WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime says it will not cooperate with a United Nations commission looking into the regime’s war crimes committed against Palestinians during its May offensive on Gaza.
Meirav Eilon Shahar, the regime’s ambassador to the UN and international organizations in Geneva, claimed in a letter delivered on Thursday to the commission’s head, Navi Pillay, that the probe and its chairwoman were “unfairly biased” against the occupying regime.
Last year, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) agreed to launch an investigation with a broad mandate to probe all violations the regime had committed against Palestinians following its May offensive on Gaza, which killed at least 248 Palestinians including more than 60 children.
Michelle Bachelet, the former UN high commissioner for human rights, told the UNHRC at the time that deadly Zionist strikes on Gaza might have constituted war crimes.
In a related development, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor has called for further downgrading of her country’s diplomatic relations with the Zionist regime, expressing hope for a “direct action” against the regime in for its “well-documented apartheid practices.”
Addressing the parliament this week, Pandor pointed to South Africa’s history of struggle, saying the values derived from the struggle against racism and colonialism “make us duty-bound to be a voice for the oppressed and marginalized everywhere.”
“We are studying the recent human rights reports on Israel, and hope to approach the cabinet with a further proposed direct action against well-documented apartheid practices of Israel,” she said.
The remarks came after three human rights reports stating that Zionist regime should be deemed a regime that committed the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people.
The chief South African diplomat is also leading an effort to revoke the regime’s observer status in the African Union.
Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit says resolution of the decades-long Zionist-Palestinian conflict is needed in order to establish a lasting peace, stability and security in the Middle East.
Speaking at the 32nd Conference of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Thursday, Aboul Gheit underlined that the Palestinian issue remains a burning issue for all Arabs and Muslims of the world, stating that everyone should assume their responsibility in this regard.
“Peace, stability and security will not be established in this part of the world, unless Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories comes to an end and an independent Palestinian state is formed on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East al-Quds as its capital,” he noted.
In a latest development, Zionist troops placed the flashpoint neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in the occupied East Al-Quds under a near-complete lockdown.
The forces took the measure on Thursday, shortly after they fiercely attacked dozens of Palestinians and activists there, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.