Israel decided Monday to sever all contact with the United Nations human rights council and with its chief commissioner Navi Pillay, after the international body decided to establish an international investigative committee on the West Bank settlements. The Foreign Ministry ordered Israel’s ambassador to Geneva to cut off contact immediately, instructing him to ignore phone calls from the commissioner, a senior Israeli official said.

Israel will also bar a fact-finding team dispatched by the council from entering Israel and the West Bank to investigate settlement construction. “We will not permit members of the human rights council to visit Israel and our ambassador has been instructed to not even answer phone calls,” said the official.

Settlers violence against Israeli and international peace activists harvesting olive trees in Hebron in order to support the Al-Jaber family season just next to the settlement of Hazon David. Hebron and Kiryat Arba settlers attacked the family in their house on several occasions. (Photo: Activestills)

MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) condemned the decision, saying that Israel “prefers settlements over human rights and contact with the international community.” Khenin called the move dangerous, saying that “through disconnecting from the world, the government is only isolating itself.” Israeli Foreign Minister Yvette (Avigdor) Lieberman said Friday that the move by the UN body proves that the Palestinians do not want to renew negotiations with Israel. “We are dealing with Al-Qaida terror on the one hand and diplomatic terror by Abu Mazen on the other,” Lieberman said, referring to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel is also considering “sanctions” against the Palestinian Authority in response to the human rights council decision.

On Friday, PLO official Saeb Erekat said the UN decision was a victory for international law and called on the Israeli government to stop all settlement activity in order to give the peace process a chance. The UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel’s planned construction of new housing units for settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying they undermined the peace process and posed a threat to the two-state solution and the creation of a contiguous and independent Palestinian state. Palestinian officials say settlements undermine a viable Palestinian state. They are considered illegal by the International Court of Justice, the highest UN legal body for disputes, while Israel wants their status to be decided in peace talks.