The United Nations is obsessed with Israel!
They pass resolution after resolution deriding the country and singling it out for opprobrium. They are drunk with lust against it and there are so many voiceless and nameless sufferers around the world who are wondering why they don’t seem to care about their issues. It is just the petite Jewish State that gets them all worked up, so much so that this week, the number one agenda item at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will be the “exclusion of women in Israeli society”.
Sigh!
Oh, Useless Nations, do you not have anything better to do? Your “when in doubt, just blame Israel” approach is getting tiresome and long in the tooth.
Israel is a vibrant democracy where women are very much a part of the fabric that has and continues to build the country every day.
Listen to its women…….
We are pioneers, having built a country with very little natural resources.
We are trailblazers in business, politics, volunteer organisations, the arts and sciences and so much more.
We are religious and secular and everything in between – hey, if you want to spend Shabbat in downward dog contemplating your navel that is okay too! We are warriors and defenders of our country on land, sea, air and airwaves and we are homemakers, entrepreneurs, and creative genii.
We are changing the political landscape and we represent over 80 different ethnicities.
We can vote, drive, own property and run businesses. This may seem basic but I mention this because it is far from a given in many Middle East societies!
We can make decisions that govern our bodies and our communities and if we want to, raise a little hell.
We are free to be who we are, free to choose and free to fight for our rights. In communities where religious doctrines are sometimes prohibitive towards gender rights for women, we are slowly making changes. Yes, a lot of change still needs to happen in these communities where women are often excluded but does it warrant a whole session at the UNHRC at the expense of other gender items that need drastic attention? I think not!
Who speaks for our sisters?
The same cannot be said for many of the other women in our neighbourhood. Women in other parts of the Middle East are not as free as their Israeli sisters and their issues are worth the dedicated sessions and subsequent resolutions. For their lack of rights, you can blame the despotic, theocratic regimes that are in place.
In this part of the world, girls are married off before they reach puberty or are killed because they have ‘dishonoured” their families.
In this part of the world, women do not have the right to own property, vote, get an education or even drive. Gender Apartheid is rife and the unprecedented rise of Daesh (ISIS) with their deathly brand of medieval barbarism is sending women’s rights back to the stone-age.
Silence Is Not Golden – it’s a Disgrace
There are so many women’s rights abuse transgressions around the world and particularly in the Middle East and the United Nations is silent. The Palestinian women in Yarmouk refugee camp who are devastated at the starvation of their children, the Yazidi women being raped and slaughtered, the Christian women being persecuted, the Syrian women who have been subject to civil war need your outrage and help.
Inhumane Women Executions – Iran Human Rights Violations
This obsessive focusing on Israel at the expense of other conflicts around the world is one of the reasons why the United Nations is losing support and credibility.
Stop pointing your finger at Israel and use your considerable platform to give a voice to our suffering sisters. Help those women who you accuse us of discriminating against and whose stories desperately need to be told. They are far more deserving of your attention than we are.
This concerned Israeli woman begs of you to get a little perspective and remember your mandate as an agency for human rights, before it is too late.
