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Source: Reuters -
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Dozens of nations voiced support for a UN 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 US
Congress.
The non-binding resolution on the so-called Goldstone report, which
looked certain to be approved by the 192-nation General Assembly,
also requests UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to send the 575-page
report to the Security Council.
The report, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council and
published on September 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 US House of
Representatives on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to oppose
UN 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 co-operate 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 December 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.
