1 Praising progress in the Middle East peace process, the United States on Wednesday urged an end to special U.N. human rights scrutiny of Israeli practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
2 In a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, U.S. delegate Geraldine Ferraro backed a recommendation by U.N. investigator Rene Felber that his mission should come to an end.
3 Felber, who is scheduled to present his report to the 53-nation body Friday, concluded that political condemnation had failed to improve Israeli respect for human rights and there should be a change in methods.
4 'A report may soothe consciences, but its effectiveness should be measured by the impact of the points it makes and by how seriously they are taken by those to whom they are addressed,' said Felber in a remarkable admission of loss of faith in U.N. tactics.
5 'It is in this spirit that we submit this report, which naturally concludes with a proposal to do away with our services, and even to do away with appointing a special rapporteur in the occupied territories altogether,' said Felber, a former Swiss foreign minister.
6 Algeria disagreed with the recommendation, and said serious rights violations continued unchecked.
7 Israel traditionally comes under strong fire from the U.N.'s human rights watchdog because of the Arab and Third World majority. The United States is Israel's main defender.
8 The European Union, which occupies the middle ground, said in a statement that the rights situation remained 'of great concern, not least because of the expansion of Israeli settlements.'
9 'We believe that the commission should reject the excessive and unproductive rhetoric which has characterized the debate on the Middle East all too often in the past,' commented Ferraro.
10 'Let us recognize and honor those who, like this year's Nobel peace prize winners Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzak Rabin, have put hope and human rights ahead of hatred.'
11 Ferraro said the United States strongly endorsed Felber's recommendation to wind up his mandate as special investigator.
12 Felber, a former Swiss Foreign Minister, was appointed by the commission two years ago.
13 He spent visited Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank last October. He met Israeli Foreign Minister Peres, PLO chief Arafat, as well as army leaders and human rights groups.
14 Felber criticized conditions in the Ketziot military detention camp in the Negev desert in southern Israel, where Palestinian prisoners are housed in army tents in temperatures which can reach 40 degrees Centigrade (100 degrees Fahrenheit) in the day and freezing at night.
15 At its peak, the camp held 7,500 prisoners. Israel released many last year as part of the peace talks.
16 Felber said the only way to pass the time in Ketziot was in discussions, invariably political, and this had caused the camp to become 'a training center for the war against the Israeli occupiers.'
17 For instance, the abduction and killing last October of a young Israeli soldier, Nachson Waxman, and the subsequent suicide bomb attack on a Tel Aviv bus which killed 22 Israelis, was the work of detainees released from Ketziot, Felber said.
18 'International public opinion is similar to Israeli public opinion: it regards security as taking precedence over human rights and every terrorist attack brings out this feeling anew,' said Felber.
19 His report criticized Israel's water policy toward the Palestinians. He said supplies to Gaza had been cut in half since autonomy last year.
20 His 14-page report only made passing reference to the violence between Muslim fundamentalists and Arafat's forces in Gaza, or to Israeli settlements.

Felber , who is scheduled to present his report to the 53 - nation body Friday , concluded that political condemnation had failed to improve Israeli respect for human rights and there should be a change in methods .
53 - nation body
Who are these nations?