WORLD’S DEMOCRACIES ABSENT AT ANNUAL ISRAEL-BASHING DEBATE: The world’s democracies collectively snubbed the UN Human Rights Council’s annual condemnation of Israel in Geneva on 19 June 2017 when none of their representatives attended the council’s presentation and debate on “Item 7” - a permanent agenda item focused on the “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.” The seats of all the democratic nations represented on the council were empty for the duration of the discussion, sparking protests from Arab countries. In an address to the council on 6 June 2017, USA Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley charged that “Item 7 is a scandalous provision that must be removed.” Hillel Neuer - executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch NGO said, “The democracies are absent to protest prejudice - because this is the only agenda item that singles out one specific state, the Jewish state. Not Syria, Sudan or North Korea is treated this way.” Nonetheless, the absence of these countries did not prevent routine denunciations of Israel, with serial human rights abusers like Syria, Lebanon and Venezuela attacking Israel’s human rights record and depicting it as the “greatest threat to peace in the Middle East.” (Algemeiner) Continue to pray that UN anti-Israel bias will be confronted and overcome in all UN branches.