Netanyahu Says U.N. Rights Council 'Hypocritical'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday slammed as "hypocritical" a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution, which ordered a first probe into Israeli settlements.

"This council has an automatic majority hostile to Israel and is hypocritical," Netanyahu was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office.

The Israeli premier added that the U.N. Human Rights Council "should be ashamed of itself."

The 47-member council approved earlier a resolution ordering a first probe into how Israeli settlements may be infringing on the rights of the Palestinian people.

Thirty-six members voted in favor while 10 abstained. Only the United States voted against it.

"Until today, the council has made 91 decisions, 39 of which dealt with Israel, three with Syria and one with Iran," Netanyahu said.

"One only had to hear the Syrian representative speak today about human rights in order to understand how detached from reality the council is," he added in the statement.

But the Palestinians welcomed the resolution as a "new victory."

"The new international decision is a new victory for the Palestinian cause," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, the spokesman of president Mahmoud Abbas.

"This position sends a message from the international community to Israel that settlements are illegal and must totally stop," he told Agence France Presse.

The foreign ministry meanwhile described the vote as "surrealistic."

The resolution "is yet another surrealistic decision from the workshop of a council that is instrumentalized as a tool to push for one-sided politicized moves instead of promoting human rights," said a statement from the office of the foreign ministry's spokesman.

"While all over the Middle East human rights are violated in an unprecedented scale, the HRC ridicules itself by dedicating its time and resources to establish a superfluous and extravagant body whose sole purpose is to satisfy the Palestinians' whims," it said.

The foreign ministry spokesman's statement also warned that the resolution could undermine peace efforts.

"The Palestinians must understand that they can't have it both ways: they can't enjoy cooperation with Israel and at the same time initiate political clashes in international fora."

Israel's move to expand settlements in occupied territories has been criticized by the international community, which deems the action illegal.

More than 310,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and the number is constantly growing.

Another 200,000 live in a dozen settlement neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.

Beyond ordering an investigation into the implications of settlements, the resolution also calls on Israel to "take and implement serious measures" such as confiscating arms to prevent acts of violence by Israeli settlers.