Is there any country worse than Israel? from Planck's Constant

The Queen of Hearts
Photo by: Halloween Scene

The year was 1951 and I was only a few months past my 6th birthday when I fell in love with Disney's animated feature Alice in Wonderland. The previous year I had seen my first Disney film, Cinderella, and I thought that was the best thing I had ever seen in my 6 years of life, but now this Alice - this was mesmerizing.

The lunacy of Wonderland was intoxicating with characters and scenes popping up here and there with no sense or reason; I shivered as Alice struggled through the menacing forest; I couldn't take my ears off the mentholated purring of the Cheshire Cat; I strained to decipher the gibble-gabble of the Mad Hatter and his friends; I was a thrall to my seat throughout the film.

One thing that children are most sensitive to is the unfairness of adults. We want to stay up all night but mom says no. We want to eat ice cream and push away the broccoli but dad says we can only get to enjoy ice cream after we clean the plate. We want to run with scissors and swing wooden swords at our little brother but nanny takes away our weapons. So what I remember most starkly and what has remained riveted in my mind to this day was the ridiculously unfair trial of Alice by the tyrannical Queen of Hearts.

If you recall, the Queen summons the March Hare, the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse as witnesses against Alice and they end up holding an absurd, unbirthday party for her.

So now, whenever the UN demands, "Off with her head," in regard to Israel, no matter who's at fault, I am reminded of Alice in Wonderland.

The UN Human Rights Council was established on 15 Mar 2006. By April of 2007 the Council had passed nine resolutions condemning Israel and had been the only country the UN Human Rights Council had specifically condemned [Wiki].

Come on now, just on a practical level, more people die in Darfur in one month than Palestinians in the entire 8 years past, yet the Sudan, a country with egregious human rights abuses gets a pass from the Council with only an expressed "deep concern." Does that make any sense at all?

And it's not just the Sudan that is ignored by the HRC:

Washington Post, 25 Jun 2007, A Shadow on the Human Rights Movement
... the council chose to establish one permanent and special agenda item: the "human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories." In other words, Israel (or "Palestine," in the council's terminology), alone among the nations of the world, will be subjected to continual and open-ended examination. That's in keeping with the record of the council's first year: Eleven resolutions were directed at the Jewish state. None criticized any other government.

Genocide in Sudan, child slavery and religious persecution in China, mass repression in Zimbabwe and Burma, state-sponsored murder in Syria and Russia -- and, for that matter, suicide bombings by Arab terrorist movements -- will not receive systematic attention from the world body charged with monitoring human rights. That is reserved only for Israel, a democratic country that has been guilty of human rights violations but also has been under sustained assault from terrorists and governments openly committed to its extinction.

Remarkably, Irwin Cotler, Canada's former Minister of Justice was similarly reminded of Alice in regard to the HRC:

Israpundit, Cotler attacks the United Nations
In one week, at a meeting of the Human Rights Council, it did the following; it replaced John Duggard, who is the special rappatuer for Israel human rights violations in the occupied territories. I am not saying that the UN shouldn’t investigate human rights violations in the occupied territories. I am saying that the mandate is only to look into violations by Israel in the occupied territories. At the same time there is a special permanent UN Agenda item called Human Rights Violations by Israel in the occupied territories, and another one for the rest of the world.

In other words only one country is singled out for an Alice in Wonderland condemnation before the hearing takes place, under the auspices of the UN. The special rappatuer, John Duggard, who likened Israel to an apartheid state. You may not appreciate the seriousness of likening Israel to an apartheid state, is the cognoscenti of the UN and you should know that these meetings are attended by all kinds of people who are all exposed to this denunciation. In the lexicon of the International Criminal Court Treaty, an apartheid state is a criminal state that warrants being dismantled. All those who support that state are also seen to be complicit in the commission of a crime against humanity.

Is there any country worse than Israel? Not to the UNHRC. The March Hare, the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse are now running the Human Rights Council. Perhaps it's time to host an unbirthday party for the United nations?