Schabas Vows To Investigate Israel For U.N. With Or Without Government Cooperation

Schabas Vows To Investigate Israel For U.N. With Or Without Government Cooperation. (Matzav).

Prof. William Schabas, selected to head the United Nations Human Rights Council inquiry into Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, has vowed to conduct his investigation with or without the cooperation of the Israeli government.

Schabas’s U.N. appointment has come under fire over his perceived bias against Israel.

“I might even come to Israel to examine things from up close,” he told Israel’s Channel 2. “When the U.N. gives us its final approval-and we hope this will be very soon-we will begin our work. It’s very important for us to come to Israel, but this visit won’t be important if the authorities in Israel don’t cooperate with us, despite my hope that they will cooperate.”

In the past, Schabas has made comments implying that Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu needs to be brought before an international tribunal for war crimes.

In response, Israeli officials have called the U.N. inquiry “a kangaroo court.” Israel has also called for Schabas’s replacement, but he has vowed to remain in the lead role for the investigation.


In a 2009 blog post, Schabas wrote that the world should not just ignore” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statements, but to stop "exaggerating" them. "Those who deserve the blame are “Israel and its friends, who have manipulated the truth about the nature of the work of the United Nations by gross exaggeration of the role and intervention of certain fanatics," Schabas said .

In 2011, Schabas went to Iran, to co-sponsor conferences with the Tehran-based Center for Human Rights and Cultural Diversity, where he was keynote speaker. The center has close ties with former Iranian president President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.