Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The annual U.N. human rights session is spending a disproportionate amount of time discussing alleged Israeli rights violations during the six-month old Palestinian uprising, according to Israel's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva.
On Wednesday, U.N. human rights commissioner Mary Robinson will present the Geneva gathering of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights with a special report on her earlier visit to Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
It accuses Israeli security forces of having engaged in "excessive force, disproportionate to the threat faced by their soldiers." The report also cites allegations that Israel has denied timely medical assistance to Palestinian victims of the violence and that security forces have attacked medical personnel and ambulances.
Also included in the report is the question of Jewish settlements in the disputed territories, and the economic impact of the security closure on the borders between Israel and the PA-ruled areas.
Robinson's visit and a later one by a special three-person commission, were the result of the passing of a special UNCHR resolution in October. They were mandated to collect information on "the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force [used] by the Israeli occupying power against innocent and unarmed Palestinian citizens."
Israel has repeatedly refused to cooperate with the commission of inquiry, saying that it's mission is biased and one-sided. The Israeli government fears that the commission could recommend indicting Israel for war crimes.
More than 350 Palestinians and 60 Israelis have been killed in six months of clashes and terrorist attacks.
Israel's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Ya'akov Levy, will deliver Israel's response to the U.N. report. In a telephone interview he declined to go into specifics about what he would say, other than that he would "present the facts on the ground" and "label the report one-sided."
Israel charges that PA incitement and propaganda fuels the unrest, pointing out that children receive training in military skills and are exploited in riot situations.
It says the PA has also failed to honor signed agreements, freeing terrorist prisoners and refusing to confiscate illegal weapons.
Levy said he expects support will be forthcoming from traditional backers of Israel, mainly the U.S.
It was an understatement to say that a "disproportionate" amount of time was being devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this UNCHR's six-week session, he said.
The debate, which began mid-week last week, is expected to continue through this week and next.
Levy said Israel was not alone in regarding the emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as unbalanced.
A delegate to the U.N. body from a Third World nation had suggested to him that Israel and the Arab states form a separate subcommittee where they could debate these issues "ad nauseam" and spare the rest of the global body the accusations and wrangling.
Israeli deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior told the UNCHR last week some Palestinians were trying to turn the conflict into a religious one by spreading hatred in schools, the media, "and sometimes even in mosques."
He called this "an extremely dangerous strategy" that could result in an "eternal conflict, to which no solution can be found."
Israel is regularly censured by the UNCHR, a body it has never been allowed to join, because until recently it was the only nation in the world prevented from joining a regional grouping, because of Arab hostility.
Without membership in a regional grouping, Israel was denied a chance to serve as a rotating member of the Security Council, or on other important U.N. bodies.
Last year, persistent U.S. intervention succeeded in getting Israel accepted conditionally into the Western European and Others Group, which includes other such non-European, westernized countries as the U.S. and Australia.
This will open the doors for its membership in bodies in New York, but not in other bodies worldwide.
The 53-member UNCHR includes countries with dubious human rights records, including Cuba, China, Libya and Syria.