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           UN Rights Envoy Resigns, Accuses Israel of Denying Access

   by Reuters

   The U.N. investigator for human rights violations in the Palestinian
   territories resigned on Monday, saying that Israel had reneged on its
   pledge to grant him access to the West Bank and Gaza.

   Makarim Wibisono, United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of
   human rights in the Palestinian territories, said that his repeated
   oral and written requests for access had gone unanswered over 18
   months.

   In a statement announcing his resignation, Wibisono, who reports to the
   U.N. Human Rights Council, voiced "deep concern at the lack of
   effective protection of Palestinian victims of continuing human rights
   violations and violations of international humanitarian law".

   Israel claims `biased mandate'

   Israel has long rejected the post of the independent investigator for
   the territories, accusing the 47-member state forum of bias against the
   Jewish state, a position backed by its main ally the United States.

   "The Israeli decision was the consequence of the distorted and biased
   mandate given to the rapporteur," Emmanuel Nahshon, Israel's Foreign
   Ministry spokesman, said by email.

   "Israeli human rights are violated too, every day, by Palestinians and
   until ignoring this ends, the council will not be taken seriously as a
   body that respects human rights," he said in a separate statement.

   Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the
   1967 Middle East war and later annexed the latter, declaring it part of
   its eternal, indivisible capital, a move never recognized
   internationally.

   Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem
   as their capital. In 2005, Israel quit Gaza, now run by Hamas
   Islamists.

   `Frustrated every step of the way'

   Wibisono, a former Indonesian diplomat who took up the U.N. post in
   June 2014, said in his first report to the council in March 2015 that
   Israel should investigate the killing of more than 1,500 Palestinian
   civilians, one third of them children, during the 2014 Gaza war, and
   make the findings public.

   His resignation is effective on March 31, after his final report to the
   council. "My efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims
   of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every
   step of the way," Wibisono said, adding the Palestinian government had
   cooperated fully.

   His predecessor Richard Falk, an American law professor who is Jewish,
   long drew controversy in Israel. In 2008 Falk compared Israeli military
   strikes against Hamas in Gaza - during which 1,400 Palestinians were
   killed and there was widespread destruction in densely populated areas
   - to those of the Nazis.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/makarim-wibisono-resignation/3130421.
   html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/makarim-wibisono-resignation/3130421.html