After the United Nations Human Rights Council targeted Israel in a debate held under its only permanent agenda item focused on a single country, Israel’s ambassador to the US and the UN Gilad Erdan said that “we cannot allow the anti-Israel lies spewed at the UN to go unchallenged,” as he addressed a UN Watch event launching what he hailed as a “phenomenal” online tool to track and combat UN bias.
“The UN Watch Database is a great resource to learn more and take action,” said Erdan, speaking at the virtual launch of the new website portal, which featured a Q&A session with academics, journalists, activists and lawmakers.
“The UN Watch Database is a state-of-the-art website that promises to revolutionize how we monitor the UN, expose anti-Israel bias and hold the world body accountable,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
Ambassador Erdan endorsed the new monitoring resource as “a phenomenal tool” that will have “real impact.” (Click here to visit the UN Watch Database)
“For the first time, the UN Watch Database makes available the texts of hundreds of resolutions from multiple UN bodies, along with analysis and voting records, documenting the world body’s disproportionate focus on Israel and its neglect of millions of human rights victims around the world,” said Neuer.
UN Watch legal advisor Dina Rovner gave a live demonstration of the user-friendly website, which she called “a major contribution to the cause of UN reform, and of combating dictatorships, double standards, and discrimination at the United Nations.”
“The unprecedented resource tool provides lawmakers, journalists, researchers and activists with the essential information they need to identify UN discrimination and double standards. It empowers citizens worldwide to demand change, with ready-made petitions for every country,” Rovner said.
As the UNHRC marked its 15th anniversary, Neuer detailed how the 47-nation body routinely singled out Israel while turning a blind eye to abuses in Turkey, China, Russia, Cuba and elsewhere. “The UN is failing to live up to its founding principles,” said Neuer.
“The new UN Watch Database highlights the UN’s pernicious elevation of dictatorships to high positions—such as the election of China, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan to the Human Rights Council—and the world body’s peculiar obsession with scapegoating Israel,” said Neuer.
“Because numerous UN bodies obsessively target Israel with a grossly disproportionate amount of one-sided condemnations adopted year after year, the Database is essential for tracking each text, the context in which it was adopted, and how each country voted,” Neuer said.
Joining the online event was author and former Israeli MK Dr. Einat Wilf, International Legal Forum CEO Arsen Ostrovsky, McGill University history professor Gil Troy, MK Michal Cotler-Wunsch, NGO Monitor president Gerald Steinberg, and House of Lords member Stuart Polak.
Neuer also addressed questions about the new UN monitoring tool from Algemeiner journalist Ben Cohen, Jerusalem Post diplomatic correspondent Lahav Harkov, and New York Post columnist Benny Avni.
“It’s time to say: Enough is enough,” said Neuer. “It’s time to fight back, for the UN’s founding principles, which are noble.”
“That is what we’re doing at UN Watch with the launch of our new Database, which will empower all people to get the information they need to advocate for change in their own country, to make sure their government is voting the right way,” said Neuer.
Click here to see the new UN Watch Database.
