How did the democracies and the dictatorships vote in UN Human Rights Council resolution against Israel?
I’m not going to waste everyone’s time with a detailed breakdown of Friday’s farce at the United Nations in which the laughably named “Human Rights Council” passed a resolution against Israel and affirmed the notoriously skewed and distorted Goldstone Report on Gaza. Israel bashing is what it is. We’ve seen it all before and we’ll see it again.
What interests me today is less the “what”? and the “why”? than the “who”? For we know that sickness and depravity over Israel is par for the course these days at the United Nations. What matters more is who participates in it, who turns a blind eye and who has the courage to stand up and confront it.
So let’s see how countries supporting the resolution, opposing it, abstaining from it or not voting stand up on a group by group basis when compared to their freedom rankings by Freedom House. The countries which voted in favour of the resolution were as follows.
Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia.
The countries which voted against are as follows:
Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Ukraine, United States of America.
The countries which abstained are as follows:
Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Uruguay.
The countries which did not vote are as follows:
Angola, France, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar and Britain
Among the supporters of the resolution, the presence of so many despotisms as well as many others that are ranked by Freedom House as only “partly free” speaks for itself. Countries ranked as “not free” by Freedom House in the group are: China, Cuba, Egypt, Qatar, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Partly free countries in the group are: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Djibouti, Jordan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Zambia. Of the 25 countries who voted against Israel 17 (68 %) are either outright despotisms or are seedy and corrupt pseudo-democracies.
Among those which opposed the resolution it is noteworthy that for all the criticism visited against the Obama administration the outstanding name in the group is the United States of America. It is also worth noting that all states in the group are democracies and all (100%) are ranked in the top category for freedom by Freedom House.
Among the abstainers it’s a bit of a mixed bag: Bosnia-Herzogovina, Burkina Faso, Gabon (partly free); Cameroon (not free); the rest (free). So of the 11 abstainers 36% are not free.
Among those who didn’t vote it is, once again, a mixed bag: Angola, (not free); Krgyzstan, Madagascar (partly free); Britain and France (free). In other words, 60% of this group do not meet the standard of being a free country according to the Freedom House framework.
For the record, Israel resides in Freedom House’s top category as a fully free country.
Now, one can play with statistics endlessly and there are many other ways of breaking down voting patterns in the UN Human Rights Council.
I just have one question at this stage: what were Britain and France doing in the bathroom with Angola, Kyrgyzstan and Madagascar while some of the worst dictatorships in the world were passing a resolution against Israel’s human rights record?
Answers below please.
Tags: Israel
October 17th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Thanks. 68% - how telling …
I believe that Egypt forced the vote before Britain and France were ready - they were still on their phones negotiating to try to stitch a deal together to exchange their abstentions for concessions from Israel.
AKUS has a great piece in CiFWatch about this:
http://cifwatch.com/2009/10/16/israelites-1-%e2%80%93-philistines-0-%e2%80%93-the-goldstone-own-goal/
October 17th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Robin Shepherd says: I’m not interested in their paper thin cover stories. At the end of the day they did nothing to stop this abominable resolution. And that’s all we need to know…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6878669.ece
Correction: “they were still on their phones negotiating to try to stitch a deal together to exchange their opposition to the resolution for concessions from Israel.”
October 17th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
The hypocrisy of those supporting the Resolution is nauseating and is obvious to all. But it does serve to remind us of those governments which still have a moral compass.
Incidentally, Robin, I’ve just finished your marvellous book and it helped me understand why some countries voted ( or not) as they did.Everyone should read your acute analysis of this phenomenon.
October 18th, 2009 at 2:19 am
An interesting POV apparently from Tehran. Interesting comment on Arab relations with Israel and the chances of a negotiated settlement:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=205781
Apart from his inability to hold Abbas to his word, Obama failed to appeal to the sensibilities of U.S. allies on the council such as Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, who voted in favor of the report. This confirms that the Arab world is still more interested in vilifying Israel than negotiating with it – despite Obama’s attempts to engender good will in the Arab world by exacting concessions from Israel.
More importantly, Obama has conveyed to the Israelis that he lacks sway with the Palestinians. This bodes poorly for future negotiations.
The Goldstone is not just a black eye for the United Nations. Obama has demonstrated that his diplomatic efforts in the Middle East have thus far failed.
October 18th, 2009 at 9:53 am
If Obama clains that he is “the one” that can reach out to the muslim world he has failed. This is a slap in the face to Obama from the muslims
October 18th, 2009 at 11:21 am
“I’m not interested in their paper thin cover stories.”
They are all Hamas now.
October 18th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
With a lot of hard feelings expressed in the Arab world about GW Bush (they did not get their way so easily!?), Obama, having taken a different route, both in style and emphasis, finds that he has made little progress (if any) to shift Arab attitudes to Israel. I would call this a failure (since any other US President (with or without a Peace Prize) would have ended up with the same or similar result), but more of a continual failure by Arabs to grasp another opportunity to make the peace, and allowing the palestinian problem to roll on. The Arab bluff in the end is being called every time. The Arab failure is camouflaged by the fact that they can point to “settlements” as a spurious cause preventing a peace agreement, but everyone knows (but not willing to admit) that Israel cannot start to make concessions until the Arabs are prepared to recognise Israel, which it never does in unequivocal terms. Israel is therefore easy bait for continuing criticism.
Goldstone has got himself into a mess. He may have some valid explanations afterwards but they will be deeply buried beneath the onslaught Israel now faces in the media and elsewhere for a long while to come. His role in South Africa when he upset White Opposition to truth , as he saw it , cannot be compared to the mercurial strategies adopted by the Arab leaders and the “truths” they present. He has been at best naive and at worst a fool.
Britain should have denounced the report. There was not too much to consider. If the report in principle was wrong: vote against. No excuse. But I fear somewhere in all of this, there are other interests being served and Israel is the sacrificial lamb. Appeasement prevails. The dilly dallying demonstrates that we have lost our backbone.
October 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Did Canada vote at all?
Robin Shepherd says: FYI, Canada is not a member of the council.
October 18th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
The British Government were too busy calculating their expenses claims and laughing all the way to the Bank!
Take heart. The TRUE BELIEVERS are praying for Israel and will continue to do so.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:21 am
If Israel, like the US, can survive the present misguided administration we have, hopefully we will get leaders with backbone again. Would that we had a leader like your Prime Minister. What a statesman–what an orator. His speech at the UN was a true gem–the UN needs men like him, the USA needs men like him, freedom’s survival needs men like him. God bless and protect Israel.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:45 am
It is important to know, who, at the U.N voted for the abominable resolution the Goldstone pack of lies report brought about.
We already know that the majority of the United Nations members are anti-Israel badly contaminated with the incurable anti-Semitism disease. What should matter to all those who care for fairness and truth and world peace is who turns a blind eye to all of the Goldstone’s report lies and who has the courage and gall to stand up and confront it and vote against it. We now know which nation has moral compass and which nation does not and that is all that matters. At the end of the day, bear in mind and heart, the true believes in truth and moral are praying for Israel, are with Israel and will continue to do so no matter how much the lynching mob is against the Jewish State of Israel.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:41 am
The reason Britain and France were in bed with Angola, (not free); Krgyzstan, Madagascar (partly free), in bed with a group that 60% of its members do not meet the standard of being a free country, is because France and Britain are mindless countries; more so France and Britain are known to have anti-Semitic and anti-Israel deep sentiments. These two countries are living under daily fear—fear means weakness—of the Islamonazi mob in their midst that is slowly turning France and Britain into an Islamfascist state. The same very mob that runs and controls the vote in the UN Human Rights Council!
Shame on France and Britain for being gutless and while some of the worst dictatorships and rotten dictators in the world were passing a resolution against Israel’s human rights record they put on the three monkeys’ act: we do not hear, speak of see!
October 19th, 2009 at 5:49 am
Did Australia vote?
Robin Shepherd says: FYI, there are 47 members of the council but Australia is not one of them.
Here is the link to the list of members:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/membership.htm
October 19th, 2009 at 9:36 am
What is truly sad is that a s0 called friend (Britain) was more concerned with wringing concessions out of Israel (halt to ALL buildings) than voting against the resolution.
That is truly disgusting! Britain was in effect say, yes we know you are innocent BUT if you only stop all building in disupted terriroties then we will vote against the resolution. Or put it another way, we will only vote against the resolution if you do xyz Israel!
With friends like Britain, who needs enemies?
Mailman
October 19th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
The notion of Russia sitting in judgement on Israel and then finding her guilty of “war crimes” is both risible and sickening:
Grozny
http://tinyurl.com/yhwoazz
http://tinyurl.com/6bds3m
Georgia
http://tinyurl.com/ykx3gnp
http://tinyurl.com/ygmwobe
Alexander Litvinenko
http://tinyurl.com/yg5mvxd
Anna Politkovskaya (do not look at this photograph if you are in the least bit squeamish)
http://tinyurl.com/ykjnm3x
Stanislav Markelov (do not look at this photograph if you are in the least bit squeamish)
http://tinyurl.com/ykvg3e3
October 19th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Indecision appears to be catching. Do we still not know what the British Prime Minister’s favourite biscuit is!?
October 19th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
there’s no point flogging a dead horse - all the “usual suspects” voted to condemn israel, there’s nothing new in that.
but what’s up with the supposedly “normal” countries who either voted for the resoultion, or failed to vote against it?
india, russia, and south africa all have reasonable regimes (more or less) and cordial relations with israel. were they bought? and belgium, japan, norway, korea, france, and britain? none of them are part of the arab bloc or blatantly pro-terrorist. why did none of them speak out against this blatant anti-israel hate-fest?
it seems pretty obvious that they voted for their pocketbooks, and i would hope to see and hear proper condemnations of their venality. and perhaps they will one day reap what they have sown - as the islamists overrun their societies and subjugate them as dhimmis in the new and expanded dar-es-salaam…
October 19th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I have continually stated and analyzed this vote and the first one to explain why countries voted the way they did, its only because of financial dependence, energy, oil, & gas and more than pressure from U(arab)NHRC.
Not one of the media has exposed the truth that the report was doctored although Judge Goldstone claimed it had.
However, while the arab nations control their intelligencia, they have descended to the depths of lies, doctoring,and spreading anti-semitism. They are blind from arrogance and do not wish to see that they are preparing the world from Armagedon with the killing not thousands but millions of innocents of arab, CHRISTIAN,HINDU, CHINESE,RUSSIAN AND MANY OTHERS. I hope that a second MOHAMMED / MORSHIA / CHRIST / BUDDHA / GANESH appears and save us from these educated intelligent despots.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
As someone whose roots are from India, I am ashamed at how India voted. It is well known that India’s administration leans towards Israel (we have common enemy) but shame that in that shameless talking shop costing every civilised nation a fortune, its true voice still can not be allowed to be heard. Not that I am any more proud of my adopted country’s (Britain) abstinence.
November 24th, 2009 at 3:15 am
the usual suspects- where are the journalists of tomorrow exposing this nonsense, you would imagine it would be a brilliant story for some one but unfortunately we now have globalized journalism with it’s dumbed down perspectives and opinions. well done robin for standing up for the truth.
December 9th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Although, as an Italian living in Britain, I’m often embarasses beyond words by the current Berlusconi’s government, I have to admit that when it comes to foreign policy the country scores better.
I was proud when Italy opposed the Durban II, anti-Israel hate-fest; I’m glad now that it has done the same with this revolting resolution.
What perplexes me the most - however - is not why some countries voted for it, but why countries like Britain and France did not oppose it. If two pillars of the free world behave like this, what hope is there to preserve Israel’s integrity and - ultimately - our freedoms and values?