UN council appoints 3 to probe Israeli settlements
GENEVA — The U.N.'s top human rights body has appointed three independent experts to conduct a fact-finding mission on how Israel's West Bank settlements affect Palestinians.
The president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Uruguay Ambassador Laura Dupuy Lasserre, on Friday named three women to the panel: Christine Chanet of France, Unity Dow of Botswana and Asma Jahangir of Pakistan.
Dupuy Lasserre said their mission will be to look how the Israeli settlements impact "the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people."
The Geneva-based 47-nation council passed a resolution in March to establish such a probe.
The U.N. already considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law. Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, along with Gaza.
© 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Uruguay Ambassador Laura Dupuy Lasserre, on Friday named three women to the panel: Christine Chanet of France, Unity Dow of Botswana and Asma Jahangir of Pakistan.
Dupuy Lasserre said their mission will be to look how the Israeli settlements impact "the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people."
The Geneva-based 47-nation council passed a resolution in March to establish such a probe.
The U.N. already considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law. Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, along with Gaza.
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- Once again, the UN will pursue justice for the Palests and once again the Israelis will whine about "bias" of the research and the team. Once again the age old whine of "anti semitism" will occur.
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