UN: Israel must uphold human rights law in its treatment of Palestinians

The United Nations in Geneva on Monday rejected Israel’s claim that a major human rights treaty was not applicable to its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

 

“No, [Israel] is not responsible for those violations that are committed by the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, quite clearly not,” the chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee, Nigel Rodley, told a high-level delegation of Israelis.

 

“But it is responsible for those violations that are outside the control of the administrating Palestinian authorities and Hamas but are within the control of the state party,” Rodley said.

 

He spoke at the tail end of a day-long periodic review of Israel’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

 

Israel ratified the covenant in 1991 and was one of the initial signatories to the treaty when the UN first adopted it in 1966.

 

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