An independent Commission of Inquiry mandated by the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday issued a report saying more than 6,000 people were shot by IDF snipers using live ammunition to repel them from the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
New Right chairman Naftali Bennett was the first Israeli politician to issue a response to the commission’s findings, saying: “It’s hard to imagine the UN could sink any lower. Alternating between excusing terror and ignoring terror it is letting down democracies and backing dictators and tyrants.”
As of 2018, Israel has been condemned in 78 resolutions by the Human Rights Council in Geneva since the latter’s creation in 2006. The Council has resolved more resolutions condemning Israel than the rest of the world combined.
Santiago Canton of Argentina served as chairperson of the HRC-mandated Commission of Inquiry on “the 2018 protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The other two members were Sara Hossain of Bangladesh and Kaari Betty Murungi of Kenya. So, an even-handed panel by the looks of it.
“The Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities,” the panel report said.
The panel acknowledged there was significant violence on the part of the rioters, but argued that said violence could not be rated as combat operations, which is why it rejected Israel’s claim of terror activities that were carried out by armed terrorists who mingled with the rioters. Instead, the panel insisted there were “civilians” who did not pose an “imminent threat” among those killed and injured.
Chairperson Canton stated that “the commission finds that these protests were a call for help from a population in despair,” adding, “The commission calls on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza.”
The commission announced it would hand over information about individual IDF soldiers and officers allegedly responsible for human rights violations to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The commission announced it would hand over information about individual IDF soldiers and officers allegedly responsible for human rights violations to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
In March 2012, the UN Human Rights Council was criticized for its event that featured a representative of Hamas in its Geneva building. Prime Minister Netanyahu responded at the time, saying the Hamas terrorist “represents an organization that indiscriminately targets children and grown-ups, and women and men. Innocents are their special favorite target.” Israel’s ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor denounced the speech stating that Hamas was an internationally recognized terrorist organization that targeted civilians. “Inviting a Hamas terrorist to lecture to the world about human rights is like asking Charles Manson to run the murder investigation unit at the NYPD”, Prosor said.