JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel on Thursday said it would not cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Commissions’ investigation into an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza last May, saying the probe is biased.
“It is obvious to my country, as it should be to any fair-minded observer, that there is simply no reason to believe that Israel will receive reasonable, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment from the Council, or from this Commission of Inquiry,” Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, wrote in a letter to the commission’s head, Navi Pillay.
Shortly after the war in May, which began after Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem, the United Nations announced the creation of an unprecedented, open-ended probe into allegations of human rights abuses. At the time, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Israel’s actions, including airstrikes in civilian areas, might have been war crimes.
At least 260 Palestinians, including scores of women and children, were killed, according to Gaza officials. The Hamas terror group, which fired rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilian populations, has admitted that 80 of its members are included in the death toll, but Israel claims that number is higher. Fourteen people, including children, died in Israel.
Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian casualties in Gaza, saying many Hamas rockets were fired from residential neighborhoods.
This UN probe is unprecedented because it goes well beyond the 11-day war in May. It also will investigate allegations of human rights abuses in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank – biblical Judea and Samaria. It is the first probe from the commission to have an “ongoing” mandate.
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Israel sees this as further proof of its long-held accusation that the UN is biased against it. Israel is the only country in the world that is discussed at every session of the Human Rights Council. Israel has raised concerns about who sits on the 47-member council, including countries with poor human rights records like China, Cuba, Eritrea, Pakistan, Venezuela and several Arab states.
In his letter, Shahar also took aim at Pillay, accusing her of personally being biased against Israel.
Pillay, a former judge in South Africa, has supported “the shameful libel” that Israel is an apartheid nation and backed the international Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel.
During an interview in 2017, Pillay said: “The government of Israel really resents a comparison between apartheid South Africa and Israel.”
Pillay has not responded to Israel’s allegations of bias. However, the commission said in a statement to the AP on Thursday that its members “do not intend to make public statements nor publicize their communications between the concerned parties so as to preserve the integrity of the work they are carrying out.”
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