Itongadol.- Israel is under heavy international pressure to attend a review by a United Nations agency scheduled for Tuesday in Geneva. On Friday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle sent a personal letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that Israel’s failure to attend the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review would cause the country severe diplomatic damage and Israel’s allies around the world would be hard-pressed to help it.
Israel has boycotted the Geneva-based agency since March 2012. Then Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman severed ties with the council in wake of the agency’s decision to convene an international inquiry into Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Every few years, each UN member state undergoes a UPR, in which the Human Rights Council evaluates its performance in upholding human rights. The UPR is a fundamental component of the human-rights regime internationally.
If Israeli representatives fail to report for Tuesday\’s review, it will become the first state to boycott the review process, exposing it to international criticism as well as blame for creating a precedent that states such as Iran, Syria and North Korea might follow.
Westerwelle’s letter to Netanyahu was delivered to Emmanuel Nahshon, deputy chief of the Israeli embassy in Berlin, with the instruction that the prime minister receive it as soon as possible.
In the letter, the contents of which were obtained by Haaretz, Westerwelle acknowledged Israel’s difficult position in the Human Rights Council and emphasized Germany’s efforts to keep Israel from being unfairly singled out in the agency’s deliberations, but warned of the serious consequences in the event that it refuses to attend its UPR.