UK Shadow Foreign Secretary: UK Abstention from UN Vote on Gaza ‘Disgusting’

London, MINA — The UK shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry, condemned the UK government on Saturday for abstaining on a UN Human Rights Council vote that launched an investigation into Israel’s killing of 110 Palestinian protesters in Gaza since March 30.

“I’m delighted by the UN’s Human Rights Council resolution calling for an urgent independent investigation of Monday’s massacre in Gaza, but disgusted that the UK government abstained,” WAFA quoted Thornberry as saying on Twitter on Saturday.

A special session of the UNHRC resolved on Friday to investigate whether Israel’s response to protests on its border with the Gaza Strip was proportionate and whether it had broken international law.

With 29 votes in favor, two opposed and 14 abstentions, the UN human rights body voted on the resolution calling on the council to “urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry… to investigate all alleged violations and abuses… in the context of the military assaults on large scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018.”

The US and Australia were the only two countries that voted against the resolution.

The session was called after the bloodiest day for Palestinians in years on Monday, when 64 protesters were killed by Israeli gunfire during demonstrations that coincided with the relocation of the US Embassy in Jerusalem. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)