The UN Human Rights Council condemned “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force by Israel” against peaceful demonstrators in Gaza and urged to bring those responsible to justice, Reuters reported.
The Council adopted the relevant resolution introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The resolution was adopted with 23 votes in favor, 8 against, 15 abstentions.
It is about Palestinians who were killed by Israeli snipers during protests at the Gaza Strip and Israel last year. According to the UN, 189 Palestinians were killed, 6,100 were injured.
The US did not participate in the vote
The United States quit the UN Human Rights Council last year. Washington accused the Human Rights Council of bias against the United States and Israel.
White House National Security Adviser John Bolton told Fox News last June that Washington did not need advice from the UN or other international organizations.
Justifying the US withdrawal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the UN Human Rights Council "has become an exercise in shameless hypocrisy – with many of the world’s worst human rights abuses going ignored, and some of the world’s most serious offenders sitting on the council itself." "But when organizations undermine our national interests and our allies, we will not be complicit. When they seek to infringe on our national sovereignty, we will not be silent," said Pompeo. According to him, the United States "will not take lectures form hypocritical bodies and institution as Americans selflessly give their blood and treasure to help the defenseless."
Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem and killing Palestinians
Last year, the United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem after Donald Trump recognized it as the capital of Israel. The opening of the embassy took place against the backdrop of protests on the border with Gaza. Only on that day (May 15, 2018), more than 60 Palestinians were killed, more than 2,000 were injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the actions of the military self-defense against the radical Hamas group, which controls Gaza and aims to destroy Israel.
As it was noted, the United States blocked the draft UN Security Council resolution proposed by Kuwait, condemning what was happening and demanding an independent investigation of the clashes.
