Israel has severed ties with the UN Human Rights Council after the committee launched an international investigation into Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
 
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Tel Aviv would prevent the council’s fact-finding teams from entering the West Bank to investigate settlement construction.
 
“We are not working with them anymore,” Palmor said. “We had been participating in meetings, discussions, arranging visits to Israel. All that is over.”
 
On Thursday, the council adopted a resolution which condemns Israel’s announcements of new settlement homes, demands a reversal of the settlement policy and orders a probe into how Israeli settlements are infringing upon the rights of Palestinians.
 
The resolution was adopted by 36 votes in favor and 10 abstentions. The United States was the only member that voted against it, which shows its isolation in the United Nations.
 
Israeli leaders condemned the UN body, saying it was hypocritical and biased toward Israel.
 
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States had "vigorously opposed the resolution" on the settlements as counterproductive.
 
"It’s just going to distract efforts to help parties resolve the issue directly, which is what has to happen here, and it takes up time and limited resources that the council ought to be spending on other issues," she said.
 
Nearly 500,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlement units built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
 
(Press TV)