the matter any way he liked, and that both he and Avigdor Liberman were "masters of extravagant and ridiculous statements." According to Israeli commentator Gideon Levy, Schabas had fallen victim to investigative character assassination. In an interview with the BBC Schabas admitted that "there is a distortion in the amount of attention given against Israel, and the number of resolutions directed against Israel" but defended the claim by saying Israel gets a "soft ride in the Security Council hearings." Reactions Committee reactions Israel – The committee was criticized by Israel as being biased against Israel, and was to referred to by Israel as a Kangaroo Court. Israel's UN Ambassador, Ron Prosor, met with Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, to request he condemn the appointment Schabas, comparing to the appointment of Schabas to ISIS teaching religious tolerance. Netanyahu spoke out against the fact finding mission, stating that by investigating Israel, the UN is legitimizing what he said was terror groups like Hamas and ISIS. United States – US State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf stated that although there are certain aspects that should be investigated, however criticized the committee by saying "there's a way to investigate things that's not one-sided and biased, and there's a way that we don't support." Palestinian Authority – Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister, Riyad al-Maliki, stated that he was confident that the committee would find Israel guilty of war crimes. Military experts Colonel Richard Kemp CBE (ret.), former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, stated that the committee's report was flawed and dangerous, "that can only provoke further violence and loss of life". Saying that the report starts with preoccupied attributions for responsibilities for the conflict to Israel's blockade of Gaza and the "protracted occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip", he argues that Israel withdrew from Gaza 10 years ago and imposed a selective blockade only in response to attacks by Hamas (2007) and illegal imports of war materials from Iran. Judge Davis gave no evidence to substantiate the committee's claims of "serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law" by the IDF, Kemp says. He also said that the committee self-admittedly lacked military expertise, and Kemp stated that the report is in deed "characterized by a lack of understanding of warfare", and that it "legitimizes Hamas's rocket and tunnel attacks and even sympathizes with the geographical challenges in launching