'UN Report Has Jewish Blood on its Hands'

By Cynthia Bank

Israel quickly responds to 'biased' and 'prejudicial' UN report alleging it committed war crimes during Operation Protective Edge.

Israel rushed on Monday to condemn the United Nations report alleging that it had committed war crimes during last year's Operation Protective Edge. 
Blasting the report as biased, the Foreign Ministry stressed: "It is well known that the entire process that led to the production of
this report was politically motivated and morally flawed from the outset."
"This report was commissioned by a notoriously biased institution," it added, referring to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).
"From the outset, the purpose of this report was to vilify the State of Israel and the IDF, with the ultimate aim of undermining Israel’s right to defend its citizens from attack," Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely declared. 

"The Human Rights Council is a body which has completely discredited itself through its obsessive and prejudicial preoccupation with Israel, whilst turning a blind eye to genuine violations of human rights around the world."

"The State of Israel and the IDF scrupulously abide by the highest standards of international law. Israel’s robust legal system ensures strict oversight of military operations. The measures Israel took during the Gaza Conflict to protect the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians are without parallel among other military forces."

"Israel is exceptionally proud of its principled conduct and will maintain its unswerving commitment to human rights and international law, irrespective of the well-orchestrated campaign to besmirch its name."
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, addressing his Jewish Home party's faction meeting, also attacked the report stating it "has blood on its hands [for] allowing the murder of Jews." 
"It is a report with blood on its hands that is trying to turn Jewish blood into the cheapest product in the world," he continued. "This a report with blood on its hands because it's trying to restrict soldiers who protected this country's citizens; it's trying to tie our hands."
Bennett noted that the report "skipped over the murder of the three boys as if it did not happen and [implying] there is no intention for it to be investigated." 
"In a UN investigation, answers are not important. What's important are the hypocritical questions dipped in the blood of Jews. The one who decides what to investigate, decides in advance what the results of that investigation are."
"The abduction of three boys who were executed at point-blank range is not worthy of investigations; students who were preparing for adulthood - not worthy of an investigation. The army sending text messages to areas it planned to attack is unfit for investigation. Soldiers who respected the ceasefire and in the meantime their comrades were kidnapped - these are all worthy of investigation," Bennett thundered.
"We say loud and clear: the Jewish people will continue to defend itself whether you like it or not. And we will say forever - shame on you."
Former foreign minister and MK Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) adamantly denied the assertions of the UN report, stressing, "Israel does not carry out war crimes."
"The UNHRC and the committees it establishes regularly carry out crimes against humanity as they rewrite history and distort the reality that there is a country that fights to protects its children from a terrorist organization launching rockets at them, and operating from within areas concentrated with children," Liberman added.
MK Tzipi Livni denounced the report during a Zionist Union faction meeting, asserting it was born in sin by a committee that systematically and proactively attacks Israel.
"We will not accept a comparison between IDF soldiers and terrorists. We will not agree to speak about IDF soldiers and terrorists in the same breath. This is an important distinction for any country fighting terrorism."
"Soldiers fighting against terrorism sometimes cause civilian casualties," Livni explained. "Terrorist groups do not distinguish and kill civilians as well as soldiers. It doesn't matter if it's five-year-old Daniel Turgeman or Danny Gonen, murdered Friday. The goal is terror."
"We will not accept the world investigating IDF soldiers. Israel is a democracy that checks itself with a strong legal system. The world needs to respect what we are doing for ourselves and not single out Israel via a UN commission or a tribunal at The Hague."
"This report is nothing more than a rubber stamp," MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid) charged, "that gives a boost to terrorist organizations around the world by allowing them to continue to attack innocent civilians."
"The UN Secretary-General, who ordered the construction of schools and clinics in Gaza that have since become terrorist structures, is responsible for the slaughter and destruction in the area - a response to [the terror organizations'] attacks against Israel."
"It is time for the world to look at the only democratic state in the Middle East in an objective way."