VARIOUS: Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu distressed by Israel block on Gaza mission

South African Nobel prize winner Desmond Tutu said on Monday (December 11), he was distressed that Israel had blocked his planned mission to Gaza to investigate last month's killing of 19 Palestinian civilians by Israeli shells. The former archbishop of Cape Town and peace laureate was due to lead a team asked by the United Nations' Human Rights Council to investigate the incident at Beit Hanoun in Gaza on Nov. 8. But after waiting in Geneva for the green light from Israel, Tutu and his fellow team member British law professor Christine Chinkin said they no longer had time to complete the visit by the end of the week as planned. "We find the lack of cooperation by the Israeli Government very distressing as well as its failure to allow the mission timely passage to Israel. This is a time in our history that neither allows for indifference to the plight of those suffering nor a refusal to search for a solution to the present crisis in the region," Tutu said at a news conference. Tutu said the team had been expecting to leave for the Middle East on Sunday night, but authorisation had not arrived from the Israelis. "I think that sometimes not making a decision is making a decision," he said. Tutu rejected suggestions his team travel to Gaza via Egypt because they also wanted to talk to senior Israeli officials about the shelling. Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev said the mission was a a cynical exploitation of the U.N. human rights mechanism. "The proposed delegation would not have done anything to help the Palestinians or to help Israel or to help peace. Least of all it would have done nothing to help advance the cause of human rights," Regev added. The 47-state Human Rights Council has already passed seven resolutions condemning Israeli actions in Gaza and in Lebanon and held three special sessions dedicated to Israel. Although Israel, which is not a member of the Council, has accepted visits by special U.N. investigators on human rights, it has never agreed to any mission of inquiry from either the Commission or its Council successor. Tutu was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984 for his fight against apartheid.

ITN Source | December 12, 2006

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