UNHCR commission head called for prosecution of Netanyahu

William Schabas, appointed to head the UNHCR commission to look into war crimes during the Gaza conflict, has recently called for Netanyahu to be prosecuted for war crimes.

UN Watch releases a summary of his statements and actions indicating an anti-Israel bias, including his January 2013 statement during a talk that “my favorite would be Netanyahu within the dock of the International Criminal Court.”

In a 2009 blog post, Schabas wrote that “Israel and its friends, who have manipulated the truth about the nature of the work of the United Nations by gross exaggeration of the role and intervention of certain fanatics,” should be blamed for the difficulties the UN faces in holding a conference on racism. He also blamed “provocative politicians like Mohamed [sic] Ahmadinejad, who in desperation make absurd statements that probably deserve to be ignored rather than exaggerated.”

In 2010, he asked, “Why are we going after the president of Sudan for Darfur and not the president of Israel for Gaza? Because of politics.”