Israel has rejected a request for cooperation from members of the UN inquiry committee probing Operation Protective Edge, seeking to establish Israel committed war crimes. The committee is headed by Prof. William Schabas and is therefore known as the Schabas Committee. Committee members landed in Amman and were told they are persona non grata when they made an official request to enter Israel, seeking cooperation with their probe.

The cabinet has decided not to cooperate with the committee, which has a mandate from the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Despite Israel’s decision, the committee insists it is not anti-Israel as is alleged.

Foreign Ministry officials add that the committee has already drawn its conclusions and it is clear the probe “is rigged”. Officials add that the government did not cooperate with the Goldstone Committee either and that too has disappeared.

Ynet adds that Schabas, a Canadian professor of international criminal and human rights law and the President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, has previously stated he would’ve liked to see Prime Minister Netanyahu “within the dock of the International Criminal Court.” So much for impartiality.

In a law journal article he wrote in December 2010, Schabas wrote that Netanyahu could be considered “the single individual most likely to threaten the survival of Israel.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)