Cruz: US should withdraw from UN Human Rights Commission
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is calling on the United States to withdraw its membership from the United Nations Human Rights Commission over its vote Friday to condemn Israel for the 2014 conflict with Palestinians.
The commission voted 41-1 on the resolution Friday, with five abstentions, to condemn Israel for targeting civilians. America was the only country to vote against it.
{mosads}“Our single vote in opposition is just and the abstentions of our friends are welcome, but at this point they are meaningless gestures. It is time to stop ceding moral authority to the UNHRC and tell the truth about this hopelessly biased and anti-Semitic institution,” Cruz said in a statement Friday.
“The United States should stop legitimizing the UNHRC with our membership and withdraw now.”
The 2014 conflict stemmed from Israel’s response to Hamas sympathizers launching rockets from Palestinian territories into the country. Israel’s military operation killed more than 1,000 civilians, drawing widespread criticism from Palestinians and the international community.
But Israel has argued the Palestinians purposefully put civilians in harms way and that it needed to protect itself from the scores of rocket attacks on its country.
Cruz, an ardent supporter of Israel, backed the Jewish homeland in his statement and chided the U.N. for ignoring the Israeli perspective in the resolution.
“There is no equivalency between Israel’s right to self-defense and Hamas’ genocidal aggression against the Jewish people,” he said.
“There is no equivalence between Israel’s extraordinary efforts to protect civilians and Hamas’ use of the Palestinian people as human shields.”
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