U.N. Human Rights Council Votes To Adopt Gaza War Report
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The United Nations Human Rights Council voted to adopt a report on last summer’s Israel-Gaza conflict.
The resolution to adopt the report passed Friday by a vote of 41 to one, with five abstentions. The United States was the only county to vote against the resolution.
India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Paraguay and Macedonia abstained. India has traditionally voted for all anti-Israel resolutions.
While the report accused both sides of possible war crimes, its findings focused more on what it considers Israeli wrongdoing in its operation known as Protective Edge.
The resolution drafted by the Arab states, which calls for the implementation of the report and its recommendations, ignores the report’s criticism of the Palestinians and does not mention rockets launched by Hamas from Gaza on Israel. The resolution also calls for Israeli officials to be held responsible for alleged war crimes.
“The UN Human Rights Council is not interested in the facts and is not really interested in human rights,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the vote. “On the day on which Israel was fired at from Sinai, and at a time when ISIS is committing vicious terrorist attacks in Egypt, as Assad slaughters his people in Syria and as the number of arbitrary executions per annum climbs in Iran – the UN Human Rights Council decides to condemn the State of Israel for no fault of its own, for acting to defend itself from a murderous terrorist organization.”
“The council that has hitherto adopted more decisions against Israel than against all other countries cannot call itself a human rights council,” Netanyahu said.
Israel and the United States boycotted the Human Rights Council session that discussed the report, which focused more on Israel’s role in the conflict and accepted Palestinian casualty figures. Israel did not cooperate in the investigation, saying the commission was biased against Israel.
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