This may go down as one of the all-time worst TV interviews by a UN figure. Asked by Israeli TV’s Channel 2 why he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his “favorite” to indict in the International Criminal Court — instead of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad or Hamas leader Khaled Mashal — Schabas explained that he merely “echoed” the Goldstone Report. Except that Netanyahu wasn’t in power then — and, in fact, isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Goldstone Report. Schabas fumbled for a defense, and miserably failed.
There are other doozies:
– Schabas refused to say if his commission of inquiry would examine crimes by Hamas. He said he needs to check with the other commissioners. (Actually, there’s only one other commissioner, Doudou Diene; the third one, Clooney fiancee Amal Alamuddin, pulled out on the same day the UN announced her appointment.)
– Schabas refused to call Hamas a terrorist group, even though it is legally defined as such by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Jordan, Egypt, Australia, Japan and Israel.
– Schabas said Israel “gets off light at the Security Council,” a myth he often repeats but which has no basis whatsoever. In fact, most countries, including many of the world’s worst abusers, never get criticized at all in the UNSC, whereas Israel has been criticized in numerous UNSC resolutions, debates and presidential statements. That the US has vetoed most of the virulent and one-sided attacks against Israel launched by the Arab states is a good and right thing. The problem is that Schabas supports these biased campaigns.
Once again, UN Watch demands that William Schabas recuse himself from the UN inquiry on Gaza due to his manifest bias, or appearance thereof. Click here for more.
