Israel said on Thursday it would not cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Council commission formed to investigate alleged abuses against Palestinians during last year's 11-day conflict with Hamas, saying the probe and its chairwoman Navi Pillay were unfairly biased against Israel.
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"It is obvious to my country, as it should be to any fair-minded observer, that there is simply no reason to believe that Israel will receive reasonable, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment from the Council, or from this Commission of Inquiry," Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel's representative to the UN, wrote in a scathing letter to Pillay.
The council established the three-person investigative commission, which is led by Pillay and includes Chris Sidoti of Australia and Miloon Kothari of India, last May, days after the conflict – known as Operation Guardian of the Walls.
At the time, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said that Israeli actions might have constituted war crimes, whereas Jerusalem accused Hamas of civilian casualties, saying the terrorist group uses residential areas for cover while carrying out military activities.
Israel has long accused the UN, and particularly the Human Rights Council, of bias. Jerusalem has also raised concerns about the council's makeup, saying it includes countries with poor rights records or open hostility toward the Jewish state. China, Cuba, Eritrea, Pakistan, Venezuela, and a number of Arab countries sit on the 47-member council.
"Israel engages on a frequent and regular basis with a wide range of international human rights bodies as part of its commitment to the rule of law and the advancement of human rights," Eilon Shahar wrote. "At the same time, we expect such bodies to act in good faith, without bias and not in the service of a pre-determined political agenda. Regrettably, none of this can be expected from the COI."
She also said that the probe is clearly "designed to serve as a political tool, rather than an impartial investigative body," and "is sure to be yet another sorry chapter in the efforts to demonize the State of Israel, distorting the factual and legal record, and hijacking the values, language, and mechanisms of human rights in order to advance a partisan campaign."
Eilon Shahar also argued that Pillay and the other "members of the Commission… have repeatedly taken public and hostile positions against Israel on the very subject matter that they are called upon to 'independently and impartially' investigate."
The letter denounced Pillay for "personally championing an anti-Israel agenda and for numerous anti-Israel pronouncements… as well as advocating for the radical BDS campaign against Israel."
The ambassador was responding to a Dec. 29 letter from Pillay to the Israeli government, asking to "reconsider its position of non-cooperation" expressed after the commission was created.
Pillay wrote that the commission would "need" to visit Israel and Palestinian areas. Eilon Shahar's letter all but ensures the commission will not obtain such access or Israeli government cooperation.
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