Council of Europe accuses Israel of ‘systematic unlawful killings’ in Gaza

The Europeans have again voted on a resolution against Israel, groundlessly accusing the Jewish state of war crimes. 

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted on Tuesday a resolution blaming Israel for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The resolution, based on an internal report composed by Swedish politician Eva-Lena Jansson, charges Israel with “excessive and intentional force without justification against Palestinian civilians in the buffer zone, including against farmers, journalists, medical crews and peaceful protesters, [which] runs blatantly counter to human rights principles and the international law-enforcement standards.”

The resolution was passed with a vote of 46 in favor, 12 against and two abstentions in the assembly during a session in Strasbourg, France.

The resolution states that [Israel is to blame for] “cases of deliberate fatal shooting of individuals who posed no imminent danger to human life, which amounts to an appalling pattern of apparently systematic unlawful killings.”

It calls for an end to the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, to ensure that medical and humanitarian goods arrive to the citizens of Gaza, to allow Palestinians to seek work places in Israel and to create a multi-annual plan to establish a Palestinian state.

”Since Israel’s military operation in Gaza in 2014 (Operation Protective Edge), the humanitarian situation significantly worsened; 17,650 families, around 100,000 persons were displaced,” the report claims.

The resolution also calls the Palestinian Authority to prevent and condemn acts of terrorism against Israel.

”We urge all states within the European Union to support the possibility of official investigation by the International Criminal Court, in case the conclusions show that there is a decent foundation to do so,” it states.

Resolution ‘Selectively Distorts Reality’

Members of Knesset (MK) Aliza Lavie and Eli Alalouf were present at PACE when the anti-Israel resolution was passed.

Lavie, head of the Knesset delegation to PACE, urged the European inter-governmental group to reject the report, saying it was “a misrepresentation which selectively distorts reality.”

”The report relies on rumors instead of facts,” Lavie pointed out. ”We withdrew our citizens and even our dead from Gaza in 2005, and in return we received rocket attacks. Israel supplies a third of Gaza`s electricity at a cost of a billion dollars without asking for a return. 130,000 Palestinians received free medical care in Israel in the last year, including relatives of Ismail Haniyeh [former Hamas prime minister], and we are accused of [contributing to] a humanitarian crisis?”

”Where are the millions [of dollars] which were sent by the Council of Europe to the Palestinians for the purpose of rehabilitate Gaza? Where did the money go?” asked Lavie.

“Israel wants to live in peace with its neighbors. Gaza is not under a siege, but is under supervision in order to protect the citizens of the State of Israel, both the Jews and the Arabs,” Alalouf said

Israel has a partial blockade on Gaza to prevent Hamas from arming itself and attacking Israel.

”I hope there will come a day when we will be able to discuss these matters seriously, in order to create a better future for this area,” said Alalouf.

In the last few days, Lavie and Alalouf worked together intensively with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to convince the various delegations of the 60-member assembly to object to the resolution’s conclusions, to no avail.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

Aliza LavieEli AlaloufGazaOperation Protective Edge