Post date: Mar 26, 2012 2:31:15 PM
GUSH ATZION, WEST BANK (RECENT) (REUTERS) - Israel said on Monday (March 26) it has severed contacts with the U.N. Human Rights Council after its launch last week of an international investigation into Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The decision, announced by a Foreign Ministry spokesman, meant that the fact-finding team the council planned to send to the West Bank will not be allowed to enter the territory or Israel.
Israel says it will stop any fact finding mission, sent by the UNHCR, from entering the West Bank.
"With its disproportionate obsession about Israel -- by passing totally unthinkable number of condemnations on Israel, and Israel only, or almost only -- the Human Rights Council have made all cooperation completely useless. They have made the situation as it is now and we have therefore decided to sever our working ties with this body until further notice," said Foreign Ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor.
The international investigation was launched on Thursday (March 24), with the United States isolated in voting against the initiative brought by the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli leaders swiftly condemned the U.N. body, saying it was hypocritical and biased toward Israel.
Palmor said Israel would continue to cooperate with other U.N. bodies.
The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned Israel's planned construction of new housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying they undermined the peace process and posed a threat to the two-state solution and the creation of a contiguous and independent Palestinian state.
About 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war. Palestinians want the territory for an independent state along with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority said the break down in relations between the UN body and Israel was a clear indication that settlement building would not stop without substantive international pressure.
"This is a new indicator and another piece of evidence that Israel does not respect international law or organisations. Therefore this position should form a challenge to the international community and should drive them to hold Israel responsible not just verbally but also in practical terms in a manner that will force Israel to stop violating the rights of the Palestinian people," said Palestinian Government Spokesman Ghassan Khatib
Palestinians say settlements, considered illegal by the International Court of Justice, the highest U.N. legal body for disputes, would deny them a viable state.