- Title: ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/UN REACTION UN report on Gaza war 'biased' - Netanyahu
- Date: 22nd June 2015
- Summary: JERUSALEM (JUNE 22, 2015) (REUTERS FOR AGENCY POOL) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, APPROACHING PODIUM PHOTOGRAPHER SHOOTING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "In defending itself against such attacks, Israel's military acted and acts according to the highest international standards. The report at hand was commissioned by
- Embargoed: 7th July 2015 13:00
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- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA2SZLYP87IOYWBIOOBO9KYJPDO
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- Story Text: Israel disputed on Monday (June 22) the findings of a U.N. report that it may have committed war crimes in the 2014 Gaza conflict.
U.N. investigators said earlier on Monday that Israel and Palestinian militant groups committed grave abuses of international humanitarian law during the 2014 Gaza conflict that may amount to war crimes.
In a report after a year-long inquiry, they called on Israel to explain its "targeting decisions" to allow independent assessment of its attacks on the Gaza Strip, where they said 1,462 civilians were killed and thousands of homes destroyed.
The independent investigators, led by American Mary McGowan Davis, also condemned what they found were executions of alleged Palestinian "collaborators" with Israel by militants in Gaza, saying these killings appeared to constitute war crimes.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the report and its authors.
"In defending itself against such attacks, Israel's military acted and acts according to the highest international standards. The report at hand was commissioned by a notoriously biased institution. It was given an obviously biased mandate. It was initially headed by a grossly biased chairperson who received money from the Palestinians and was forced to resign," Netanyahu said in Jerusalem.
He was referring to Canadian academic William Schabas, who resigned as the head of the U.N. panel in February after Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he had done for the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Schabas was not involved in writing the report although he took part in the research, U.N. officials and diplomats say.
"The United Nations Human Rights Council has a singular obsession with Israel. It has passed more resolutions against Israel than against Syria, North Korea and Iran combined. In fact, it's passed more resolutions against Israel than against all the countries in the world combined. So Israel treats this report as flawed and biased and it urges all fair minded observers to do the same," Netanyahu added.
The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement that the findings failed to differentiate between Israel's "moral behaviour" and the actions of Palestinian "terror organisations" it confronted during the 50-day war.
A ceasefire last August ended 50 days of fighting between Gaza militants and Israel in which health officials said more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians.
Israeli air strikes and shelling hammered the densely-populated enclave dominated by the Islamist Hamas movement, causing widespread destruction of homes and schools. For their part, Gaza militants fired thousands of rockets and mortar bombs into Israel.
Both sides have denied violating the laws of war in the conflict.
The report said the onus was on Israel to provide details of how it chose its targets in Gaza to "allow an independent assessment of the legality of the attacks".
Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the war, a move opposed by Israel, and the Hague-based court is examining possible war crimes in the conflict.
Israel issued a report this month arguing its 2014 Gaza offensive was lawful, a move aimed at pre-empting the release of findings of the U.N. investigation.
Amnesty International said in late May that Hamas committed war crimes, including abductions, torture and unlawful killings, against Palestinian civilians it accused of "collaborating" with Israel during the conflict.
Hamas has denied any wrongdoing in the Gaza conflict, saying it acted to protect Palestinians.
On Monday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "We welcome the condemnation of the United Nations of the war crimes of the Israeli occupation in the last offence on Gaza and the killing of civilians which requires taking immediate and effective actions to bring the Israeli leadership to criminal and international courts, and requires to bring sanctions against the Israeli enemy to protect the Palestinians from the Israeli occupation's crimes and to put a limit to those crimes targeting the people of Gaza and all the Palestinian people."
The United States, the Israelis' staunch ally in the U.N. Human Rights Council, accuses the Geneva forum of a long-standing bias against Israel. It said the U.N. report had "problematic origins" as its authors lacked experience of international humanitarian law. - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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