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Israeli FM Cancels Meeting with UN Human Rights Commissioner
Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami cancelled his meeting Thursday with United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson in response to her cancellation of meetings with Israel's right-wing opposition Likud party leaders, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Robinson will nevertheless meet with Israeli legal experts.
Robinson cancelled her scheduled meetings with Likud party leader Ariel Sharon and other Likud leaders under pressure from the Palestinians who threatened to boycott her.
Palestinian officials said on Tuesday that there will be no Palestinian meetings with Robinson if she meets Sharon, whose visit to an Islamic shrine in East Jerusalem on September 28 triggered the current cycle of Israel-Palestinian violent clashes, in which over 180 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed.
Robinson arrived in the region Wednesday to investigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israel's excessive use of force against the Palestinians, as asked by the UN commission.
A special session of the 53-member commission in Geneva voted 19 to 16, with 17 abstentions, on October 19 to approve a draft resolution put forward by Arab nations, condemning Israel for "widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights."
The resolution also decided to set up an international human rights inquiry commission into the violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as Israel's violations.
While rejecting the resolution, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on October 20 that Israel will not cooperate with such a human rights inquiry commission.
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