Posted on 03/24/2005 12:45:49 PM PST by SmithL
As usual, the report on the territories commissioned by the UN Commission on Human Rights and presented in Geneva this week slammed Israel for alleged human rights violations, while nary wagging a finger at the Palestinians
However, there was a slight change in the tone of the report this year, Israeli diplomatic officials noted, saying that while this was not anything to cheer about, it was worth a passing mention.
For instance, the author of the report, South African jurist John Dugard, issued rare praise for what he characterized Israel's "brave move" to quit Gaza.
In the commission's "Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967," Dugard also highlighted Israel's recent release of 500 Palestinian prisoners, and the decision following last month's summit in Sharm e-Sheikh to discontinue targeted killings and cease home demolitions.
And most significantly, from Israel's point of view, is that in the report's conclusion, Dugard wrote that if the current cease-fire is to hold, "it is essential that the Palestinian Authority exercise control over militant groups responsible for violence against IDF and settlers within Palestine and for suicide bombings within Israel."
"We see a slight a change in the report," said Daniel Meron, director of the Foreign Ministry's International Organization and Human Rights Department. "We welcome the call for the Palestinian Authority to put their hands on Palestinian terror, and stop all attacks in Israel."
"This is a move in the right direction," Meron said, adding that the body still had an extremely long way to go to prove its credibility and relevance, and to prove it was not a one-sided body made up of rogue states which managed to get on to the commission, and thereby deflect attention form their own human rights abuses.
Among the countries on the commission are China, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe.
Meron said that Dugard's mandate is the "most biased" of any that exist among the more than 40 special UN rapporteurs, in that he is solely charged with investigating alleged Israeli violations and fails to address Palestinian human rights abuses. As a result, Israeli government officials routinely refuse to meet with him when he visits Israel and the territories to compile information for his annual report. He was in the region for a week in February, and while he did meet this year with the Knesset's Law Committee, he did not meet any ministerial officials. .
Among the observations that appeared in Dugard's report are the following:
# "Civilians in both societies have been subjected to terror: Israelis have lived in fear of suicide bombers and Kassam missiles while Palestinians' lives have been menaced [the] by IDF and settlers.
# "Israel has not been unaffected by the siege it has imposed on the Palestinian Territory. Israeli Government spending on the construction of the Wall and its occupation of Palestine have resulted in substantial reductions in the Israeli welfare system, and greater unemployment and poverty.
# "The Special Rapporteur has carefully refrained from using the terms colonies and colonists, preferred by more radical critics, to describe settlements and settlers. However, one wonders whether the time has not come for the international community to change its use of language, for settlements do constitute a form of colonization in a world that has outlawed colonialism. The protection and advancement of the interests of its colonists/settlers determines its [Israel's] policies towards Palestine. Without settlements, a two-state solution is possible; with them, it becomes impossible.
# "The dismantling of settlements in the West Bank cannot be left to 'permanent status talks' between Israelis and Palestinians in the indefinite future. Like the settlements in Gaza, they must be dismantled.
# "The dismantling of settlements in Gaza does not, however, mean that Gaza will be freed from Israeli control or that Israel will cease to be an occupying Power in terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Gaza at present is a prison, with walls, fences and soldiers to control its external borders, and with prison guards in the form of IDF soldiers who impose severe restrictions on the internal movement of Palestinian civilians and police the conduct of Palestinians within Gaza."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has himself recognized the problematic nature of the UN Human Rights Commission, and in the sweeping recommendations for the UN he presented on Monday called for the commission to be replaced by a Human Rights Council that would be made up of nations which boast strong human rights records.
"The creation of the council would accord human rights a more authoritative position," Annan said this week.
The panel that recommended this change wrote that "In recent years, the commission's capacity to perform [its] tasks has been undermined by eroding credibility and professionalism The commission cannot be credible if it is seen to be maintaining double standards in addressing human rights concerns."
The US envoy to the Commission, Rudy Boschwitz, also scored the body for its double standard concerning Israel.
"We must seize every opportunity in pursuit of peace, and the Commission on Human Rights, recognizing the fragility of the process and the region, can play an important role in ensuring the continuing movement toward peace," he said in a speech to the body this week.
"In working towards peace, this Commission must not choose this moment to single out one group for censure. The United States strongly believes that the one-sided, anti-Israel resolutions undermine the credibility of the United Nations and of this commission in particular."
Nice to hear Israel's status has been upgraded from "Evil Jewish State" to "Scum of the Earth".
ping
How would you define the UN?
1. UN = Unwanted Nobodies
2. UN = United Nazis
3. UN = UNtisemits
4. UN = Useless Nuts
5. UN = All the answers above
And guess what is the correct number?
We should dismantle the settlements in western Europe (like London, for example, and Paris, Rome, Berlin,...) and give the western European homelands back to the generic Islamists, er, I mean the Philistinians. Besides, the western European occupiers are of like minds with the terrorists, er, invaders, I mean "Palestinians" more than anyone else.
Oh! I know! I know! #5 is the correct answer.
Actually this only goes to show that the human rights groups have been playing politics with human rights instead of actually and accurately reporting on human rights abuses.
Did they even bother to mention the story of Mohammed Mansour, who was kidnapped in January by Palestinian militants and executed in the town square, only to have his body mutilated by the mob that came to watch?
Human rights abuse? Nah, that is just a cultural idiosyncracy and who are we to judge the Palestinian culture, right?
Here are some additional definitions from Virginia:
UN = Unwanted Numbnuts
UN = Unwashed Numbskulls
UN = Uselss Nincompoops
This is all the evidence I need to know that the Gaza withdrawal is a mistake for Israel.
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