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UN Rights Council Orders Inquiry into Israel after Gaza Strife

(New York Times) Nick Cumming-Bruce - Acting in the aftermath of the fighting in Gaza, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday voted 24 to 9, with 14 abstentions, to approve a far-ranging inquiry into Israel's actions. Pakistan's UN ambassador Khalil Hashmi proposed the panel on behalf of the Organization of Islamic States. The resolution creating it does not mention Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups. Israel denounced the decision as a one-sided sham. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized it for not acting against Hamas. "Once again, an immoral automatic majority at the council whitewashes a genocidal terrorist organization that deliberately targets Israeli civilians while turning Gaza's civilians into human shields." European states, which have backed the creation of a dozen commissions of inquiry in the last five years, voted against it or abstained. Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, cited the statement of a senior Hamas leader three days before the start of hostilities urging followers "to cut off the heads of Jews with knives." She said Hamas had fired 4,300 rockets from Palestinian homes, hospitals and schools, indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians. "Each one of these rockets constitutes a war crime."
2021-05-31 00:00:00
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