Israel on Saturday blasted the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling the institution "a sham" and "a farce" for passing no fewer than five resolutions critical of the Jewish state over its attitude toward Palestinians.
Two more "country-specific" resolutions focused on Syria, where hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been displaced in the country's ongoing seven-year civil war. Documented Human rights violators South Sudan, Myanmar, Iran and North Korea elicited one critical resolution each.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tweet Saturday that the motions were "Yet more resolutions detached from reality by the circus of the absurd known as the Human Rights Council."
He suggested that the 47-member body change its name to "the Council for Resolutions Against the Only Democracy in the Middle East."
The council currently includes member states with checkered human rights records, including Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nachshon blasted the council over the weekend, saying it was "a sham and a mockery of the noble purposes it pretends to represent."
"It is an exclusively anti-Israel platform, manipulated by bloodthirsty dictatorships hiding their own massive human rights violations by attacking Israel," Nachshon tweeted.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Friday also railed against the rights council, saying that "when the Human Rights Council treats Israel worse than North Korea, Iran and Syria, it is the council itself that is foolish and unworthy of its name."
"When that happens, as it did today [Friday], the council fails to fulfill its duty to uphold human rights around the world," Haley continued.
It is time for "the countries who know better to demand changes," she said, adding that many countries agree the council's agenda "is grossly biased against Israel, but too few are willing to fight it."
Haley said the Trump administration was still evaluating its continued membership in the Human Rights Council.
"Our patience is not unlimited," she said. "Today's actions make clear that the organization lacks the credibility needed to be a true advocate for human rights."
Nine months ago, Haley assailed the human rights body demanding an end to its bias against Israel and raising the prospect of a U.S. pullout if it didn't.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a tweet that Israel "has no business being in the U.N.'s Human Rights Council."
He said Israel's "presence there gives legitimacy to … anti-Semitic resolutions and the farce must end."
The Palestinian Authority welcomed the motions as a "rejection of the language of blackmail and threats."
"The U.N. Human Rights Council's vote reflects a global position that upholds a just and comprehensive solution in the region, a solution that the Palestinian leadership believes in and strives to implement," a PA spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
