Israel is that rare thing in the Middle East: a liberal democracy. It is a close ally of the West, it has a vibrant and innovative economy, and all Israeli citizens enjoy equal rights under the law. At present, an Israeli Arab party is even part of the country’s coalition government.

To Israel’s critics, however, this counts for nothing. The hard-Left seems to be obsessed with Israel, behaviour that borders on anti-Semitic. NGOs such as Amnesty International devote questionable amounts of attention to the country, some say to the detriment of their work on egregious human rights abusers such as Russia and China.

Now, the UN’s Special Rapporteur, Michael Lynk, has joined in, saying that the Israeli state is guilty of “apartheid”. Israel argues that his criticisms are baseless and are part of an ongoing effort to delegitimise and criminalise the country.

One of the problems with claims such as Mr Lynk’s is that they ignore the context of the situation. Israel is committed to a peace deal with the Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership, however, has shown no desire for peace and refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Israeli state. They rejected the plans put together by President Trump’s officials as a “conspiracy”. Moreoever, Israel continues to face murderous attacks launched by Palestinian terrorists.

It is therefore perverse for the UN – or at least one of its apparatchiks – to so openly take the side of Israel’s enemies. Rather than pumping out dubious reports making hysterical and repugnant claims, everyone would be better served if they did something practical to make peace in the Middle East a reality.