New York, NY, August 11, 2006 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today denounced the UN Human Rights Council for passing a resolution which falsely accuses Israel of massacring thousands of civilians in Lebanon while ignoring Hezbollah's barrage of rocket attacks against Israeli cities and use of human shields.

"The Human Rights Council has adopted wholesale a false and one-sided narrative," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "By ignoring Hezbollah's targeting of Israeli civilians and hiding their own military caches among Lebanese women, children, the elderly and the infirm, the Council provides them with political cover to continue their vicious assaults."

Mr. Foxman added that, "the Council is continuing the infamous tradition of its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, with an obsessive focus upon Israel spearheaded by states who are among the worst human rights violators in the world."

The ADL leader commended Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom "for rejecting this heinous resolution."

By a vote of 27 to 11, with 8 abstentions, the Council approved the resolution proposed by a group of Arab and Islamic states, with the support of Russia, China, South Africa and Cuba. The resolution accuses Israel of systematically targeting civilians and their infrastructure and of violating the Geneva Conventions.  The resolution makes no mention of Hezbollah's crossing of an internationally recognized border to murder and take hostages, nor of Article 51 of the UN Charter enshrining the inherent right of a Member State to defend itself against an armed attack, nor of Hezbollah's refusal to disarm in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.