BRUSSELS: Volker Turk, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, omitted from a recent two-hour talk he gave at the European Parliament any examples of rights abuses faced by the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel, the European Palestinian Council for Political Relations said on Monday.
“Almost all cases of human rights abuses were given attention in the discussion that took place on July 21 except for the flagrant violations by Israel against Palestinians’ human rights,” the council said.
“The high commissioner made prolonged statements about protecting the rights of refugees while ignoring the rights of more than 5 million Palestinians who were forced into exile as a result of the ongoing Nakba perpetrated by Israel since 1948.
“Mr. Turk expressed solidarity with the persecuted journalists in the world but he did not mention the 50 Palestinian journalists who were killed by the occupation forces since 2000.”
The council said it would write to Turk asking an explanation for “this deliberate marginalization of the suffering of the Palestinians and the whitewashing of Israel’s human rights violations against them,” the Kuwait News Agency reported.
The council urged all activists, diplomats, politicians, human rights advocates and journalists to speak out in support of Palestinian rights and demand that the UN, Western governments and the European Parliament address the violation of Palestinian rights, as well as the suffering of the Palestinian people, under Israeli policies when discussing global human rights.
