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ADL Condemns U.N. High Commissioner’s Remarks on Gaza
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Her Excellency Louise Arbour
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Dear Madam High Commissioner:
We were outraged by your statements to the Human Rights Council regarding the situation in Gaza and southern Israel.
Your insistence that the international community pressure Israel to comply with international humanitarian law is, sadly, yet another display of blind disregard for the actual facts on the ground and further proof of an irrational bias against Israel.
There is no disputing the tragic circumstances in which Palestinians in Gaza must live. Indeed, despite the fact that Gaza in controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization which is committed to the violent destruction of Israel, the Israeli government has actively maintained the flow of goods to Gaza to meet the humanitarian needs of the people. Contrary to the reports by various media, the electric supply to the Gaza Strip has not been reduced, and medication and medical equipment continue to be transferred into Gaza. Israel also continues to facilitate the movement out of Gaza of Palestinians in need of medical care. In the last three days, close to four hundred trucks filled with humanitarian supplies and aid were transferred into Gaza. Thus, while rockets continue to rain down on the residents of Sderot and Ashkelon, Israel has upheld its commitment to meet the humanitarian needs of the Gazans. If Israel were not under threat of constant attack, they could and would do much more than can be done under the present circumstances.
Furthermore, in your statement you equate the responsibility of Hamas and Israel in curbing the violence, thereby ignoring the fact that the onus has been, should be and is, on Hamas. Hamas’ failure to stop the rocket attacks requires Israel to take military action to defend its citizens. These measures, which you condemn as a “disproportionate use of force,” are a direct response to the rocket attacks.
This most recent condemnation of Israel and the latest deliberations by the Council are precisely what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was referring to in his address two days ago when he chastised the Council for its failure to deal with human rights issues in a credible manner. We urge you keep in mind the purpose of the Council as articulated by the Secretary General, to “recognize and promote the universal application of human rights value—and that it do so without favor, without selectivity and without being impacted by any political machinations around the world.” Indeed, the inordinate politically motivated attention the Council gives to Israel reflects an extreme prejudice and precludes the Council from focusing on the truly heinous offenses committed by other countries. The Council was created in order to uphold human rights and ensure justice throughout the world yet, the Council seems to operate in a parallel universe in which only Israel is a constant perpetrator, and in which the brutality inflicted on Palestinians and Israelis by a terrorist organization such as Hamas is simply ignored.
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Sincerely,
The Anti-Defamation League
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