Legal expert David Michael Crane resigned Wednesday from his post as chairman of the UN Human Rights panel that is probing possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.Crane, who teaches international criminal law at Syracuse University College of Law in New York, was appointed to the post along with the two other panel members last month.“The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Vojislav Šuc (Slovenia), was informed yesterday by Professor David Crane that he has decided to resign as chair and member of the Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory due to a personal circumstance that has arisen,” the UNHRC said it a statement it sent out to the media on Wednesday. “The President has accepted the resignation of Professor Crane, whom he appointed on 25 July this year, and is now considering next steps. The current members of the Commission are Sara Hossain (Bangladesh) and Kaari Betty Murungi (Kenya).”The UNHRC voted to create the commission of inquiry in May, and was scheduled to present an oral update to the council on September 24. The full report which will include the results of the panel’s probe into Israeli response to the Hamas-led Great March of Return that began on March 30 will not be published until 40th UNHRC session next March.But the panel is also tasked with looking at Israeli actions against the Palestinians in Gaza in general, and in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.Israel protested the creation of the probe, explaining that its mandate was biased in that it was not charged with fully exploring the actions of all parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel is the only party named in the UNHRC resolution that created the commission.
Chair of UNHRC’s Gaza war crime probe, David Crane, resigns
Crane was appointed to the post along with the two other panel members last month.
