FROM THE DESK OF AVI BENLOLO:  The Days of Israel Bashing Are Over 

This week, the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth, Boris Johnson, argued against the disproportionate bias against Israel: "I thought it was absolutely preposterous that there should be a [Human Rights Council] motion condemning Israel's conduct in the Golan Heights when, after all, we have seen in that region of Syria the most appalling barbarity conducted by the Assad regime." 

Unbelievably, according to Anne Bayefsky, as the UN Human Rights Council wrapped up in Geneva last Friday, it adopted five times more resolutions condemning Israel than any country on earth: "In its history, the Council has condemned Israel more often than any other of the 192 UN states: 78 resolutions and decisions against Israel; Syria - 29; North Korea - 9 and Iran - 6. As for Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China - zero." 

In fact, Israel is the only country permanently on the Human Rights Council's agenda leading Ban Ki Moon to express deep disappointment in 2007, "given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world." 

With the fomenting of hate against Israel, is it any wonder that the World Jewish Congress announced this week that an antisemitic post is uploaded to social media every 83 seconds?

The relentless and biased focus on Israel distracts from the real human rights abusers on our planet. Recently, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her client Nadia Murad, spoke about the plight of the Yazidis. They pleaded to put Daesh (ISIS) on trial for murdering Murad's mother and six brothers in northern Iraq in 2014. In fact, Daesh displaced 360,000 Yazidis while raping thousands of woman (including Murad) and selling and trading them as sex slaves. Mohamed Fahmy, who was imprisoned in Egypt, argued in The Star this week that "Daesh justifies this killing and raping spree as fair game against the "kufar", non-Muslim people such as Yazidis, Jews and Christians."

Mass atrocities are committed every single day by true human rights abusers, yet free and democratic Israel is the focus of the UN Human Rights Council and the United Nations. Consider this week, that at least 11 people were murdered in a suicide bombing attack in Yemen - a country at war between Saudi Arabia, Iran, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Also this week, at least 15 people have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad, while 40 were injured. And today, another 24 people were killed in a similar attack in Pakistan. The sad and nightmarish list of atrocities continue.

And for anyone truly concerned with the plight of the Palestinians, they might take interest in learning that Lebanon's Foreign Minister, Gebran Basil, reiterated today in the Beirut Daily Star that "Lebanon will not naturalize Syrian or Palestinian refugees living in the country." Unlike in Israel, where the Muslim community is part of society and enjoys full citizenship, in many Arab nations, they are disallowed from gaining citizenship - despite having lived there for decades.

But the truth is irrelevant to those who wish Israel harm. It is shameful that the British Columbia Supreme Court could not see through the veneer of deception by allowing a BDS referendum at the University of British Columbia to proceed next week. Certainly, the court found that the resolution was "loaded" - but could it not understand that it was falling prey to an international Israel bashing strategy?

That bias against Israel is becoming widely recognized by the likes of Johnson and US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley. In a speech this week at AIPAC she said, "the days of Israel-bashing are over... if you challenge us, be prepared for what you're challenging us for, because we will respond... they need to know there's a new sheriff in town." As an example, Haley described the situation of the UN trying to put a "Palestinian in one of the highest positions that had ever been given at the UN, we said no and we had him booted out." 

And as the UN Human Rights Council wrapped up its session last Friday, the UK mission to Geneva delivered a stunning blow: "For as long as the Human Rights Council continues down this disproportionate and biased path, it will make the achievement of a negotiated two-state solution harder not easier...so today we are putting the Human Rights Council on notice. If things do not change, in the future we will adopt a policy of voting against all resolutions concerning Israel's conduct..." 

Israel bashing is over. Join the club.