Prime Minister Netanyahu
Photo: EPA
Netanyahu: UN's Gaza probe should be shelved
PM welcomes resignation of William Schabas from inquiry panel into potential war crimes during Operation Protective Edge, says UN should investigate Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the United Nations commission investigating potential war crimes in Gaza should be "shelved" now that its head has resigned amid accusations he was biased against Israel.
Netanyahu said Tuesday that the commission, set up by the UN Human Rights Council, is an "an anti-Israel body, the decisions of which prove it has nothing to do with human rights."
Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
Netanyahu said that in 2014 alone, it passed more resolutions against Israel that Iran, Syria and North Korea combined. "It is Hamas, the other terrorist organizations and the terrorist regimes around us that need to be investigated," said the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu's remarks came after reports emerged that Canadian law professor William Schabas has stepped down as head of the inquiry. The commission was due to issue its report next month. Jerusalem did not cooperate with it, saying it was hostile to Israel and that its conclusions were known in advance.
A day after being appointed chair of the commission, Schabas found himself in the eye of the storm, with Israel announcing that it would boycott the UN investigation.
"Already, with the decision on July 23 to establish the committee, the prime minister and the foreign minister declared that the Human Rights Council had long ago turned into the 'terrorist rights council' and a kangaroo court, whose 'investigations' are pre-determined," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said in a statement.
"If any more proof were needed, the appointment of the chairman of the panel, whose anti-Israel bias and opinions are known to all, proves beyond any doubt that Israel cannot expect justice from this body, whose report has already been written and all that is left is to decide who will sign off on it," Palmor said.
Yitzhak Benhorin contributed to this report.
