Israeli officials condemned as biased the United Nations Human Rights Council’s adoption of a report critical of its use of lethal force during Palestinian protests on the Gaza border.
The council slammed on Friday the “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against civilian protesters in Gaza and called for perpetrators of violations in the enclave to face justice.
On the final day of a four-week session, the Geneva forum adopted a resolution on accountability, brought by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The vote was 23 states in favor, eight against, with 15 abstentions and one delegation absent.
It called for cooperating with a preliminary examination opened by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2015 into alleged Israeli human rights violations.
The resolution was based on a report by a UN inquiry which said that Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 at weekly protests last year.
Issuing an official response to the commission’s report, Israel said it had “serious concerns about the factual and legal analysis conducted by the commission, its methodologies and the clear evidence of political bias against Israel”.
Israeli ambassador Aviva Raz Shechter denounced what she called “clear evidence of political bias against Israel” in the report but said that authorities were “examining individual incidents”.
She accused the independent panel of ignoring “the very real threat” posed to 70,000 Israeli citizens living along the border by 1,300 rockets fired by Hamas during the period of inquiry, March 30-December 31.
In Jerusalem, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement dismissing what it called an “absurd, hypocritical ritual” of singling out Israel for criticism in “predetermined” findings that ignored the reality on the ground.
Gaza health authorities say some 200 people have been killed and thousands injured by Israeli fire since Palestinians launched the protests. One Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper along the frontier.
Protesters have been demanding the lifting of an Israeli blockade of the territory and a right to return to land from which their ancestors fled or were expelled. Israel has said it has no choice but to use deadly force to defend the frontier.
