Israel on Wednesday welcomed the United States' decision to withdrew from a "hypocritical and self-serving" United Nations Human Rights Council over its "chronic bias" against Israel and a lack of reform, but the move also earned Washington criticism by U.S. allies, who expressed concern that with the U.S. exit would leave a vacuum in the 47-member Geneva-based body.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the U.S. decision.
"Israel thanks President Trump, Secretary Pompeo and Ambassador Haley for their courageous decision against the hypocrisy and the lies of the so-called UN Human Rights Council," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.
"For years, the UNHRC has proven to be a biased, hostile, anti-Israel organization that has betrayed its mission of protecting human rights. Instead of dealing with regimes that systematically violate human rights, the UNHRC obsessively focuses on Israel, the one genuine democracy in the Middle East. The U.S. decision to leave this prejudiced body is an unequivocal statement that enough is enough. Israel welcomes the American announcement."
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he "welcomed the move by our true friend, which left the hypocritical council that claims to be the United Nations' Human Rights Council. Once again, we see that Israel has no greater friend that the United States."
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon also lauded the move, saying, "The UNHRC has long become the enemy of human rights. The U.S. has again proved its commitment to truth and justice and has made it clear that it will not allow the blind hatred toward Israel in international institutions to remain unanswered.
"We thank President Trump, Secretary of State Pompeo and Ambassador Hailey for the leadership they demonstrated and call on other countries to clarify in their actions that U.N. institutions are not immune from being held accountable for their action," he said.
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev said, "The U.S. has had enough of the UNHRC's fiction and lies. This is an organization that, instead of backing countries that fight for human rights, backs those that are trampling all over them.
"This is an organization that has passed more resolutions against Israel that it has against Iran, Syria and North Korea combined, and it is the UNHRC that is undermining human rights. The U.S. has again proven its indisputable commitment toward Israel," she said.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, tweeted, "Congratulations to President Trump, Secretary Pompeo and Ambassador Haley on their courageous decision to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council. America will continue to lead the world in advancing human rights without the baggage of this corrupt organization."
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) lauded the move, saying, "The United States has been legitimizing the thugs and autocrats on the United Nations Human Rights Council for far too long. This is a body that claims to sit in judgment about human rights, but includes human rights abusers such as Venezuela, China and Cuba. It claims to be objective, but spends its time and resources attacking Israel while ignoring the crimes of terrorist groups like Hamas.
"Participation in the UNHRC did nothing to advance America's national security interests. I have long called for ending that participation, and I commend the Trump administration for its decision," he said in a statement.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, for his part, lamented the U.S.'s exit from the UNRHC.
"The secretary general would have much preferred for the United States to remain in the Human Rights Council," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "The U.N.'s human rights architecture plays a very important role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide."
UNHRC Commissioner Zeid bin Raad said the decision was "disappointing, if not really surprising news," adding that "given the state of human rights in today's world, the U.S. should be stepping up, not stepping back."
U.N. General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak also said the move was regrettable, adding that protecting and promoting human rights requires international cooperation.
Lajcak's spokesman Brenden Varma said the U.S.'s seat on the UNHRC will be filled through election in the General Assembly of a candidate from the same regional group – the "Western European and others" group of nations.
Allies fear vacuum
China, Britain and the European Union lamented on Wednesday Washington's decision to withdraw from the human rights body, as Western countries began looking for a substitute for the coveted seat.
Washington's retreat is the latest U.S. rejection of multilateral engagement after it pulled out of the Paris climate agreement and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The U.S. delegation's seat was empty and the nameplate removed at the end of the day.
"It is bad news, it is bad news for this council, it is bad news I think for the United Nations. It is bad news, I think for the United States, it is bad news for everybody who cares about human rights," Slovenian President Borut Pahor told the Geneva forum.
The European Union, Australia and Britain echoed his comments.
"We have lost a member who has been at the forefront of liberty for generations. While we agree with the U.S. on the need for reform, our support for this Human Rights Council remains steadfast, and we will continue to advance the cause of reform from within its ranks," Britain's UNHRC Ambassador Julian Braithwaite said.
Bulgarian envoy Deyana Kostadinova, speaking on behalf of the EU, said the United States had been a "strong partner" at the talks. Its decision "risks undermining the role of the U.S. as a strong advocate and supporter of democracy on the world stage."
China's Foreign Ministry expressed regret, with state media saying the image of the United States as a defender of rights was "on the verge of collapse".
Diplomats have said the U.S. withdrawal could bolster Cuba, Russia, Egypt and Pakistan, which resist what they see as U.N. interference in sovereign issues.
The Western group of countries in the council is expected to discuss the issue at their weekly meeting on Thursday, as a replacement to assume the U.S. term through 2019 will have to be named as soon as possible.
New Zealand, which stepped aside to allow the United States to win election to the Council in 2009 under President Barack Obama, may be a good choice as a replacement, one diplomat said, citing, "There would be a certain symmetry."
Canada and the Netherlands were other possibilities, although no country has stepped forward yet, he said.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley slammed rights groups on Wednesday for thwarting Washington's attempts to reform the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council and said they had contributed to the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the agency.
In a letter to at least 17 rights and aid groups, Haley berated them for urging countries not to support a U.S.-drafted General Assembly resolution titled "Improving the Effectiveness of the Human Rights Council."
"It is unfortunate that your letter sought to undermine our attempts to improve the Human Rights Council. You put yourself on the side of Russia and China, and opposite the United States, on a key human rights issue," Haley wrote.
"You should know that your efforts to block negotiations and thwart reform were a contributing factor in the U.S. decision to withdraw from the council," she said in the letter that was received by groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Human Rights Watch U.N. director Louis Charbonneau said the U.S. draft resolution "could have backfired badly and the process could have been hijacked" by the countries seeking to undermine the Human Rights Council.
"The suggestion that somehow it's the human rights groups that are undermining the U.S. attempts to improve the Human Rights Council is preposterous," he said. "The idea that we human rights groups are aligned with Russia and China – countries that we criticize all the time – is absurd."
Russia's mission to the U.N. in New York tweeted, "U.S. attempts to blame the whole world for the politicization of HRC work are especially cynical. The response of international community was clear – U.S. found themselves isolated in this issue."
