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WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres against establishing special investigatory powers to target Israel. Chairmen Mast and Risch, in particular, warned such a brazen move by the UN would open up the global entity and its member states to potential sanctions. 

“This is part of a concerning and insidious anti-Israel trend within the United Nations, specifically as relates to the HRC, and appears to be little more than a bare-faced attempt to prop up other anti-Israel action at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ),” the chairmen wrote in a letter to the UN. “Make no mistake, any HRC member state or UN entity that supports an Israel-specific international investigative mechanism in any form will face the same consequences as the ICC faced for its blatant overreach and disregard for sovereign prerogatives.  We urge you to take all action and to unequivocally reject the establishment of this open-ended mechanism at the HRC.” 

The letter by Chairmen Mast and Risch comes as the United Nations has scheduled a vote this week to establish yet another open-ended investigate mechanism against Israel.

Read the full letter here and below. 

Dear Secretary-General Guterres:

We write to underscore our concerns about the Human Rights Council’s (HRC) overwhelming and disproportionate focus on Israel. This includes its attempt to use an upcoming vote on a resolution related to Agenda Item 2 to establish an international investigative mechanism (IIM) focused solely on Israel when it comes up for a vote in the Council in early April.

Already, Israel is the only country for which the HRC has established an entire agenda item dedicated solely to its existence, agenda item 7. Moreover, an Israel-specific IIM, if established, would be in addition to the Commission of Inquiry (COI) established by the HRC “to investigate, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021”. This COI received significant backlash from the United States Congress even before it was entered into force.

Since, the COI’s mandate has been further egregiously expanded to include investigating and reporting on “terror, violence, and intimidation against Palestinian civilians” and any form of military support to Israel on an annual basis.

This one-sided focus on Israel undermines the legitimate and genuine threat posed by real human rights abusers. This includes the Hamas terrorists who continue to hold dozens of hostages like American Edan Alexander. It’s part of a concerning and insidious anti-Israel trend within the United Nations, specifically as relates to the HRC, and appears to be little more than a bare-faced attempt to prop up other anti-Israel action at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Make no mistake, any HRC member state or UN entity that supports an Israel-specific IIM in any form will face the same consequences as the ICC faced for its blatant overreach and disregard for sovereign prerogatives. We urge you to take all action and to unequivocally reject the establishment of this open-ended mechanism at the HRC. It is imperative that the Council act judiciously given its credibility in the eyes of the American people is quickly declining.

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