Despite ‘Biased Treatment’, Israel Seeks To Renew Ties with U.N. Human Rights Council

By JTA June 7, 2013

Israel has asked to resume its ties with the United Nations Human Rights Council a year after severing ties with the body, an Israeli paper reported.

“I have been instructed to write to you and, in response to your latest letter of 14 May 2013, re-affirm my intention to continue our close and fruitful dialogue,” Eviatar Manor, Israel’s ambassador to U.N. bodies based in Geneva, said in a letter written last month and quoted Friday by The Jerusalem.

“Moreover, I wish to cooperate with you and pursue a diplomatic engagement with a view to positively resolve all outstanding issues in Israel’s complex relationship with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms,” Manor reportedly wrote.

Israel broke its ties to the Council in March 2012, to protest what Israel called “biased treatment.” The Obama administration also describes the council as heavily biased against Israel, but has preferred engagement with the body as a means of moderating it.

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