In a bold and decisive move, Israel has officially announced its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), following the lead of the United States. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar delivered a scathing rebuke of the Council’s longstanding anti-Israel bias, declaring that the Jewish state will no longer lend credibility to an organization that has persistently demonized and vilified it since the Council's inception in 2006.
A Council of Hypocrisy and Double Standards
In a letter addressed to UNHRC President Jorg Lauber, which he shared publicly on the social media platform X, Sa’ar minced no words in condemning the Council for its systematic and disproportionate targeting of Israel while providing a protective shield to some of the world’s worst human rights violators.
“The decision to withdraw stems from the Council’s relentless, institutionalized bias against Israel,” Sa’ar wrote. “This is an organization that claims to champion human rights, yet it routinely shelters serial abusers while obsessively singling out the only democracy in the Middle East for condemnation.”
Sa’ar went further, accusing the UNHRC of actively advancing antisemitic rhetoric, undermining Israel’s right to exist, and emboldening terrorist organizations by legitimizing their narratives.
I informed the UNHRC that Israel will no longer participate in it. The "human rights" council has consistently enabled countries that abuse human rights to evade scrutiny, while obsessively pursuing Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. Joining @POTUS President Trump's… pic.twitter.com/wMYHte2dv0
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) February 6, 2025
A Platform for Dictators and Tyrants
The Israeli Foreign Minister also lambasted the Council’s failure to hold actual human rights violators accountable.
“This body grants impunity to the world’s most egregious human rights abusers, allowing them to evade scrutiny while fixating obsessively on Israel. The Council does not promote human rights—it facilitates oppression by sanctioning despots and attacking democratic nations,” he declared.
Highlighting the extent of the Council’s anti-Israel agenda, Sa’ar pointed to the discriminatory treatment that Israel has been subjected to for nearly two decades. “No other country in the world has a permanent agenda item dedicated solely to scrutinizing and condemning it. Israel has been the target of over 100 condemnatory resolutions—more than 20% of all resolutions ever passed by the Council. This is more than the combined total against Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela—regimes known for their gross human rights abuses.”
Following the U.S. in Rejecting UNHRC’s Legitimacy
Israel’s decision mirrors the United States’ previous withdrawal from the UNHRC under then-President Donald Trump. In 2018, the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the Council, citing its extreme bias against Israel and its failure to hold notorious human rights violators accountable. Trump’s administration also cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a primary body aiding Palestinian refugees, citing its role in perpetuating anti-Israel propaganda and aiding entities with ties to terrorism.
US OUT OF UNHRC, CEASES UNRWA FUNDS, TO REVIEW UN FUNDING
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) February 4, 2025
WATCH: President Trump signs an Executive Order to:
1. Remove the US from the UN Human Rights Council
2. Stop US funding of UNRWA
3. Review US funds to the UN generally pic.twitter.com/RsJAze6OiD
Standing Firm Against Global Hypocrisy
Israel’s withdrawal from the UNHRC marks yet another chapter in its unwavering stance against international organizations that seek to delegitimize and isolate the Jewish state. With this move, Israel sends a clear message: it will no longer participate in or lend legitimacy to an institution that has abandoned its core mission of protecting human rights in favor of perpetuating political bias and spreading antisemitic propaganda.
The Jewish state remains resolute in its commitment to human rights and democracy, but it will not tolerate an international body that enables oppression, emboldens terrorists, and systematically undermines Israel’s right to exist. The world must now ask itself: how much longer will the UNHRC be allowed to masquerade as a defender of human rights while serving as a platform for tyrants and dictators?
