Israel is condemning the United Nations Human Rights Council for accusing Israel of ‘war crimes’ and for initiating a commission to investigate the matter. Netanyahu called the UNHRC a ‘kangaroo court’ and said that they should be investigating Hamas for their use of human shields and firing rockets at Israeli cities, both of which are war crimes.
Netanyahu added that by starting this probe the UNHRC is validating Hamas’ human shield tactic as an “effective strategy.”
JERUSALEM POST – Israel attacked as a “travesty” a UN decision on Wednesday to probe its actions against Hamas in Gaza on the same day that the terrorist organization launched 80 rockets against it, targeting civilian areas.
“This investigation by a kangaroo court is a foregone conclusion,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Among those countries who supported the probe were Russia, China, India, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa.
Prior to the vote, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay warned that Israel could be committing war crimes in Gaza.
“There seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated in a manner that could amount to war crimes,” she told the UNHRC.
The head of the UNHRC is scheduled to appoint an “international commission of inquiry” to look at Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories, with a focus on Gaza, but including the West Bank and east Jerusalem, since the June 12 Palestinian kidnapping of three Israeli teens.
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Israel said such a probe only emboldens Hamas and encourages its policy of using civilians as human shields.
“Rather than investigate Hamas, which is committing a double war crime by firing rockets at Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians, the UNHRC calls for an investigation of Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
According to the IDF, Hamas has launched 2,249 rockets against Israel over the past 16 days. The UNHRC should be investigating Hamas’s use of hospitals as military command centers, schools as a weapons depots and its placement of missile batteries next to playgrounds, private homes and mosques, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
“The UNHRC is sending a message to Hamas and terrorist organizations everywhere that using civilians as human shields is an effective strategy,” it said.
The Prime Minister’s Office equated this probe to the infamous UNHRC Goldstone Report on Israel’s military incursion into Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, known as Operation Cast Lead.
“The predictable result will be the libeling of Israel and even greater use of human shields in the future by Hamas,” said the Prime Minister’s Office. “Those who will pay the price will be not only Israelis but also Palestinians who Hamas will redouble its efforts to use as human shields in the future.”