JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the U.N. Human Rights Council's announcement Thursday to investigate the impact of Jewish communities on Palestinian human rights.

"This is a hypocritical council with an automatic majority against Israel," Netanyahu said.

"This council ought to be ashamed of itself," he said, noting that 39 of the council's 91 decisions to date dealt with Israel, three with Syria and one with Iran.

"One only had to listen to the Syrian representative speak about human rights at the council on Thursday to understand how detached from reality it is," Netanyahu added.

Israel's Foreign Ministry also issued a statement on the URC's latest mission.

"While all over the Middle East, human rights are violated in an unprecedented scale, the HRC ridicules itself by dedicating its time and resources to establish a superfluous and extravagant body whose sole purpose is to satisfy the Palestinians' shims and to harm future chances to reach an agreement by peaceful means," the Foreign Ministry stated in part.

Earlier this week, P.A. Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said they would ask the HRC to investigate "Israeli crimes" in the "occupied Palestinian territory to witness firsthand the illegal Israeli practices violating the Palestinian people's rights."