The Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Ibrahim Khraishi admitted on a live television interview recently, in a moment of extreme candor, that Hamas are the ones perpetrating war crimes against Israel and not the other way round.
His comments, which were made on a Palestinian Authority TV interview in July and translated by MEMRI , are particularly interesting as the U.N., over the last few days, has put together a panel of so-called experts to compile a report on alleged Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians. The claims arise over Israel’s actions during its recent defensive war against Hamas in Gaza, and its response to the launching of thousands of rockets and the digging of dozens of terror tunnels.
For fear of being taken to the International Criminal Court for prosecution, Khraishi advised his interviewer that it was best all round if the issue was not raised with the U.N. In his own words, “each and every” Palestinian missile fired on Israel constitutes “a crime against humanity,” while he admitted that Israel “followed the legal procedures” when carrying out retaliatory attacks against Hamas terrorists, who purposely embed themselves within civilian populations.
Even a Hamas spokesman admitted on a TV interview recently that: “The Israelis warned them to evacuate their homes before the bombardment. As for the missiles launched from our side, we never warn anyone about where these missiles are about to fall or about the operations we carry out.” U.N. Watch , an NGO body that monitors the U.N., reported that Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi wasn’t coy in his assertions of Palestinian war crimes. As he said himself:
“I am not a candidate in any Palestinian elections, so I don’t need to win popularity among the Palestinians. The missiles that are now being launched against Israel, each and every missile constitutes a crime against humanity, whether it hits or misses, because it is directed at civilian targets.”
Khraishi spelled out very clearly the fact that, in his opinion, the Israeli side followed proper war protocol, unlike the terrorist factions occupying Gaza:
“Please note that many of our people in Gaza appeared on TV and said that the Israelis warned them to evacuate their homes before the bombardment. In such a case, if someone is killed, the law considers it a mistake rather than an intentional killing because [the Israelis] followed the legal procedures.”
The new U.N. commission, which was just announced, is being headed by well-known anti-Israel genocide expert William Schabas . Undoubtedly, it will make a mockery of the real facts on the ground in the ongoing conflict between the Jewish State and the Palestinians, and will likely echo the previous discredited inquiry chaired by Richard Goldstone.
Based on past performance, the U.N. is unlikely to bring Hamas to task for firing thousands of rockets indiscriminately on Israeli towns and villages or, for that matter, the Palestinian Authority for the numerous terror attacks its military wing has carried out against Israel, one last week in which two Israeli soldiers were inured.
The Hamas policy, which it does not deny, is to purposely fire those rockets from schools and mosques in the hope that Israeli retaliations would cause maximum Palestinian civilian casualties and garner world support against Israel. The fact that Israel is being taken to task by the U.N. for alleged war crimes in Gaza is absurd, and a disgrace to the United Nations whose whole purpose is supposed to be to champion human rights and not oppress them.