Israel Threatens To Quit U.N. Rights Panel
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reportedly said he might recall Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council after the council voted 36-1 to to investigate the effects of Jewish settlements on Palestinians.
Lieberman also said Israel would not cooperate with the fact-finding mission established by the council to probe settlements, the Jerusalem Post reported.
On Thursday, the council passed a resolution, with 10 abstentions, to investigate how Israeli settlement construction affects Palestinian human rights. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.
“This is a hypocritical council with an automatic majority against Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. “This council ought to be ashamed of itself.”
The Israeli leader noted that the council has made 91 decisions, 39 of which dealt with Israel, three with Syria and one with Iran.
“One only had to hear the Syrian representative speak today about human rights in order to understand how detached from reality the council is,” he said.
The decision requires the council to “dispatch an independent international fact-finding mission, to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council, to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.” The mission will generate a report for the council.
The council on Thursday approved five resolutions critical of Israel, including implementing the Goldstone report on the Gaza war and criticizing Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights.
The resolution on the settlements, which calls on Israel to cooperate in the investigation, also called on Israel to prevent settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
A U.S. representative to the council said the U.S. is “deeply troubled by this council’s bias against Israel.”
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