The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to convene on Tuesday to debate issues pertaining to the Middle East, and the Israeli delegation was bracing for blowback over a recently passed law defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
On Monday, a preview of what can be expected at Tuesday's UNSC meeting came at a meeting of the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which convened at the U.N. headquarters to discuss the controversial Israeli law.
The Palestinian Authority's representative in the U.N. Riyad Mansour said, "the radical right-wing government has passed a law declaring that Israel is not a state of all its citizens by giving members of a particular religion preference."
Mansour called the law "racist, and another step toward apartheid."
"I intend to discuss the matter at length in the Security Council," he added.
Last week, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein criticized the law, saying it "anchors inherent discrimination against non-Jewish communities," most notably the Arab citizens of Israel and residents of east Jerusalem.
Al Hussein, a Jordanian prince, warned that it "could also further inflame tensions."
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon was outraged by the criticism of Israel's nation-state law, calling it "hypocrisy."
"The Palestinian leadership and the U.N. human rights commissioner are the last ones who can preach morality to the only democracy in the Middle East," he said. "Spreading lies won't change the fact that Israel is a strong democracy."
Meanwhile, Al Hussein also had criticism for Israel over its response to ongoing protests along the Gaza border, calling deaths of protesters "shocking."
In a video address to the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on Monday, Al Hussein said that the situation in Gaza, with near daily clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists, has escalated dramatically in recent months with "the potential to generate threats to peace across a far broader region."
Al Hussein said it was essential for all parties to cooperate with the independent, international commission of inquiry that will investigate the recent deadly events in Gaza. He said that his office was helping to establish this commission of inquiry.
The inquiry was authorized by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on May 18 "to advance accountability" for the killings and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, he said.
Al Hussein said there are "serious concerns" that Israeli accountability mechanisms don't comply with international standards of "independence, impartiality, and effectiveness."
He added that the situation in Gaza might be "severely aggravated" in the coming months by the financial crisis facing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, as a result of dramatic cuts to its budget by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Al Hussein also criticized Israel's approval, planning and construction of settlements across Judea and Samaria and in east Jerusalem.
