a disservice to the UN and undermine its ability to advance stability and peace to the region. Therefore, we call on your government to vote against the four harmful draft resolutions before the Human Rights Council.
Respectfully,
Jason Isaacson
Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer
American Jewish Committee
Washington, D.C.
