In this photo provided by the United Nations, members of the United Nations Security council vote at the United Nations headquarters on Friday, Dec. 23, 2016, in favor of condemning Israel for its practice of establishing settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. In a striking rupture with past practice, the U.S. allowed the vote, not exercising its veto. (Manuel Elias/The United Nations via AP)

The United Nations (UN) has evidently descended into some alternate universe where up is down and Israel is more a violator of the rights of women than Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, posted this tweet following a resolution passed Thursday condemning Israel for its position on women’s rights.

No Joke: the U.N. just condemned Israel as the world's only violator of women's rights, backed by votes of council members Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & Yemen.https://t.co/s94KsS50gH

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 24, 2019

A piece at UN Watch explains the resolution, which saw only the U.S. and Canada dissent, in greater detail.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Pakistan were among members of the UN’s 54-nation economic and social council, a principal organ of the world body, who voted to single out and condemn Israel yesterday as the only country in the world that violates women’s rights.

The Jewish state was harshly and repeatedly condemned in a resolution, adopted 40 to 2 with 9 abstentions and 3 absent (see breakdown below), for allegedly being the “major obstacle” for Palestinian women “with regard to their advancement, self-reliance, and integration in the development of their society.”

…

The resolution completely ignores how Palestinian women’s rights are impacted by their own governing authorities—the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza—nor does it mention how women are discriminated against within patriarchal Palestinian society.

Moreover, ECOSOC concluded its annual session by ignoring the world’s worst abusers of women’s rights, refusing to pass a single resolution on the situation of women in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, or DR Congo, all of which ranked in the top ten worst countries in last year’s Global Gender Gap Report, produced by the World Economic Forum.

It becomes increasingly clear with each passing day why the images of former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley so often showed her standing alone, hand raised, looking defiant and yet somehow sad, as she negotiated the upside down reality of the UN. Haley did not let Thursday’s resolution go unnoticed on her own personal Twitter account.

It amazes me how the U.N. condones votes like these. It is a total mockery of human rights to allow Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and Yemen to name Israel as the world’s only violator of women’s rights. #Embarrassing https://t.co/VOr20Ma9Po

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) July 25, 2019

Neuer called out the UN for becoming a “theater of the absurd”.

“The UN reached new heights of absurdity by singling out Israel alone on women’s rights, yet saying nothing on Iran holding women’s rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh behind bars, Saudi Arabia jailing and torturing women’s rights activists, and subjugating women under harsh male guardianship laws, or on Yemen denying women hospital treatment without the permission of a male relative,” Neuer said.