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The UN Human Rights Council Report on Israel's Response to the Gaza Border Riots
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Amb. Alan Baker - Where the UN Human Rights Council is concerned, there can be no such thing as an "independent" commission of inquiry. The outcome of the commission's inquiry was determined in advance by its mandating resolution, which condemned in its first paragraph "the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians...in the context of peaceful protests." The commission uses the term "Occupied Palestinian Territory" in the title of the report, which wrongfully assumes and determines that the territory is Palestinian, despite the fact that its status remains in dispute pending a negotiated settlement between Israel and the PLO pursuant to the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords. Even more absurd is the fact that the commission's report determined that the Gaza Strip is part of the territories occupied by Israel, even though Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and the report acknowledges that the Gaza Strip is governed by "de facto authorities in Gaza." To accept that the protests are "non-violent" and "fully peaceful" shows a lack of awareness of the extent of the violence of the demonstrations and public statements by senior Hamas operatives and demonstration organizers inciting violence, assaulting the separation fence, infiltrating into Israeli territory, and seeking to kill Israelis. MEMRI quotes Emad 'Aql, of Gaza, who tweeted: "[The Israeli town of] Sderot is only 700 meters east of [the Palestinian town of] Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza....[The town] can be reached in two minutes on motorcycles or in 5-8 minutes at a brisk run." He urged: "Murder, slaughter, burn and never show them any mercy." An extensive professional analysis of the identities of those Palestinians killed during the protests found that 80% were terrorist operatives or affiliated with terrorist organizations, mostly from Hamas. This demonstrates that the marches were not "popular" events but rather a Hamas strategic move accompanied by preplanned violence. Amb. Alan Baker, former legal adviser and deputy director-general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians.