The United Nations' top human rights body has condemned Israel's slaying of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin as tragic, ignoring a US warning that such "politicised" decisions discredited it.
The Commission on Human Rights voted 31 to 2 with 18 abstentions in favour of a resolution brought by Pakistan, in the name of Muslim states and Zimbabwe, that strongly condemned "liquidations" and "extra-judicial killings...in particular the tragic assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin."
Several speakers at the 53-state commission called the killing "state terrorism". Israel says it is acting in self-defence when it targets militant leaders for assassination.
European Union states, which have branded the slaying a violation of international law, abstained in the vote, saying the resolution should have included a general call to halt the violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
But the United States, Israel's traditional ally on the commission, voted against the proposal despite saying earlier that it was "deeply troubled" by the killing.
A US representative said the commission, holding its annual six-week meeting, already undertook plenty of investigations into Israel's human rights record, so today's special session on the death of the wheelchair-bound cleric was unnecessary.
"It is precisely this sort of politicisation which discredits this body," the United States said in a statement.