Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Damascus, SANA _ The Syrian UN Association has denounced choosing an Israeli to vice-chair a UN committee dealing with issues of refugees and human rights.
Mordehai Amihai, an Israeli, won the appointment to represent the Western European and Other Groups voting bloc on the 4th (Decolonization) Committee with 74 votes, with a staunch backing from the US, Britain and Canada.
Dr. George Habash, president of the Association lambasted in an interview with SANA the glaring paradox in the appointment as the “Committee is tasked with issues related to fighting colonization, be it in the Syrian Golan or the Palestinian territories,” adding that it amounted to being a defiance of Palestine before regional groups at the UN.
“Israel is not even European,” he protested. “Placing Israel in the list of European countries is plain wrongdoing, unless we are supposed to consider it a European country planted in the Arab region. Therefore, it is a colonizing entity.”
Israel has managed to take an advantage of loophole in the electoral rules of the General Assembly, with the Western Europe Group only nominating Israelis, effectively making it impossible to elect a non-Israeli.
Voting, therefore, proceeded by either being in favor or abstention, which is, however, not counted in vote-counting.
The appointment of an Israeli has drawn fire from the Arab states, including Lebanon, Libya and Egypt which also registered their objections.
M. Ismael
