UN resolution calls for end to Israeli occupation

The UN’s Human Rights Council on Friday stressed the urgency of ending the occupation of Palestinian territory and denounced Israel’s refusal to cooperate with an independent commission on last year’s Gaza conflict.

A resolution was voted for by 41 states with just the U.S. opposing the proposal in Geneva.

The resolution condemned the “non-cooperation by Israel with the independent commission of inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict and the refusal to grant access to or to cooperate with international human rights bodies seeking to investigate alleged violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

It also stressed the “urgency of achieving without delay an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967” and denounced the 1,462 civilian deaths in Gaza in July and August, including 551 children and 299 women, as well as the deaths of six Israeli civilians.

Members said they were “gravely concerned by reports regarding serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including possible war crimes.”

Israeli pressure resulted in the council omitting reference to possible war crimes, committed in the occupied territory in 2008, 2009 and 2014.