Choice of new UN human rights chief worries Israel

 Last update - 04:10 05/07/2008       
Israel lobbies UN as Ban mulls appointment of new human rights chief
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press

Officials in Jerusalem are anxiously anticipating the United Nations' upcoming appointment of a new human rights commissioner to replace Louise Arbour, the Canadian jurist and former Supreme Court judge who stepped down earlier this week.

 

As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon interviews prospective candidates, Israeli officials are attempting to exert their influence in the hopes the world body taps a figure whom Jerusalem perceives as non-hostile.

 

Two candidates in particular are worrisome from Israel's standpoint - Luis Alfonso de Alba, a Mexican diplomat who has expressed anti-Israel views in years past; and the Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, who aroused Jerusalem's ire after paying an official visit to Iran earlier this year.
 
Despite past differences of opinion on a host of issues, Israeli officials have conducted an open, continuous dialogue with Arbour during the last three years of her tenure. The high point of the relationship came two years ago, when Arbour visited Sderot and declared Palestinian firing of Qassam rockets as a war crime. During her stay, Arbour witnessed first hand a Qassam directly strike a factory in the city.

 

East Timor's president said last week he would not take a new job as the UN human rights commissioner, citing possible political instability in his fledgling democracy.

 

Jose Ramos-Horta told political leaders last week he had already accepted the job, but explained in the capital, Dili, that he had changed his mind.

 

Ban said last week that he had spoken to several candidates to replace Arbour.