U.N. rights council hits Israel for its Gaza action
GENEVA -- The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and called Thursday on Palestinians to stop rocket fire into Israel.
The resolution sponsored by Pakistan and Muslim countries said Israeli incursions into the Palestinian territory inflicted collective punishment on the civilian population.
Israel launched the offensive last week in response to Palestinian militants barraging southern Israel with rockets. More than 120 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza officials say. Four Israelis have also been killed as a result of the Gaza attacks.
The 47-member rights body approved the resolution 33-1 after a debate on the situation in Gaza. Russia, China and India supported it, European countries were among the 13 abstaining and Canada voted against it.
The United States is not a member of the council.
The resolution expressed "shock at the Israeli bombardment of Palestinian homes and the killing of civilians ... inflicting collective punishment against the civilian population."
It also called "for the immediate cessation of all Israeli military attacks throughout the occupied Palestinian territory and the firing of crude rockets ... which resulted in the loss of two civilian lives and some injuries in southern Israel."
Israel withdrew its ground forces from northern Gaza on Tuesday.
Israel's ambassador, Itzhak Levanon, told the council that the accusations leveled against his country were "exaggerations, distortions and inaccuracies." He said the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, committed war crimes.
The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. office in Geneva, Mohammad Abu-Koash, said the failure to unanimously approve the resolution would encourage Israel to commit further rights violations against Palestinians.
"Urgent international intervention is required to end the murder and provide protection to the Palestinian civil population," he told the council.
Thursday's resolution was the fourth condemning Israel since the body was created almost two years ago.
Slovenia's ambassador, Andrej Logar, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said, "The European Union still believes the draft resolution is not sufficiently balanced in the way it deals with the situation on the ground."
Western countries, which hold seven seats on the council, are heavily outnumbered by African and Asian countries, with a total of 27 seats.
Switzerland was the only European country to vote yes, saying it wanted to send a strong signal to Israel about the "particular gravity of the events in the southern part of Israel and Gaza."
U.S. Ambassador Warren W. Tichenor said tensions in the region should not be exacerbated by unhelpful rhetoric.
"The human rights council's unbalanced and excessive focus on Israel does not help advance the cause of peace," Tichenor told the council before the vote.
The Geneva-based body, which lacks enforcement powers, has been accused of spending excessive amounts of time focusing on Israel since replacing the widely discredited and highly politicized Human Rights Commission in June 2006.