UN Human Rights Chief Takes Hezbollah To Task
Ryan R. Jones - All Headline News Correspondent Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - Arab member states of the UN's new Human Rights Council called an emergency session Friday to discuss what they called Israeli "human rights violations" in Lebanon, but it was on Hezbollah that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, focused much of her attention. According to the AP, Arab delegates presented a draft resolution putting all the blame for the current crisis on Israel and accusing the forces of the Jewish state of committing "gross human rights violations." The text did not mention Hezbollah. But Arbour insisted the Lebanese terror group's offenses must be taken into account in any honest debate regarding the conflict. Arbour said, "Hezbollah's indiscriminate shelling of densely populated centers in northern Israel, which has brought death and destruction," has been relentless. "There have also been repeated allegations of Hezbollah's systematic use of civilians as human shields," she added. Israeli envoy Itzhak Levanon also reminded those present that there would be no crisis if not for Hezbollah's unprovoked aggression against Israel on July 12, when the group abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others while pounding the Galilee region with rockets. "The simple fact of how this crisis started seems to have evaded the memory of many in the council," said Levanson.
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