UN set to call for probes of Gaza war

Dozens of nations have voiced support for a UN resolution that would demand that Israel and the Palestinians probe charges of war crimes in the Gaza war in the so-called Goldstone report that has been blasted by Israel and the US Congress.

REUTERS - Dozens of nations voiced support on Wednesday for a U.N. resolution that would demand that Israel and the Palestinians probe charges of war crimes in the Gaza war in a report blasted by Israel and the U.S. Congress.

The nonbinding resolution on the so-called Goldstone report, which looked certain to be approved by the 192-nation General Assembly, also requests U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to send the 575-page report to the Security Council.

The report, commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council and published on Sept. 15, lambasted both sides in the December-January conflict, which killed more than 1,000 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, but was harsher toward Israel.

Diplomats say there is little chance the report or the Arab-drafted resolution could lead to punishment of either side. But it has enraged Israel and galvanized American Jews.

In the assembly debate, Arab envoys praised the report by South African jurist Richard Goldstone and demanded an end to what they called the Jewish state’s impunity. But Israel damned the document as “conceived in hate and executed in sin.”

There is no veto in the assembly and the resolution looked sure to win a majority. But with some 50 envoys on the speakers list, mainly from Arab and other Muslim countries, the session ran out of time and the debate was adjourned to Thursday.

Israel’s ally the United States was one of a small number of countries expected to vote against the resolution. In a clear warning to the administration, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to oppose U.N. endorsement of Goldstone’s findings.

EU MAY ABSTAIN

Most members of the 27-nation European Union were likely to abstain, although diplomats said negotiations were under way with the Arabs to agree a text the Europeans could support.

The diplomats said the EU opposed the resolution’s implicit endorsement of the Goldstone report, which Western states have called flawed, although making important points.

Representing the EU, Ambassador Anders Liden of Sweden, the bloc’s current president, called the report serious and urged Israel and the Palestinians to launch “appropriate, credible and independent investigations” into its charges.

But Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev gave no hint that her country, which refused to cooperate with Goldstone, would respond. She charged that the report was “irreparably tainted” and “bends both fact and law.”

“Rather than confronting terrorism, the General Assembly chose again to detach itself from reality,” she said, alleging that the body was launching “yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel.”

“From its inception in a one-sided mandate, the (Goldstone) Gaza fact-finding mission was a politicized body with predetermined conclusions,” Shalev said.

She also said the report damaged Middle East peace efforts, but Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said it was the lack of Israeli accountability that undermined the peace process.

Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour rejected Israel’s principal argument that the report ignored the Jewish state’s right to defend itself. Israel attacked Gaza on Dec. 27 to try to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli towns.

Of 36 incidents in Gaza investigated by Goldstone, “with only one exception, the facts prove that there were no military targets that could justify such attacks by the Israeli occupying forces,” Mansour said.

He also said the Palestinian Authority was ready to examine Goldstone’s charges against the Palestinians. But the West Bank-based authority has no control over Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

The resolution follows Goldstone in calling on Israel and “the Palestinian side” to undertake within three months credible investigations into the report’s charges.

It also asks Ban to transmit the report to the Security Council. But diplomats said all five veto-wielding permanent council members opposed council involvement, so it was unlikely the 15-nation body would take action.
 

Date created : 2009-11-05