US supports Israeli opposition of UN probe into human rights abuses in Gaza

The United States has supported Israel in rejecting a United Nations human rights investigation into the Gaza war, which has been described by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “hostile to Israel and a waste of time”.

State Department spokesman, Jeff Rathke, told reporters in Washington on Monday that although the report has not been released yet, but the United States has strongly opposed the creation of the Gaza commission of inquiry.

“There is unfortunately a long history of anti-Israeli bias in UN resolutions and mechanisms, including at the Human Rights Council, which persists in an unbalanced focus on Israel by singling it out with a permanent agenda item, for example. So we’ve opposed the commission of inquiry reports – the creation of the commission of the inquiry,” Rathke said.

He pointed out that his department has not reviewed the report produced by Israel on the Gaza war.

Answering a question on whether he believes there should be an inquiry if the UN report was unfair or biased, Rathke insisted on rejecting the formation of a UN commission of inquiry to begin with.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the UN commission’s report, which is due to be released later this month, saying that reading the report would be a “waste of time”.

Recently, Israel prevented a visit by the UN human rights rapporteur, Makarim Wibisono, an Israeli foreign ministry official revealed.

“Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, said.