Search

Israel ‘overwhelmingly’ to blame for conflict with Palestinians, UN probe concludes

“In life, there are generally only two certainties: death and taxes. But we can add a third, that the United Nations will always find Israel guilty,” Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, told World Israel News.

By World Israel News Staff

A new report from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) placed the blame for Palestinian terror on the actions of Israel, delving into a plethora of alleged Israeli human rights violations and war crimes.

“The findings and recommendations relevant to the underlying root causes [of the Arab-Israeli conflict] were overwhelmingly directed towards Israel, which we have taken as an indicator of the asymmetrical nature of the conflict and the reality of one state occupying the other,” stated Navanethem Pillay, who is heading the UN’s Commission of Inquiry investigating Israel.

Israel’s alleged preferential treatment towards Jews and its creation of a “repressive environment” for Palestinians “is feeding increased resentment among the Palestinian people” and “is fueling … an endless cycle of violence,” the report said.

Notably, the report made no mention of the Gaza-based Hamas terror group repeatedly firing thousands of rockets at Israeli communities, which are clear violations of interational law.

Neither did the report acknowledge a long history of Arab and Palestinian antisemitism in the region, which long predates the establishment of the State of Israel or the 1967 war.

Read  Senators propose legislation to cut funding to UN agencies that discriminate against Israel

A ‘complete mockery of international law’

The Israeli government and pro-Israel organizations pushed back against the report on Tuesday.

“In life, there are generally only two certainties: death and taxes. But we can add a third, that the United Nations will always find Israel guilty,” Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, told World Israel News.

“One need not have been Nostradamus to have guessed the outcome of this latest commission, where the Jewish state did not stand a chance and Israel’s guilt was already pre-determined before the ink on the resolution establishing this witch-hunt was even dry,” Ostrovsky said.

“Instead of the UNHRC focusing its attention on actual pressing human rights abuses around the world, it is, yet again, squandering millions of dollars and resources to continue its relentless obsession with Israel, and in the process, eroding its own credibility, while obstructing peace in the region and only fuelling further hate and antisemitism around the world.

“In short, this Commission makes a complete mockery of international law and is tantamount to an all-out assault against the Jewish state,” he concluded.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the report a “witch hunt” in a statement, saying that it was “nothing more than a waste of money” and UN resources.

Read  Knesset bans UNRWA, outlaws all official contact

“It is a biased and one-sided report tainted with hatred for the State of Israel and based on a long series of previous one-sided and biased reports,” the Ministry continued.

“The report disregards years of murderous terrorism by Palestinian terrorist organizations against Israeli citizens, as well as the Palestinians’ long-standing obstinacy and the vicious and antisemitic incitement carried out by the Palestinian Authority and its networks.”

UN ‘working with the terrorist organizations’

In a media statement, Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, president of the Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center, said that UNHRC “is known for its obsession with Israel, but this time it is undermining the legitimate existence of the state.

“It is actually working with the terrorist organizations,” she said. “Hamas does it with missile fire and terrorist attacks, and the council does it with false reports and blood libels. But their goal is the same: to destroy the State of Israel.”

Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor’s Legal Adviser and U.N. representative, said that “as anticipated, the COI’s first report reflects the UN Human Rights Council’s ongoing obsession with attacking the Jewish state. The COI erases key historical context, assigning almost total blame on Israel for the conflict.”

“Notably, it grossly minimizes and de-contextualizes Palestinian terrorism in order to paint a picture of Israeli venality…Similarly, the report attacks foundational policies of Israel, making multiple false claims regarding discrimination in order to build a case of racism and so that this permanent COI can later accuse Israel of apartheid.”