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                  Israel Boycotts UN Debate on Gaza War Probe

   by Lisa Schlein

   Israel has boycotted a day long debate in the U.N. Human Rights Council
   of the Commission of Inquiry's report into the 2014 Gaza conflict,
   calling it biased and flawed. The report finds both Israel and armed
   Palestinian groups may have committed war crimes in Gaza.

   The report documents serious violations of international law and human
   rights abuses committed during Gaza's seven-week war last year. More
   than 2,200 people were killed, most of them Gazans.

   In her presentation to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Chair of the
   Commission of Inquiry, Mary McGowan Davis, detailed indiscriminate and
   disproportionate attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces.

   She also accused Palestinian armed groups of regularly conducting
   operations from densely populated areas, firing more than 4,500 rockets
   and mortars into Israel. In some cases, Davis said they fired from
   specially protected buildings, increasing the risk to the civilian
   population and civilian objects in Gaza.

   "Throughout our inquiry, we were deeply moved by the immense suffering
   of Palestinian and Israeli victims, who have been subjected to repeated
   rounds of violence, which last summer resulted in an unprecedented
   number of casualties. The information we gathered points to serious
   violations of international humanitarian law and international human
   rights law by Israel and by Palestinian armed groups, in some cases,
   these may amount to war crimes," she said.

   The Israeli delegation was not present at the meeting, so only
   Palestine used its right to speak. Palestinian Representative Ibrahim
   Khraishi called the report balanced, but he criticized it for not
   describing the conflict itself as imbalanced. He spoke through an
   interpreter.

   "The report did not take into consideration the massive difference in
   military capacity and that one side is under occupation and siege and
   the other is an occupier. The losses are not equitable," said Khraishi.

   The United States, Canada, and most European Union countries did not
   participate in the debate.

   Outside the Council chamber, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations
   Eviator Manor called the Council a biased and morally flawed U.N.
   organ.

   This is not the Human Rights Council. It is the Palestinian Human
   Rights Council. Two-thousand-six-hundred civilians have been killed in
   Yemen and a humanitarian catastrophe is taking place there. That is
   almost double the number of civilians killed in the Gaza Conflict, but
   the Council has yet to call for a special session or deal with the
   matter."

   Ambassador Manor notes the Council has adopted 61 Resolutions against
   Israel and only 55 Country Resolutions against the rest of the world.

   He noted that all countries accused of human rights violations,
   including such serial offenders as North Korea and Sudan, are
   considered under the same agenda item, only Israel's human rights
   record, he said, is debated under a permanent, separate item.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/israel-boycotts-un-debate-on-gaza-war
   -probe/2841809.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/israel-boycotts-un-debate-on-gaza-war-probe/2841809.html