The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Thursday decided to create a commission of inquiry with a wide-ranging reach to investigate Israel for its "war crimes" during the 11-day conflict resulting from the Hamas attacks launched by the Palestininan terrorist group. Israel decried the declaration of the permanent fact-finding commission, the first of its kind against a U.N. member state.
"Today's shameful decision is yet another example of the UN Human Rights Council's blatant anti-Israel obsession," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, as reported by CBN News. "Once again, an immoral automatic majority at the Council whitewashes a genocidal terrorist organization that deliberately targets Israeli civilians while turning Gaza's civilians into human shields."
The Israeli Prime Minister condemned the UNHRC for depicting Israel as a "guilty party" when in fact it had been "a democracy acting legitimately to protect its citizens from thousands of indiscriminate rocket attacks." The Anadolu Agency reported that 254 people, including 39 women and 66 children were "killed in offensive by Israeli military on Gaza Strip" during the 11-day conflict.
It's important to note that the Hamas terror group embedded itself in civilian areas, and has used innocent people as human shields. It's also worth knowing that Hamas had nearly 700 rocket misfires, harming and even killing people in Gaza.
This is the third time in seven years that the UNHRC in Geneva has established a commission of inquiry, but this commission is unique in the sense that it is "ongoing," meaning that the panel will pursue an indefinite inquiry, according to the New York Times. This "degree of permanence" is very much like the same commissions of inquiry assigned to Syria and Myanmar.
Finally, the commission of inquiry assigned to Israel is tasked to analyze "all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity."
Prime Minister Netanyahu called it a "travesty [that] makes a mockery of international law and encourages terrorists worldwide." The Hamas militant group was recognized by the U.S. as a designated foreign terrorist organization in 1997. During this year's conflict, they launched more than 4,300 rockets towards Israel, 680 of which fell short and landed inside the Gaza Strip and hurt Palestinians, a fact that mainstream media have not reported on.
The UNHRC's "guilty party" approach to Israel appears to paint the Jewish nation at fault for "war crimes" despite the resolution failing to mention Israel or Hamas. Israel's Foreign Ministry decried the UN's "anti-Israel obsession," saying that the resolution failed to recognize how the Jewish nation acted "with the highest ethical standards" and that the Hamas militant group had in fact committed a "double war crime" by launching airstrikes at Israeli civilians from right inside Gaza's civilian population.
"Any resolution that fails to condemn the firing of over 4300 rockets by a terror organization at Israeli civilians, or even to mention the terror organization Hamas, is nothing more than a moral failure and a stain on the international community and the U.N.," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin reiterated their commitment to the "safety and security" of their citizens.
