The UK has announced that it will vote against all future UN Human Rights Council resolutions on Israel’s conduct in the occupied territories unless the body ends its “disproportion and bias” against the Jewish state.

In what has been praised as a “moral breakthrough”, the UK’s mission to the UN institution put out an unprecedented statement saying it was putting the council “on notice” over its bias against Israel.

“Israel is a population of eight million in a world of seven billion,” the statement said.

“Yet since its foundation, the Human Rights Council has adopted 135 country-specific resolutions; 68 of which against Israel.

“Justice is blind and impartial. This selective focus on Israel is neither.”  

The statement also pointed out that “Israel is the only country permanently on the Human Rights Council’s agenda.

“Indeed when the Council voted to include Israel as a permanent item in 2007 – the so-called agenda Item 7 – it was Ban Ki-moon who expressed his deep disappointment “given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world.”

On Friday the UK voted against a resolution “on the occupation of Syria’s Golan”, but said that they did not recognise Israel’s annexation of that territory.

“Nowhere is the disproportionate focus on Israel starker and more absurd than in the case of today’s resolution on the occupation of Syria’s Golan,” the mission’s statement read.

“Syria’s regime butchers and murders its people on a daily basis. But it is not Syria that is a permanent standing item on the Council’s agenda; it is Israel.

“We cannot accept the perverse message sent out by a Syria Golan resolution that singles out Israel, as Assad continues to slaughter the Syrian people.”

Hillel Neuer, Executive of UN Watch in Geneva, tweeted: “Moral breakthrough: UK changes historic position, breaks with EU, votes NO @UN_HRC's absurd Golan resolution. Win for Israel, bad for Assad.”

Jonathan Arkush, President of the UK Board of Deputies praised the statement as “a hugely significant step by the UK Government.

“We would like to thank the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary for showing this international leadership”, he said.

“Human rights is not served by an body so clearly partisan that its judgements cannot be taken seriously, so the UK's decision represents a clear victory for both fairness and human rights."