UN Human Rights Council Denounces Recent Israeli Military Actions In Northern Gaza
New York, Nov 15 2006 2:00PM
Condemning Israel’s recent military activities in the northern Gaza Strip, including the killing of 18 Palestinian
civilians at Beit Hanoun, the United Nations Human Rights Council today called for urgent international action to end whose incursions and voted to send a fact-finding mission to the region.
By 32 votes to eight, with six abstentions and one absence, Council members meeting at a special session in Geneva adopted a resolution expressing grave concern “at the continued violation by the occupying Power,
Israel, of the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian territory.
The resolution described Israel’s recent military incursions as “a collective punishment of the civilians” inside the
Occupied Palestinian Territory and added that they will “exacerbate the severe humanitarian crisis” there.
It voiced particular concern at last week’s artillery shelling of a residential area in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza
Strip, where 18 people were killed and about 60 others injured.
The special session was convened at the request of Bahrain’s Ambassador on behalf of the Group of Arab States and
Pakistan’s Ambassador on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and was the third of its kind since
the Council, which replaces the Commission on Human Rights, came into being earlier this year. All three special
sessions have been held to consider IsraelῩ actions.
Israel accused the Council of double standards and politicized decision-making, saying the 47-member body was
conspicuously ignoring tragedies in other parts of the world.
Itzhak Levanon, Israel’s representative, told the Council meeting that his country was dismayed by the lack of
universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity being shown.
The Palestinian Authority and its Government deserved the blame because they did nothing to stop the firing of rockets
at Israeli communities from Beit Hanoun, setting the stage for an inevitable Israeli response, he said.
Mr. Levanon added that those who fire rockets at Israeli civilians and had stored tons of weaponry must understand they
cannot seek refuge behind women and children and that their behaviour bore a heavy price.
Also at today’s meeting, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said she will soon visit Israel and the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, where she plans to meet officials and receive briefings from both sides, civil society
groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as UN agencies.
Ends