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Israeli officials today reiterated their "outrage" at the United Nations Human Rights Council for deciding to probe illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, adding that they would never cooperate with any probes and would bar any members of the mission from entering the territory.

The UN appointed a panel of three experts to conduct a fact-finding mission on how settlements, illegal under international law, impact the Palestinian civilians living under Israeli occupation.

Israeli official statements blasted the panel as inherently flawed, insisting that any investigation of Israel would have to be "biased" and that the UN should focus its investigations exclusively on "non-democratic countries."

Israel had severed all ties with the human rights council months ago when the notion was initially raised. The probe is expected to focus only on the occupation's impact on Palestinians and not its legality, since there seems to be no real question that the occupation is illegal and that the construction of settlement in occupied territory is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

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