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June 15th, 2015 
David Schulberg 
Israeli authorities have admitted they blocked a UN human rights envoy from entering the occupied Gaza area for a second year in a row, just as a UN report on last year’s Gaza war is about to be made public.
“We didn’t allow
this visit,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman
Emmanuel Nahshon, as cited by AFP. The visit by the UN special
rapporteur on human rights, Makarim Wibisono, was due to take
place last week.
However, according to Nahshon, the decision doesn’t go against
Israel’s commitments to the UN. “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.”
Rapporteur Makarim Wibisono is attached to the UN Human Rights
Council (UNHRC), which is about to release its findings from an
investigation into alleged war crimes Israel may have committed
during last year’s war in Gaza.
READ MORE: 2014 Gaza offensive was
‘unfortunate yet lawful’ – Israel ahead of UN probe
results
Even though the report hasn’t been made public yet, Israeli
authorities have already dismissed it as biased, saying in a
277-page counter-report that the Gaza offensive was
“unfortunate yet lawful.” They cite statements by
Western leaders who backed Israel’s right to self-defense.
The new UN report will focus on the 2014 conflict, in which some
2,200 Palestinians died, including about 1,500 civilians.
Israel’s losses came to 67, mostly soldiers. The Israeli
offensive started after a spike in cross-border attacks by Hamas
militants, and lasted for 50 days.
A previous report on another Israel-Gaza conflict, the 2008-2009
three-week Operation Cast Lead that killed some 1,400 mainly
civilian Palestinians, accused Israel of war crimes.
Tel-Aviv claims this is due to Hamas militants using civilian
buildings as firing bases and weapon storage facilities. So the
Israelis argue collateral damage was inevitable in response
strikes.
This includes Israeli attacks on seven UN-run schools converted
to shelters, revealed by an April inquiry ordered by Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon.
READ MORE: Israel cabinet approves bill
to force-feed Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike
However, last week’s visit by the UN rapporteur wasn’t in
connection with the upcoming report. It was for a separate yearly
assessment of the situation in the territories occupied by
Israel: Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s human rights record concerning Palestinians also came
into question recently, when the country’s Cabinet passed a bill
allowing the force feeding of hunger-striking Palestinian
prisoners in its custody. According to Israel’s Prison Service,
the country now holds around 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, of
which four are refusing to eat.
The bill was condemned by human rights activists from all over
the world, including the UN special rapporteur on torture and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The
official said it was unacceptable to use force feeding as a means
of coercion against those who choose “the extreme recourse of a
hunger strike” to protest the conditions of their detention.
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‘Anti-Israel mandate’: UN human rights envoy blocked from entering Gaza
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