ISRAEL HAS condemned the endorsement by the United Nations Human Rights Council of the Goldstone report alleging war crimes during the war in Gaza, while Palestinians have praised the vote, expressing the hope that it will lead to an investigation into Israeli actions.
In a special session in Geneva yesterday, the council voted 25 to six in favour of the resolution that criticised Israel for failing to co- operate with the UN panel led by retired South African jurist Richard Goldstone. Eleven countries abstained.
The countries voting against were the US, Italy, Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine. Britain, France and three other states in the 47-nation body did not take part in the vote.
In addition to endorsing the Goldstone report, the adopted motion also criticised recent Israeli actions in Jerusalem and the ongoing economic blockade on Gaza.
The UN General Assembly will now consider the Goldstone report, which accused both Israel and militant Palestinian groups of committing war crimes during Israel’s three-week invasion of Gaza, which began on December 28th, 2008.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki- moon will report back to the Human Rights Council on how both sides investigate the allegations. The possibility still exists that the UN Security Council will refer the matter to the International Criminal Court if either side fails to conduct what was termed “credible” investigations.
Israel launched a diplomatic offensive following the publication of the Goldstone report last month, with the top priority being to prevent the possibility of Israeli officials or generals being brought to trial for alleged war crimes. Israel expects the US will use its veto power if the issue is brought before the 15-member security council.
Yesterday’s vote in Geneva came as no surprise as the body has adopted numerous resolutions in the past critical of alleged Israeli human rights violations.
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that the move would have consequences for other states fighting militants. “Whoever votes in favour of the report must understand that next time it will be the Nato soldiers in Afghanistan and then Russian soldiers in Chechnya,” he said.
The foreign ministry in Jerusalem criticised the “one-sided decision” and called on “all responsible states” to reject it.
“The decision encourages terror groups in the whole world and harms world peace. The decision also ignores the fact that the Isaeli defence forces took unprecedented measures to avoid harming civilians and ignored the terrorists’ use of civilians as human shields,” the foreign ministry statement said.
The initial Palestinian decision at Geneva last week, under heavy US and Israeli pressure, to support a six-month delay in considering the Goldstone report, led to a backlash against Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and threatened to derail Fatah-Hamas reconciliation talks.
In an effort to stave off the criticism, Mr Abbas backtracked and yesterday’s motion was sponsored by the Palestinians.
The vote was welcomed by all the Palestinian factions.
Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority’s UN ambassador in Geneva, urged the security council in New York to take up the report, saying “the clock on the report starts now”.
President Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Radeineh said: “What is important now is to translate words into deeds in order to protect our people in the future.”
Hamas spokesman Taher al- Nono said: “We thank whoever voted for it and we hope that this vote will be the beginning of the process to bring the Israeli war criminals to justice.”