No action was taken against Iran, where girls are stoned to death for allegedly committing adultery, or Syria, where women are indiscriminately tortured, raped, and murdered by the Assad regime. The plight of Saudi Arabian women who are treated as chattel under monarchy-sanctioned gender apartheid was altogether ignored. The United Nations only censured Israel, one of the world’s most progressive defenders of women’s rights, for exclusive and unwarranted opprobrium.

The UN’s preoccupation with Israel will saw one of its own organization’s pass a resolution decrying that the “Israeli occupation” in territories, including east Jerusalem, is the main obstacle for the advancement of Palestinian woman. Not a peep from the UN about the internal Palestinian conditions that stymie female self-determination. Israel’s envoy to the UN, Ron Proser, rightly proclaimed that this council’s resolution “bring levels of absurdity and cynicism to new heights.”

Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East and stalwart protector of women, is cast by the UN as the foremost oppressor of women. In a region where the terms “Middle East” and “women’s rights” are contradictory and not complimentary, Israel stands out as a beacon for the rights of women, not its serial abuser.

It’s no wonder that when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly this past September, he referred to the UN as “a house of many lies” and a “theatre of the absurd.” A place where “Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined” and where Israel is “not only cast as the villain, but where real villains are cast in leading roles.”

To support his argument, Netanyahu pointed out how Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights under Gaddafi’s ruthless and tyrannical rein. He referred to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq which headed the UN committee on disarmament and how the UN described the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest accessible site as “occupied Palestinian territory”.

In a place where automatic majorities decide anything, it’s no wonder that also this week another UN organ body, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) approved a resolution to keep Syria on the agency’s human rights committee. Talk about farcical.  A leading violator of human rights which has by some estimates killed close to 7,500 of its own people, sits on a UN committee tasked with instilling, nurturing, and enforcing international human rights.

In reality, Israel’s sterling record on women’s rights stands in sharp contrast to the sordid history of its Arab neighbour’s treatment of its own females. Israeli women like the late Prime Minister Golda Meir and current head of the Kadima political party, Tzipi Livni, have led their country with distinguished honour. Israel recently ranked 11th place among 59 developed countries for the participation of women in the workplace. Israeli women serve in Israel’s independent judiciaries, civil service and public sectors, and are leaders in the business and labour communities, all while serving important roles in the Israel Defense Forces. Next week in fact, Israeli women will take part in the “Slutwalk” protest. In a show of solidarity, Israeli women are joining this peaceful protest movement that started in Canada in response to a policeman’s comment that to avoid being attacked, women shouldn’t dress like “sluts”.

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