UN keeps head in the sand on Israel

Right now, there are 6,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Of those, 500 are on rolling administrative orders... Right now, 1,500 Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike. Why? They want basic rights, such as telephones, to be able to call their families better healthcare and an end to the use of arbitrary solitary confinement...

The demands are reasonable and just. Were such abuses to be inflicted on an incarcerated prison population anywhere else in the world, there would be a deafening outcry. One would normally expect that bodies such as the United Nations, which are meant to focus on such statesponsored injustices, would be broadcasting the cause, making statements of condemnation, and doing the utmost to end such travesty of justice and abuses of judicial, custodial, administrative and psychological powers. But it’s the UN and the silence is indeed deafening.

So why the silence? The answer is: Israel. And the relationship between Israel and the UN is indeed a cosy one. On Sunday, in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the World Jewish Congress he will stand up to antiIsraeli bias and that Israel must be treated like any other state. No, Mr Guterres, you are wrong. Israel is like no other state. And as long as it commits such injustices, it deserves isolation.

— Gulf News