WASHINGTON, June 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States on Friday, June 21, 2002, questioned the need for a planned trip to the Middle East next week by a UN committee to investigate Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The State Department noted that Washington has been skeptical of the UN General Assembly's "Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories" since it was created in 1968 and has repeatedly voted to disband it.

"The United States has questioned whether this committee ... represents a wise use of UN funds," the department said in a statement.

"We have regularly voted against its continuation because we doubt its ability to make a meaningful contribution," it said. "Our doubts continue, and we question the need for this trip."

Israel has never agreed to cooperate with the panel but on Tuesday, the committee, seen by Washington as a platform for anti-Israel views, announced it would be visiting Egypt, Jordan and Syria from June 23 to July 6 to hold hearings about the treatment of Palestinians.

Worth mentioning that during its incursions into the Palestinian territories, the Israeli army killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians, especially at the refugee camp of Jenin.

The Palestinians accused Israeli forces of committing war crimes and massacring civilians during the Israeli nine-day crack down and incursion into the camp, which lasted until April 12. Israel, for its part, repeatedly denied such accusations, insisting that about 50 people died in pitched battles that also left 23 of their soldiers dead.

Human rights investigators said there was no evidence of a massacre but the Israeli army committed acts that could be qualified as war crimes.

An attempt to send a UN fact-finding team to the spot was blocked by Israel. On May 14, 2002, Fred Eckhard, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the preparation of the United Nations report on the events in Jenin began and was expected to take six weeks.

That means the investigation should be concluded around mid June. The report was requested by an overwhelming majority of countries taking part in an emergency General Assembly session convened on May 7 to discuss the situation in the Middle East.

The General Assembly voted 120 in favor, four against, and six abstaining to commission the report from Annan. The assembly met at the request of the Arab world after the issue of Jenin paralyzed the Security Council.