Nikki Haley
Nikki HaleyReuters

Nikki Haley, the United States Ambassador to the UN, will travel to Israel next week and deliver an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, AFP reported Tuesday.

Haley will be the first U.S. ambassador to address the rights council at a session on June 6 that will be followed by a speech on the U.S. role at the council, the U.S. mission said.

From June 7 to 9, Haley will hold meetings with Israeli and Palestinian Arab leaders during her visit to Israel and visit a UN peacekeeping mission in the region.

Since taking office, Haley has made it a priority to end the UN’s anti-Israel bias. Last month, she urged the UN Security Council to devote less attention to the Arab-Israeli conflict and make Iran's "incredibly destructive" activities a priority in the Middle East.

Speaking at the AIPAC policy conference recently, the American ambassador said “there's a new sheriff in town” and vowed that “the days of Israel bashing [at the UN] are over”.

She has condemned a Security Council resolution demanding that Israel halt construction in Judea and Samaria as a "terrible mistake."

Resolution 2334 was adopted after the former administration of President Barack Obama refused to use its veto to block the measure and instead abstained.

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, has criticized the UN Human Rights Council as "corrupt" and there has been speculation that the United States could withdraw from the council.

Countries with questionable human rights records such as China and Saudi Arabia have seats on the UN body.

In her speech at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Haley will "address the benefits and the failings of the Council with respect to the vital mission of defending millions of people against the world's worst cases of human rights abuse," the U.S. statement said.

In Geneva, Haley will also discuss the human rights crisis in Venezuela.

It will be her second visit abroad as ambassador. Last week, she visited Syrian refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shavuot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)