The Disgrace of the UN Human Rights Council

Today the so-called UN Human Rights Council will add to its history of anti-Israel bias and invective by listening to an official spokesman for terror.  The Council is scheduled to hear from Ismail al-Ashkar, a Hamas "lawmaker" whose moderate, peace-loving views are summed up by this Kuwaiti report from his appearance at a protest rally in Gaza in 2010.  There he not only attacked Israel but also the possible participation of the PLO in peace negotiations with Israel: "Ismail Al-Ashkar, a leader of Hamas, addressed the demonstrators, condemning the negotiations as ’a crime and treason’ against the Palestinian people."

The long and disgraceful saga of the UN human rights bodies--first the Human Rights Commission, and now the Human Rights Council--continues. I assume that if this man appears at the rostrum the U.S. delegates will withdraw from the room. That is fine, but we need to withdraw from participation in the Commission entirely so long as it continues to spend its time attacking Israel--and now, listening to terrorist representatives do so.