The Times of Israel reported today that the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, questioned the impartiality of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) when it deals with Israel.
Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, criticizes the world body’s panel created to investigate the recent conflict in Gaza.
At a private meeting on Friday with American Jewish communal leaders, Power says the UN’s Human Rights Council “has shown itself incapable of engaging constructively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” according to one attendee of the meeting.
In an apparent reference to the UNHRC’s panel to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, Power said that the panel was “wildly unbalanced” and that “the process for the appointment of the commissioners was ill conceived, poorly executed and does nothing to dispel the perception of bias within the council.”
The panel chosen to investigate Israel’s actions during Operation Protective Edge is headed by William Schabas, a controversial professor who has stated that he would like to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried for war crimes.
Also last week Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) blasted the UNHRC and suggested that the United States defund the council if Schabas is not removed from the investigation of Israel.