Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced Wednesday, 5 February 2025, that his country will leave the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), following a similar decision by the United States' to do the same the day before when US President Donald Trump signed the executive order to withdraw the US from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on 4 February 2025.
In a scathing criticism, Saar described the council as a forum that consistently damages Israel's diplomatic reputation while ignoring real human rights issues around the world.
Israel welcomes President Trump’s decision not to participate in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) February 5, 2025
Israel joins the United States and will not participate in the UNHRC.
The UNHRC has traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and…
Saar's most startling fact was the lopsided number of resolutions that condemned Israel. More than 100 resolutions have been passed against the nation, accounting for almost 20% of all council resolutions. This amount is greater than the sum of the resolutions passed against North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela put together. Furthermore, Saar sees Israel's continued status as the only country with a specific agenda item as unmistakable proof of institutional bias.
Israel's decision to leave the council makes a strong diplomatic statement about its disinterest in taking part in what it views as an essentially biased international process. Saar's declaration is part of a larger plan to combat what Israel views as institutionalized prejudice in multilateral organizations.
This comes following the Israeli ban on the United Nation’s agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), which took effect on 30 January 2025 after the Supreme Court rejected a petition by a rights group contesting the ban.
The Knesset enacted the ban in November, achieving a significant majority that included backing from opposition parties. This decision followed numerous disclosures regarding agency employees who were engaged with terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, as well as the involvement of certain staff members in the Hamas invasion and massacre on October 7, 2023. Additionally, there were ongoing concerns about the utilization of UNRWA facilities for terrorist operations.
Israel has also presented evidence indicating that the agency's educational institutions fostered animosity towards Israel and celebrated assaults against Israelis.
The Supreme Court decision banned UNRWA from any activity on the sovereign territory of the State of Israel, but did not prohibit it from doing so on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The ban applied, however, to the field headquarters in East Jerusalem. Expectedly, the ban was backed by the US drew condemnation from US allies and aid groups.
The animosity between Israel and the UN organisations intensified following Hamas’s October 7 attack in 2023 when over 3,000 terrorists crossed the border and killed over 1,200 civilians and taking 251 hostages. The official stance by Israel has been that the agency was riddled by Hamas presence where many of its employees turned out to be Hamas operatives.
“Humanitarian aid doesn’t equal UNRWA, and UNRWA doesn’t equal humanitarian aid. UNRWA equals an organization infested with Hamas terror activity,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein wrote on X.
“UNRWA employs over 1,200 Hamas members, including terrorists who carried out the October 7 massacre,” Mencer said. “This isn’t aid, it’s direct financial support for terror.”
On the other side of the spectrum, the controversial UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierez declared that he regretted the decision and requested that Israel retracted the decision as the agency, according to him, was “irreplaceable”. Needless to say, no UN official commented on the links the agency had with Hamas.
