The United States has once again refused to attend a UN Human Rights Council special meeting on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories in the aftermath of the Israeli military’s offensive in Gaza last summer.
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"As was the case last year, the United States will not engage in the debate. Neither will Israel. Instead, we will call a vote, and vote 'no' on Item 7 resolutions," the US ambassador to the council, Keith Harper, said on Monday.
Earlier, Israel also did not attend the UN body’s special session. A source close to the council said on condition of anonymity that Israel's absence from the meeting in the Swiss city of Geneva on Monday clearly amounted to a boycott.
US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the United States had "coordinated our refusal to participate with Israel."
"The United States' approach to the Human Rights Council's Item 7 has not changed," Harper said.
"We remain deeply troubled by this council's stand-alone agenda item directed against Israel, and by the many repetitive and one-sided resolutions under that agenda item," she added.
At every UN Human Rights Council session, under the Agenda Item 7, Israel’s human rights record is debated. The US always refuses to participate in council debates on Item 7, which it claims singles out Israel.
Monday's session had initially been organized to discuss a probe into Israel's actions during last year's war in Gaza, but the investigations were hit with a delay after the head of the team had to step down under pressure from Israel.
"The process cannot be rushed," former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis, who has taken over as new head of the team, told the council.
Israel has expressed strong dissatisfaction with the inquiry into the 2014 Gaza war, calling for the entire process to be shelved. Tel Aviv claims that the UN Human Rights Council and its commission are biased against it.
Israel started its latest war on the Gaza Strip in early July 2014. The offensive ended on August 26 with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in Israel’s 50-day onslaught. Over 11,100 others - including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people - were also injured.
