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(Washington, D.C., Feb. 28, 2019)—B’nai B’rith International President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:  
 
The United Nations Human Rights Council is hewing to its anti-Israel track record with its new “Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” This latest anti-Israel U.N. “probe” – whose biased outlook was set in advance – disregards Hamas terrorism while defaming Israel with the outrageous lie that Israel targeted “people with disabilities.”
 
The report looks at the Hamas-organized riots held along Gaza’s boundary with Israel between March 30 and Dec. 31 of 2018. During these events, Hamas terrorists rushed the border fence separating Gaza from Israel in an effort to infiltrate Israel, targeted Israeli soldiers with explosives and sniper attacks, set on fire thousands of tires causing environmental devastation across the region and launched explosive kites and balloons into Israel, which destroyed Israeli citizens’ property and incessantly threatened civilian lives. 
 
Violent aggressors are not “protesters” and marauding young men are not innocent “children.” Hamas jihadists, openly committed to Israel’s destruction, own the blame for persistently forcing Israelis and Palestinians into harm’s way.
 
Israel fully and unconditionally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Since that time, Hamas terrorists have taken control of Gaza and used the area to launch endless attacks against Israelis. Israel has a fundamental right and obligation to defend its civilians and its borders, and it has done so with exceptional care and restraint. The U.N. Human Rights Council report should be denounced globally as the farce that it is.