Israel Won’t Cooperate With UN Probe of West Bank Settlements, Slams Idea on Principle

[stockholmer]

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=276527

Israel reiterated Friday that it would refuse cooperation with a a UN Human Rights Council fact finding mission to probe Israeli West Bank settlement activity and Jewish building in east Jerusalem.

The Geneva-based council appointed three international jurists to the mission on Friday, eliciting a rebuke from Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.

"The fact finding mission will find no cooperation in Israel and its members will not be allowed to enter Israel and the territories. Its existence embodies the inherent distortion that typifies the UNHRC treatment of Israel and the hijacking of the important human rights agenda by non democratic countries," he said.

The three jurists are: Christine Chanet of France, Unity Dow of Botswana and Asma Jahangir of Pakistan. “I have appointed three highly distinguished individuals to carry out the Council’s fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem,” said UNHRC President Laura Dupuy Lasserre.

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Israel: UN council probe on West Bank settlements 'flawed and biased'

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-un-council-probe-on-west-bank-settlements-flawed-and-biased-1.449327

A UN Human Rights Council mission on West Bank settlements is "flawed and biased," Israel said Friday, accusing the rights body of corruption for again singling out Israel while "systematically ignoring massive human rights violations" elsewhere.

The UN's top human rights body appointed three officials Friday afternoon to conduct a fact-finding mission on how Israel's West Bank settlements affect the lives of Palestinians. The Council president, Uruguay Ambassador Laura Dupuy Lasserre, named three women to the panel: Christine Chanet of France, Unity Dow of Botswana and Asma Jahangir of Pakistan. Dupuy Lasserre said their mission will be to look how the Israeli settlements impact "the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people."

Israel called the action "flawed and biased" and said it will not cooperate with the mission.

"The mission's existence embodies the inherent distortion that typifies the UNHRC treatment of Israel and the hijacking of the important human rights agenda by non-democratic countries," Israel's foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

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Israeli noncooperation not to affect UN probe on settlement activities: Palestinian envoy

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/07/c_131701477.htm

Israel's refusal to cooperate with a UN probe panel on Jewish settlements on its occupied land will not affect the committee's work, a Palestinian diplomat said Saturday. Ibrahim Khrishi, the Palestinian envoy to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), told Xinhua that the mission will start its work by the end of July.

The United States and Israel pressured the Geneva-based council to delay the appointing of the panel and thus deferred the process, Khrishi said. However, the top UN rights body named three women on Friday to lead the panel, which will look into the effects of the settlements on the lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel cut its relations with the UNHRC when it called for the forming of such an investigative committee in March. The panel should submit its report at the council's 22nd meeting in March 2013.

The Palestinians will use the panel's conclusions "in all international institutions to support the Palestinian quest against the settlement activities, and will submit it to the UN Security Council," Khrishi said.


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Israel telling the UN that it should focus its investigations on non-democratic countries. Pot meet kettle.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. That's okay, we already know how this will play out

A report with disprovable conclusions will be written and released
The Israelis will show the report to be flawed
The report authors will blame Israel for not participating while they look foolish
The report will be filed with all the other ones and will accomplish nothing

This is far from the first time this dance has been done.