Date
October 20, 2022
Title
U.S. State Department Press Briefing on anti-Israel “Commission of Inquiry” Report, U.S. Department of State
Note
"…
QUESTION: I was going to begin with Iran, but since your colleague at the White House has already addressed it, and I’m not really interested in you repeating the same thing that she already said – but maybe my – some of my colleagues are – but I’m going to start with something different, and that is that you will have seen that the human – UN Human Rights Commission of Inquiry released its first report to the General Assembly today on Israeli activities in the Palestinian territories. And I’m wondering if you have a response – a reaction to what the findings of that report are.
MR PRICE: We’ve – Matt, we’re – we’ll take a close look at that report. It has just been released so can’t offer a line-by-line analysis at this point. But what I can tell you is that we have made our concerns about this Commission of Inquiry clear from the start. Israel is consistently unfairly targeted in the UN system, including in the course of this Commission of Inquiry. Israel is the only country that’s subject to a standing country-specific agenda.
When we re-engaged with the Human Rights Council last year and later when we were elected as a representative to the Human Rights Council, we did so knowing that the council has tremendous potential. It’s precisely why we wanted to engage and ultimately why we did re-engage, but we also recognize that there are needed reforms. This is an effort that we continue to work towards to see to it that Israel is not unfairly singled out – and I use that term unfairly – put emphasis on that. No country – the record of no country should be immune from scrutiny, but no country should also be targeted unfairly, and that’s the principle that we seek to uphold.
QUESTION: Okay. So you – are you aware of the findings?
MR PRICE: Again, the team will go through it.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR PRICE: I don’t have a specific reaction to offer at the time.
QUESTION: Well, let me give you a very brief outline of what some of them are. And let’s just set aside whether or not the commission in itself is unfairly targeting Israel or not. It very well may. I’m not going to make a – I’m not taking a – I’m not making an argument on either side of that. But what it accuses Israel of doing is occupation, de facto annexation, forcible displacement; in other words, things that are very similar, if not the exact same, as what you accuse Russia of doing in Ukraine.
Just last week, both the United States and Israel voted in support of a resolution condemning the Russians for these things. And so I’m wondering how you square the two: whether the commission itself – the creation of the commission – is unfair or not, the allegations that it’s making are very similar to allegations that you say are credible and true in the case of Russia and Ukraine. And so what’s the difference?
MR PRICE: First, Matt, when it comes to the report that was just released, again, we will go through it. We’ll go through it carefully and thoroughly, and we can offer more feedback on the specific assertions at that time. So I’m not going to go into the specific assertions.
But what I will note is that we categorically reject the blanket comparison between the actions of the Kremlin – Russia in this case – that has launched and waged a brutal war of aggression against another sovereign state, a sovereign state that posed and poses no threat whatsoever to the Kremlin, a military campaign that has – whose toll can be measured in thousands upon thousands of lives lost, a campaign that has been condemned, as you alluded to, by countries around the world – 141 countries in the case of the March vote in the UN General Assembly; 143 countries in the case of the annexation that Moscow recently announced and attempted with the four regions in sovereign Ukrainian territory.
Matt, when it comes to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, this administration believes deeply in a two-state solution. It is – it has been at the core of the approach that successive American administrations have taken to this conflict. We believe that only through a negotiated two-state solution can we arrive at a situation where we can have what really is our ultimate goal, and that is a reality in which Israelis and Palestinians alike enjoy equal level – excuse me – equal levels of security, of prosperity, of opportunity, of democracy, and crucially of dignity. And that’s something we’re working towards.
QUESTION: Right. But the Palestinians and their supporters would argue that what you accuse Russia of doing in Ukraine, in terms of war of aggression, is very similar to what is going on in the occupied West Bank. And so I guess the – I’m trying to find what you find is different. Because obviously Russia contests those allegations that you make against it, whether they’re right or not. Israel contests the allegations that are being made against it in this report, and by others, including human rights groups that you cite repeatedly when it comes to Ukraine, when it comes to Iran, when it comes to other places. Is the difference that Ukraine is a sovereign state, in your view, and that Palestine is not?
MR PRICE: That is a key difference. You point to some of what critics are saying. Look, no country is or should be immune from criticism. That, of course, includes Israel. Some of the criticism that we’ve heard – and we’ve, of course, offered our own over the course of recent months – is justified. Much of it is not. And so when you point to comparisons in criticisms, I think it is important to take a step back and to recognize the profound differences between those two situations. You mentioned one of them, and it is a paramount difference..." …"
QUESTION: I was going to begin with Iran, but since your colleague at the White House has already addressed it, and I’m not really interested in you repeating the same thing that she already said – but maybe my – some of my colleagues are – but I’m going to start with something different, and that is that you will have seen that the human – UN Human Rights Commission of Inquiry released its first report to the General Assembly today on Israeli activities in the Palestinian territories. And I’m wondering if you have a response – a reaction to what the findings of that report are.
MR PRICE: We’ve – Matt, we’re – we’ll take a close look at that report. It has just been released so can’t offer a line-by-line analysis at this point. But what I can tell you is that we have made our concerns about this Commission of Inquiry clear from the start. Israel is consistently unfairly targeted in the UN system, including in the course of this Commission of Inquiry. Israel is the only country that’s subject to a standing country-specific agenda.
When we re-engaged with the Human Rights Council last year and later when we were elected as a representative to the Human Rights Council, we did so knowing that the council has tremendous potential. It’s precisely why we wanted to engage and ultimately why we did re-engage, but we also recognize that there are needed reforms. This is an effort that we continue to work towards to see to it that Israel is not unfairly singled out – and I use that term unfairly – put emphasis on that. No country – the record of no country should be immune from scrutiny, but no country should also be targeted unfairly, and that’s the principle that we seek to uphold.
QUESTION: Okay. So you – are you aware of the findings?
MR PRICE: Again, the team will go through it.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR PRICE: I don’t have a specific reaction to offer at the time.
QUESTION: Well, let me give you a very brief outline of what some of them are. And let’s just set aside whether or not the commission in itself is unfairly targeting Israel or not. It very well may. I’m not going to make a – I’m not taking a – I’m not making an argument on either side of that. But what it accuses Israel of doing is occupation, de facto annexation, forcible displacement; in other words, things that are very similar, if not the exact same, as what you accuse Russia of doing in Ukraine.
Just last week, both the United States and Israel voted in support of a resolution condemning the Russians for these things. And so I’m wondering how you square the two: whether the commission itself – the creation of the commission – is unfair or not, the allegations that it’s making are very similar to allegations that you say are credible and true in the case of Russia and Ukraine. And so what’s the difference?
MR PRICE: First, Matt, when it comes to the report that was just released, again, we will go through it. We’ll go through it carefully and thoroughly, and we can offer more feedback on the specific assertions at that time. So I’m not going to go into the specific assertions.
But what I will note is that we categorically reject the blanket comparison between the actions of the Kremlin – Russia in this case – that has launched and waged a brutal war of aggression against another sovereign state, a sovereign state that posed and poses no threat whatsoever to the Kremlin, a military campaign that has – whose toll can be measured in thousands upon thousands of lives lost, a campaign that has been condemned, as you alluded to, by countries around the world – 141 countries in the case of the March vote in the UN General Assembly; 143 countries in the case of the annexation that Moscow recently announced and attempted with the four regions in sovereign Ukrainian territory.
Matt, when it comes to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, this administration believes deeply in a two-state solution. It is – it has been at the core of the approach that successive American administrations have taken to this conflict. We believe that only through a negotiated two-state solution can we arrive at a situation where we can have what really is our ultimate goal, and that is a reality in which Israelis and Palestinians alike enjoy equal level – excuse me – equal levels of security, of prosperity, of opportunity, of democracy, and crucially of dignity. And that’s something we’re working towards.
QUESTION: Right. But the Palestinians and their supporters would argue that what you accuse Russia of doing in Ukraine, in terms of war of aggression, is very similar to what is going on in the occupied West Bank. And so I guess the – I’m trying to find what you find is different. Because obviously Russia contests those allegations that you make against it, whether they’re right or not. Israel contests the allegations that are being made against it in this report, and by others, including human rights groups that you cite repeatedly when it comes to Ukraine, when it comes to Iran, when it comes to other places. Is the difference that Ukraine is a sovereign state, in your view, and that Palestine is not?
MR PRICE: That is a key difference. You point to some of what critics are saying. Look, no country is or should be immune from criticism. That, of course, includes Israel. Some of the criticism that we’ve heard – and we’ve, of course, offered our own over the course of recent months – is justified. Much of it is not. And so when you point to comparisons in criticisms, I think it is important to take a step back and to recognize the profound differences between those two situations. You mentioned one of them, and it is a paramount difference..." …"
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