UN Human Rights Council: Curtailing Freedom of Expression

Cross Posted at Monkey in the Middle

Many times NGO’s have been asked to speak in front of many United Nations organizations. And every time a pro-Israel group has spoken, they have been stopped by one or another Muslim nation. Most of the time it hasn’t been recorded, but this time it was recorded.

View at YouTube

Jewish lobby groups have long claimed that United Nations councils that discuss matters related to the Middle East are outright anti-Israel. The UN watchdog organization Eye On The UN has released a 3-minute film of a session of the UN Human Rights Council calling it a blatant case of silencing a pro-Israel speaker.

On September 18, 2008, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva discussed Item 7 on the agenda: “the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.” Time was allotted to hear comments from NGO’s at which time a Joint statement of B’nai Brith International and the Coordinating Board of Jewish Organizations was read. The B’nai Brith representative said:[the above video starts with his statement]

“The discussions under this agenda item are not only repetitive in the sense that speaker after speaker accuses Israel of all conceivable human rights violations without any reference to human rights violations committed by Palestinians. These are not only committed against Israeli civilians, but against other… “

At this moment in the film clip, the president of the council interrupted and gave the floor to Egyptian representative Elchin Amirbayov, Vice President of the Human Rights Council, who made a point of order:

“When we allowed and welcomed the participation of NGO’s in the work of this council, we expected this to be serious input… But I am sorry, I don’t see any seriousness… No amount of diversion can cover what is happening in Palestine. Those who cannot address the facts and the issues on the ground, should not try to distort and waste the time of the council and waste the time allocated to NGO’s. This is not seriousness… We did not hear a single serious statement thus far.”

The president of the council accepted the point of order by the Egyptian representative.