Australia recently changed its position and abstained on two UN resolutions against Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. A spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the shift comes because Australia will not support "one-sided" resolutions that "pre-judge the outcome" of peace talks.
Sharyn Mittelman, senior analyst at Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, noted in the Canberra Times that the UN General Assembly by the end of its annual legislative session is expected to enact 22 resolutions condemning Israel, as opposed to 4 on the rest of the world combined.
Only one resolution condemns the Syrian war that has killed over 120,000 and created 2.2 million refugees.
Mittelman further points out that the resolutions Australia abstained on did not include any demands on the Palestinian Authority (PA) regarding terrorism, acknowledging Israel's right to exist, or any other issue. The US and Canada voted against the resolutions.
Bishop's spokesman criticized the UN resolutions, saying Australian's abstention "reflected the (Australian) government's concern that Middle East resolutions should be balanced."
UN condemnation of Israel reached has the point that recently a UN interpreter was caught on an open mic expressing shock at the excessive criticism.
The interpreter said "I mean, I think when you have five statements, not five, like a total of ten resolutions on Israel and Palestine, there's gotta be something, c'est un peu trop, non? [It's a bit much, no?] I mean I know... There's other really bad stuff happening [around the world], but no one says anything, about the other stuff."
Meanwhile on Sunday an unnamed Israeli official announced that Israel has been accepted to join the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) under its Western European and Others Group (WEOG).
The acceptance is an about-face for UNHRC, which in its 5 year history has condemned Israel 46 times, far more than any other nation in the world.