UN Human Rights Commission Condemns Israel for ‘war Crimes’; Vote is 18-2, 10 Western Members Abstai

The United Nations Human Rights Commission, with its 10 Western members abstaining, voted 18-2 yesterday to condemn Israel for allegedly committing “war crimes” in the territories it administers and demanded that Israel “cease immediately creating colonies in the occupied territories.”

The Commission deplored what it called Israel’s “flouting of the fourth Geneva Convention” (on the treatment of civilian populations in wartime) and insisted that Israel “cease all measures affecting the physical peculiarities and demographic composition of these territories.” The Commission said it was “profoundly troubled over the destruction of homes, the expropriation of Arab possessions, the deplorable treatment inflicted on prisoners and the plundering of the region’s archaeological heritage and the exploitation of its natural resources.”

The abstaining Western powers stressed that a distinction should be made between war crimes and violations of Geneva conventions. The French delegate said that Israeli violations were “not all crimes” and have not all been proven.

The Human Rights Commission apparently based its action on the report of a three-nation commission set up by the United Nations General Assembly several years ago to investigate the condition of the inhabitants of the Israel-held territories.

The commission, consisting of Somalia, Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka (Ceylon), none of which have diplomatic relations with Israel, took its entire testimony from Arab and pro-Arab witnesses in Arab and European cities. Israel refused to admit the commission onto its territory and refused to appear before it because the commission refused to investigate violations of Jewish rights in Arab countries.