The resolution passed Friday by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is “politically motivated, factually disconnected and morally flawed,” Israeli diplomat Nelly Shiloh said in a speech to the committee prior to the vote.
The vote on the last day of the commission’s two-week meeting was one of four draft resolutions acted on and the only one to single out a country.
Titled the “Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women,” the resolution sponsored by the Palestinian Authority and South Africa passed by a vote of 27-2 with 13 abstentions. Israel and the United States voted against the measure; the abstentions were countries from the European Union.
According to the resolution, “the Israeli occupation remains the major obstacle for Palestinian women with regard to their advancement, self-reliance and integration in the development of their society.” It also said that “Palestinian women and girls still face significant obstacles in accessing basic services, health care, psychosocial support, water and sanitation, justice institutions and economic opportunities.”
Shiloh called the resolution “an injustice to Palestinian women, whose true oppressors remain unmentioned in the text before you. Palestinian women face an extraordinary culture of violence, discrimination and oppression under their own leadership.”
She added, “The situation is even worse for Palestinians living under Hamas – an internationally recognized terrorist organization – that endorses spousal rape and honor killings.
“Singling out Israel for condemnation among all the nations of the Middle East – and the nations of the world – is not only unfair, it is absurd.”