The recent terrorist attack in Manchester has been greeted with outrage throughout the West. But fifteen years ago, similar attacks were deemed justifiable by the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC). Michael Rubin writes:
In an April 15, 2002 vote, 40 countries—including Austria, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden—agreed that Palestinians could engage “all available means, including armed struggle” to establish a Palestinian state. That UNHRC resolution enshrined the right to conduct suicide bombing in international humanitarian law. After all, many academics, diplomats, and human-rights activists argue that the UN and its human-rights wings set the precedent that becomes the foundation for international humanitarian and human-rights law.
When the Human Rights Commission voted, Israel was weathering a months-long suicide bombing campaign that, at its height, saw multiple bombings of buses, cafes, and other public areas every week. . . . European diplomats and many academics may hold their noses and sneer at Israel and attacks on its citizens. A German court recently even ruled that the firebombing of a local synagogue was not anti-Semitic but rather an expression of anti-Israel protest. But they should recognize that Israel is not a pariah to isolate and condemn but rather the canary in the coal mine for the civilized world.
Violence that they legitimize inside Israel or against Jews will not be limited to Israel. Legitimacy is easy to grant, but once granted, it . . . is hard to take away.
Read more on Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/manchester-bombing-highlights-un-hypocrisy-on-terror/article/2623901