12 June, 2017
USA ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley hailed a "new day" for Israel at the global body today as she held talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem.
Haley said that she has started to see a change in attitude toward Israel in the United Nations, a body that Israel has consistently complained is overwhelming against it, mostly in regard to its 50-year occupation of the West Bank and its day-to-day treatment of the Palestinians.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin sat down with Haley prior to her meeting with Netanyahu. "We are not going to let that happen anymore".
"It is a new day for Israel in the United Nations", she added.
Rivlin thanked Haley for her protection of Israel, saying it marked a "new era".
"Israel is no longer alone at the UN".
Haley told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the approach toward Israel at the United Nations was a "habit".
He said that with help from Haley and the US administration, "now is the time to enact real reforms at the U.N.so that it will reflect Israel's true stature in the worldwide community". "We were talking with some ambassadors in Geneva and, that are all on the Human Rights Council, and we talked to them about Agenda Item Seven, some of them, they were embarrassed by it and they acknowledge the fact that it just makes no sense". He added that "we have a long way to go" for change there and also at the Human Rights Council which he said "has been hijacked as a weapon against Israel" and in UNESCO "where they seek to rub out the history of the Jewish people".
"We are honored to welcome you to our country and thank you for standing resolutely by our side", Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said at a welcoming ceremony for the American diplomat. "And if there's anything I have no patience for it's bullies, and the United Nations was being such a bully to Israel, because they could". She said it was "hard to accept" that no resolutions have been considered against the administration of President Nicolas Maduro when five had been passed against Israel.
Israel is the only country with a dedicated rights council agenda item, known as Item 7.
Israel and its allies have denounced the council for allowing majority-Muslim states to spearhead resolutions at every session denouncing abuses against the Palestinians.
In an op-ed ahead of her address, Haley accused the council of "whitewash [ing] brutality" committed by its own members, citing as prime examples Venezuela-"whose government shoots protesters in the street", she wrote-and Cuba-"whose government imprisons thousands of political opponents".
This is published unedited from the PTI feed.
