Organisation’s spokesperson says Israel’s observer status means it cannot formally withdraw from the body.
Israel says it is withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), following in the footsteps of the United States, which announced its decision earlier this week.
In response to Thursday’s announcement by Israel’s foreign minister, UNHRC spokesperson Pascal Sim said Israel has observer state status within the rights body and, therefore, could not withdraw from the council.
The Geneva-based council is made up of 47 UN member states, which are elected by other UN members to serve four-year terms on a rotating basis. The US is also currently not an elected member of the council.
On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused the UNHRC of anti-Semitism and said his country “joins the United States and will not participate in the UNHRC”.
Saar added that the decision “was reached in light of the ongoing and unrelenting institutional bias against Israel in the Human Rights Council, which has been persistent since its inception in 2006”.
Earlier, Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, accused the body of “moral failure”.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, said Israel’s decision was “extremely serious” and “shows the hubris and the lack of realisation of what they [Israel] have done”.
“They insist in self-righteousness that they have nothing to be held accountable for, and they are proving it to the entire international community,” she added.
The UNHRC conducts periodic reviews of the human rights records of UN member states and is also responsible for appointing human rights experts to serve as independent UN special rapporteurs.
Israel has participated in periodic reviews that UN members must submit to the UNHRC. For several years, however, it has boycotted debates on the “human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories”.
Thursday’s decision by Israel is the latest in a string of confrontations it has had with the UN.
In October, Israel banned the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which provoked widespread international condemnation.