The Obama Administration will fight against any effort to isolate and delegitimize Israel at the UN and elsewhere, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Geneva on Monday.
His words appeared to lay to rest media speculation that US President Barack Obama planned to penalize Israel at the UN out of frustration over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday against his Iran’s policy, the JPost reported on Monday.
“We will oppose any effort by any group or participant in the UN system to arbitrarily and regularly delegitimize or isolate Israel, not just at the UN Human Rights Council but wherever it occurs,” Kerry told the UNHRC at the opening of its 28th session.
The US supports most of the UNHRC’s work and hopes to retain its seat as one of its 47 member states, Kerry said.
“We are running for re-election,” said Kerry as he lauded the UNHRC’s important work as a “ray of hope” for victims of human rights abuses.
But he warned, the US was “deeply concerned” about the UNHRC’s record on Israel.
“No one in this room can deny that there is an unbalanced focus on one democratic country, [Israel],” he said.
“Year after year there are five or six separate resolutions on Israel,” he said.