Israel dismissed here today a report by the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, charging that it was replete with false accusations and distortions of truth.
The report was presented to the Special Political Committee, which opened a debate this morning on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The report said that Israel’s policy in those areas systematically violates the human rights of the Palestinians, including “the right to self-determination.” The Special Committee is composed of Senegal, Sri Lanka and Yugoslavia.
Israel does not recognize the three-member committee, which was established by the General Assembly in 1968, and has not cooperated with it.
Appearing before the Special Political Committee, Israel’s representative David Ramin said the Special Committee had followed its long established practice of deciding in advance on the conclusions it wished to reach, and then of “bending, misinterpreting, quoting out of context and distorting” various statements and items of information to make them appear as supporting its preconceived conclusions. He said the report’s description of Israeli practices in the West Bank and Gaza was precisely the one that the Arab war propaganda wanted to paint of Israel.
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