Israeli Envoy Rips off the UN Human Rights Report on Stage

After an angry speech at the UN General Assembly, the Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan accused the organization of "bias" and "antisemitism," before concluding his speech tearing the UN Human Rights report in full rejection of its content.

Even though Israel's accusations of antisemitism for the UN body are not new, the latest speech has been considered a whole new level of escalation against the human rights council which has been increasingly critical of Israeli policies in the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

However, the Israeli envoy called the report's conclusions on Israeli practices in Palestinian territories "baseless, one-sided, and outright false accusations."

During his speech, Gilad Erdan described what he believes is "obsessive anti-Israel bias," saying that "it has criticized Israel over the past 15 years more than it did of Iran or Syria."

He also condemned the UN's General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975 which equated Zionism with racism, considering it gives the right to self-determination to only the Jewish people. 

This comes several months after a detailed study conducted by Human Rights Watch which named Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories "Apartheid" for the first time in Israel's history, citing the expanding settlement movement across the West Bank and other human rights violations. 

By the end of his speech, Gilad Erdan ripped off the UNHRC report, in a scene that went viral online.

In 2021's report, the UNHRC conducted three main sessions on human rights violations in Myanmar, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Written by Riham Darwish