Patrick Worsnip
Reuters
UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly debated on Wednesday a resolution that would call on Israel and the Palestinians to investigate charges of war crimes during the Gaza war detailed in a report that has infuriated Israel. The nonbinding resolution on the so-called Goldstone report, which looked certain to be approved by the 192-nation 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 that 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 Israel’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 more than 40 envoys listed to speak, most of them from Arab and other Muslim countries, it was unclear whether the vote would take place on Wednesday.
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.
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 European Union, 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.”
Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour rejected Israel’s principal argument that the report ignored Israel’s right to defend itself.
Israel bombed attacked Gaza on December 27 in what it said was an attempt to stamp out Palestinian rocket fire against Israeli cities.
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