The Palestinian Authority condemned Israel's refusal to cooperate with a UN commission of inquiry into alleged crimes during clashes in Gaza last May.
The PA’s “foreign ministry” said in a statement quoted by the Xinhua news agency that it condemns the Israeli government's decision to deny the entry of the commission's representatives to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"The decision is illegal," the statement said, adding that it is necessary to support the commission's work "to succeed in its tasks consistent with the mandate granted by the UN and with international law and its references."
Israel on Thursday formally announced it would not cooperate with a special commission formed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate alleged abuses against Palestinian Arabs.
The decision was conveyed in a scathing letter to the commission’s head, Navi Pillay, signed by Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN and international organizations in Geneva.
“It is obvious to my country, as it should be to any fair-minded observer, that there is simply no reason to believe that Israel will receive reasonable, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment from the Council, or from this Commission of Inquiry,” said the letter.
“This COI is sure to be yet another sorry chapter in the efforts to demonize the State of Israel,” Eilon Shahar wrote in the letter.
This past July, the president of the UN Human Rights Council announced that Pillay will chair a commission to investigate what was described as “systematic” abuses allegedly committed in Israel and Palestinian Authority territories during the recent violence between Hamas and Israel last May.
Pillay has a history of anti-Israel statements. In 2014, she condemned Israel for "targeting" UN-run schools and hospitals in Gaza, while failing to mention three UN-run schools in Gaza had been used as rocket warehouses, a gross violation of international law that clearly falls within the category of war crimes.
Weeks before that, Pillay opened an emergency UN debate on Gaza by saying there is a "strong possibility" that Israel is violating law in Gaza, and that could amount to war crimes.
She said the killing of Gaza civilians, especially children, raises concerns on Israel's precautions and respect for proportionality.