B’nai B’rith International is not surprised by the U.N. Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) decision to formally “welcome” a biased report on Israel’s defensive operations against Hamas in Gaza during the summer of 2014. The report, which accuses Israel of “possible war crimes,” was produced by the council’s own supposedly “independent, international commission of inquiry.”
The resolution embracing the report passed by a 41-1 vote, with only the United States voting against it, and Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Macedonia and Paraguay abstaining. B’nai B’rith commends all those who denied support to the biased “findings” of the commission of inquiry.
It is especially regrettable that European countries, such as Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, voted to welcome this grossly lopsided report and failed to condemn the council for its effective denial of Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian terrorists.
In light of the UNHRC’s extensive track record of rote, anti-Israel attacks, this vote was entirely predictable. The council declared Israel guilty when it ordered the inquiry to begin with, and even pressed on when it was exposed that the original head of the commission, William Schabas, had been previously paid by the Palestine Liberation Organization for his legal services.
The commission of inquiry report, like so many other biased U.N. measures, is a farce and B’nai B’rith urges those serious about securing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and about both human rights and counterterrorism, to treat it as such.
