A diplomatic response, a more direct response, and both.

Calev..
LOTL..
01 February '13..




In yesterday's Times of Israel addressing the UN Human Rights Commission's latest report, a pretty sharp response from Israel's Foreign Ministry:

“The report is so utterly misguided that it steps widely out of line in recommending a boycott that would harm Palestinians and Israelis alike,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Times of Israel. “The authors seem so enraged that they forget they have no authority on such issues, and their hubris leads them to decree as states, rather than opine as individuals.”

The Times continues:

Last March, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to dispatch an international fact-finding mission to “investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.” Furious over the UNHRC’s apparent over-obsession with Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians, Jerusalem cut all ties with the Geneva-based body, ceasing all cooperation and barring its fact-finders from entering Israeli territory.

In the world of diplomacy one might say this is a bit feisty but there was to yet a bit more icing on the cake as reported in yesterday's Jerusalem Post:

The Defense Ministry has advanced plans to build 346 housing units in the West Bank’s Gush Etzion region, area council head Davidi Perl reported on Thursday.

The plans for 200 new homes in Tekoa and 146 in Nokdim were pushed forward a few weeks ago, but he and the council only publicized the information on Thursday, he said.

The news broke at the same time that the UN Human Rights Council lifted its embargo on a report condemning Israeli settlement building and calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank.

Got a smile from you, didn't it? And far be it from me to deny a man his praise:

Hagit Ofran of Peace Now said that Barak had advanced plans for more than 8,000 units during his tenure in office. He has now chosen to leave his job, by pushing forward another harmful set of plans in isolated settlements beyond the security barrier, she said.

“It’s a testimony to his true legacy as defense minister,” she declared.

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