Israel Matzav

UN Watch: Human Rights Council's Mavi Marmara probe has a predetermined verdict

On Friday, the United Nations 'Human Rights Council' named three commissioners to investigate the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident that took place in May. But UN Watch's Hillel Neuer reports that the commissioners' verdict has been pre-determined.

“The mandate of the probe violates due process and objectivity by presuming Israeli guilt from the outset,” said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director. “It’s another example of what former UN rights chief Mary Robinson recently described as the unfortunate and regrettable practice by the council to adopt resolutions guided not by human rights but by politics.”[See Note 1]

According to Neuer, “by declaring Israel guilty before any facts were even collected, the resolution taints the mission with prejudicial bias, and contravenes the UN’s own Declaration on Fact Finding, which requires objectivity and impartiality.”

“It speaks volumes that Khaled Mashaal, the leader of the Hamas terrorist group, asked for this probe-literally for the council to create ‘another Goldstone report’-while the Palestinian Authority actually opposed it,” said Neuer.

“The perception of the council’s one-sided approach and lack of credibility is so severe that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office in New York has completely ignored this probe in seeking to establish their own.”

“Tragically, rather than contribute to defusing the Arab-Israeli conflict and bringing people together with an objective, human rights approach, the council has played a divisive role with inflammatory statements that only increase frictions,” said Neuer.

For more details about the probe, read the whole thing. If you're an American taxpayer, your tax dollars are paying for 22% of this.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:30 PM