Libby muslim leaning UN votes to investigate ISRAEL for war crimes against godle
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https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/watch-unhrc-to-call-for-arms-embargo-against-israel-along-with-war-crimes-probe-669361UN creates permanent probe on Israeli Gaza war crimes, calls for embargo
It would mark the first time that the UNHRC created a permanent fact-finding mission with respect to any UN member state.
By TOVAH LAZAROFF MAY 27, 2021 23:35Email Twitter Facebook fb-messenger
Overview of the Human Rights Council one day after the U.S. announced their withdraw at the United Nations in Geneva, (photo credit: DENIS BALIBOUSE/REUTERS)
Overview of the Human Rights Council one day after the U.S. announced their withdraw at the United Nations in Geneva,
(photo credit: DENIS BALIBOUSE/REUTERS)
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The United Nations Human Rights Council voted 24-9 Thursday to permanently investigate Israel for war crimes and called for an arms embargo against it.
An additional 14 countries, out of the 47-member body abstained, giving the resolution a slim majority of one. None of the European Union countries supported the measure.
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Those that opposed it were: Austria, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Germany, Malawi, Marshall Islands, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.
Those who abstained were: Bahamas, Brazil, Denmark, Fiji, France, India, Italy, Japan, Nepal, Netherlands, Poland, Republic of Korea, Togo, and Ukraine.
It marks the first time that the UNHRC created a permanent fact-finding mission with respect to any UN member state. Israel’s Foreign Minister immediately stated that it had no intention of cooperating with the probe.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated: “Today’s shameful decision is yet another example of the UN Human Rights Council’s blatant anti-Israel obsession.
“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.
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“This while depicting as the ‘guilty party’ a democracy acting legitimately to protect its citizens from thousands of indiscriminate rocket attacks. This travesty makes a mockery of international law and encourages terrorists worldwide,” he said.
Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli also called it a "shameful decision."
"The State of Israel has the full right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism. I trust the Israeli legal system and condemn the UNHRC for its shameful decision," she said.
"This is an additional reminder to Israeli citizens that we must act to change the strategy that Netanyahu has chosen, to stop transferring the suitcases of money and to work to weaken Hamas," Michaeli added.
In the debate that preceded the vote, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet warned that Israeli actions may already constitute “war crimes.”
The “commission of inquiry” would examine incidents that occurred both before and after April 13, 2021. The decision to call for such a probe was sparked by the 11-day IDF-Hamas war and was submitted by the Palestinian Authority and Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The UNHRC already calls annually for an arms embargo against Israel. Its insertion is in addition to that annual text.
This new text “urges all States to refrain from transferring arms when they assess, in accordance with applicable national procedures and international obligations and standards, that there is a clear risk that such arms might be used in the commission or facilitation of serious violations or abuses of international human rights law or serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
The actual resolution does not mention Israel or Hamas and instead speaks of those who violate international law, such that the commission of inquiry could decide to investigate both Israeli and Palestinian sides.
But the language in the resolution as well as the speeches that were given at the UNHRC, plus the fact that it was filed by the Palestinians makes it clear that the intent was to focus on Israel.
The United States said it was “deeply unfortunate” that the vote occurred “while we and others have been working to uphold and strengthen the ceasefire, ensure humanitarian assistance to Gaza.” It’s Geneva mission added that creation of a probe “threatens to imperil the progress that has been made in recent weeks... We will continue to advocate for Israel to be treated fairly in the Human Rights Council.”
Germany took issue with an “indefinite” commission of inquiry that would “far exceed” any past fact-finding probes.
The UNHRC began its special session at 10 a.m. Geneva time, where it met, and ended over eight hours later. Dozens of envoys took the floor. The United States is not a member of the UNHRC, but it is engaged as an observer. Yet it was absent from the proceedings.
During the debate Bachelet agreed that Hamas caused deaths and injuries in southern Israel and that its “rockets are indiscriminate and fail to distinguish between military and civilian objects, and their use, thereby, constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law.” Such violations include Hamas’s launching of the rockets from civilian areas, she said.
“However, the actions of one party do not absolve the other from its obligations under international law,” Bachelet explained, nor did she accuse Hamas of potential war crimes.
Bachelet cast doubt on Israel’s claim that the buildings it destroyed in Gaza were Hamas targets, explaining that “we have not seen evidence in this regard.”
She added, “there is no doubt that Israel has the right to defend its citizens and residents. However, Palestinians have rights too. The same rights.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Meirav Eilon Shahar said that Hamas was a “Jihadist, genocidal, terrorist organization” which had confiscated for humanitarian assistance designated for hospitals and schools for military purposes. Hamas has called on all Muslims to kill Jews and uses Palestinian women and children as human shields, Eilon Shahar said.
“Hamas’s complete disregard for Palestinian lives worked” because the international community is willing “to blame Israel for every death and because of the inaction by the International Community to ensure Hamas’s arsenal is dismantled,” Eilon Shahar said.
She took issue with the false moral equivalence of comparing Hamas and Israel, when factually speaking, “an immoral equivalence, between Israel, a democracy that seeks peace and abides by international law, and a murderous, extreme terrorist organization.”
Those who support the Palestinians should condemn Hamas, Eilon Shahar said. UNHRC “member states must decide today. You have to decide! Are you pro-Palestinian or pro-Hamas? You cannot be both,” Eilon Shahar said.
“You cannot be pro-Palestinian if you do not condemn Hamas for using its own people, the Palestinian people, as human shields. You cannot be pro-Palestinian if you continue to allow Hamas to use international aid to build terror infrastructure beneath schools, residential buildings, and hospitals,” Eilon Shahar said.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki said that what was a false equation was to believe that the rights of the victims, the Palestinians, were equivalent to those of the aggressor, Israel.
“We refuse to equate between the colonizer and the colonized,” Malki said. “The right to self defense and the right to resist occupation is a right that we have,” Malki said. Last week he explained the Palestinians “sought to defend our land, to defend our holy sites and we believe in victory.”
Malki spoke not just of Gaza but of Israeli action in Jerusalem, where he accused it of attempting to displace Palestinians and evict them from the city so that the neighborhoods they live in could be transformed to Jewish ones.
He charged that Israel was a cowardly racist regime that kills children and blamed the international community for encouraging it to pursue war crimes and create an “apartheid regime.”
The root of the violence, he said, was Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian territory, he said.
Settlers should be put on the terror list and political and economic sanctions to be imposed on Israel until its ends its “occupation,” Malki said.
