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Haley: US Might Leave UN Human Rights Council Over 'Chronic Anti-Israel Bias'

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The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations blasted the U.N. Human Rights Council, accusing the body of bias against Israel and failure to target abusive regimes on Tuesday. 

Nikki Haley warned that if the council doesn't address its shortcomings, the U.S. might pull out, The Washington Post reports.

"It's hard to accept that this council has never considered a resolution on Venezuela, and yet it adopted five biased resolutions in March against a single country, Israel," Haley said in her remarks before the council in Geneva. 

"It is essential that this council address its chronic anti-Israel bias if it is to have any credibility," she continued.

Prior to Haley's address, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein of Jordan spoke out against Israel, claiming that for 50 years, the Jewish state had occupied land the Palestinians lay claim to for a future state.

"The Holocaust was so monstrous and so mathematically planned and executed it has no parallel, no modern equal," Zeid said. "Yet it is also undeniable that today, the Palestinian people mark a half-century of deep suffering under an occupation imposed by military force."

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon responded to Zeid, issuing a statement in New York which said Israel is "looking forward to working with the U.S. to enact real reforms and put an end to this most absurd chapter in the history of the U.N."

"The connection between the commissioner and human rights has proven to be purely coincidental and it comes as no surprise that he chose to spread lies about Israel before he even mentioned the massacres in Syria," Danon wrote.

Haley is the first U.S. ambassador to the U.N. to address the Human Rights Council, and her remarks are part of a push by the Trump administration to call for reform of what Haley has labeled U.N. bureaucracies with a bias, the Post reported.

"The United States is looking very carefully at this council and our participation in it," she said in her address. "We see some areas for significant strengthening."

"Being a member of this council is a privilege, and no country who is a human rights violator should be allowed a seat at the table," Haley continued. 

In another address given away from council headquarters later on Tuesday, Haley compiled a list of countries she said misused their council membership.

"Countries like Venezuela, Cuba, China, Burundi and Saudi Arabia occupy positions that obligate them to, in the words of the resolution that created the Human Rights Council, 'uphold the highest standards' of human rights," she said.

"They clearly do not uphold those highest standards," she continued.

"When the council fails to act properly — when it fails to act at all — it undermines its own credibility and the cause of human rights," Haley said.

"It leaves the most vulnerable to suffer and die," she continued. "It fuels the cynical belief that countries cannot put aside self-interest and cooperate on behalf of human dignity."

"It reinforces our growing suspicion that the Human Rights Council is not a good investment of our time, money and national prestige," she added.

Still, Haley made it clear the U.S. doesn't want to pull out from the group.

"America does not seek to leave the Human Rights Council," she said. "We seek to reestablish the council's legitimacy."

The director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program, Jamil Dakwar, heard Haley's remarks and criticized the ambassador.

"It's hard to take Ambassador Haley seriously on U.S. support for human rights in light of Trump administration actions like the Muslim ban and immigration crackdowns," Dakwar said in a statement.

"Regardless of the party in power, the U.S. needs to lead by example and practice what it preaches on human rights," he continued.

Last week, Haley said the Trump administration would make a decision on the status of its membership on the council after the session wraps up later this month. 

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