Palestinians want urgent UN debate on Goldstone Gaza report
Move appears to indicate effort by Abbas to deflect criticism over decision not to pursue war crimes charges.
By Barak Ravid and The Associated Press Tags: Goldstone report Hamas Gaza Israel newsPalestinian diplomats in Geneva said Friday they are pushing to bring forward a United Nations Human Rights Council debate on alleged war crimes committed by Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza earlier this year.
Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said the request for an urgent meeting was prompted by violence this week in Jerusalem that he blamed on Israel and which he also wants discussed.
Last week, the Palestinian Authority agreed to delay debating a UN report on the conflict until March over concerns that going ahead now could harm the fragile Middle East peace process. The decision led to street protests by Palestinians and condemnation around the Arab world.
"We deferred, so we were expecting that the Israelis should respect in some way human rights, but this act of aggression against people, against the human rights and humanitarian law, is unbelievable," Khraishi said.
There have been repeated outbursts of unrest in Jerusalem since last week, sparked by rumors spread among Palestinians of an attempt by Jewish extremists to harm the Islamic holy sites in the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
Khraishi's comments appear to indicate a mounting effort by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to deflect criticism for earlier holding off pursuing Israel over alleged war crimes in the Gaza fighting.
According to a senior source in Jerusalem, the Palestinian move has caused a great deal of embarrassment for the United States, which has been trying to formulate a response with Israel since Friday morning.
Officials in Jerusalem believe that Washington will find it difficult to prevent the debate, especially since the Palestinian agreement to the deferral last week was achieved with U.S. pressure. Nonetheless, officials believe that the visiting U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, will attempt to convince the Palestinian leadership not to advance the initiative in his meetings in the West Bank on Friday and Saturday.
The Palestinian leadership has already backed a Libyan push to debate the report in the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 14.
The head of the Organization of The Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said earlier Friday that his group would support Palestinian efforts to raise the report in the Geneva-based UN rights council that originally commissioned it.
"You know that OIC countries and public opinion were saddened by the withdrawal [of the report]," Ihsanoglu told reporters in Geneva.
The Organization of The Islamic Conference is a powerful force in the 47-nation council and can usually muster the 17 votes necessary to force an emergency meeting.
The 575-page report, drawn up by a team of experts led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone, concluded that Israel used disproportionate force and failed to protect civilians during its Dec. 27-Jan. 18 offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Israel has rejected the war crimes allegations, saying they resulted from bias against it.
The report also accused Palestinian armed groups of possible war crimes, including firing rockets into civilian areas and using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas, the Palestinian Authority's main rival, controls Gaza.
Israel's stated goal in the 3-week campaign was the cessation of the cross-border rocket attacks by Gaza militants, which had plagued the country's south for eight years.
Israel says 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the offensive, the majority of whom were militants. Human rights groups say, however, that approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the fighting: ten soldiers and three civilians.
Khraishi said the Palestinians would try to have the report approved in every possible forum, to give weight to its recommendation that the alleged war crimes be investigated by independent and impartial bodies, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague, if necessary.
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Today Iran sentenced one of the leaders of the opposition parties to deat. Can you imagine the outcry if Israel ever did such a thing. - Ediface Israel sentencesleaders of eth opposition to death all the time. They call it targeted assasination.
Just wondering???. You sound just like someone I know who is has the name czerniak.
Barak Ravid: If you don't want to count Surinam or Brunei, you will be surprised to see that the UN does count their votes.
If palestians really want peace and their own state, the only thing they should do, is to declare the end of terror and to recognize Israel's right for existence . The day after such a declaration, the international community will put enormous pressure on Israel, so it will simply have no choice, but to withdraw. But in this case, palestinians will have to start building their own economics, infrastructure etc. And it seems to them much harder, then building home-made rockets and smuggling weapons from Iran (and to receive Iranian and Arab money for the "resistance" of course).
The Goldstone report talks about civilians and what happens to them. One of the worst accusations in the report is that the "Palestinian" civilians are not protected by the rule of law. A less diplomatic person would have used other words. The average talkback shows the utmost disrespect for individual Palestinian civilians, their rights, their cultural herritage and their life. Their only real crime is probably to live on the ground you envy. This simply must stop befor you can make any complaints about a partner in peace.
Over the years I have come to admire Irael as the only democracy in the Middle East. You have indeed built a modern state that respects law and order. So why don't you now start searching for another peace partner. I mean, don't you realize that Abbas and Dahlan and Rajoub are finished? (Thanks comrade Khalid)
The facts of the Goldstone report issue are quite the opposite of the US justification to delay its public presentation and debate. The public dominance and prominence of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth have ever been the hallmarks of justice in the USA. Since when has this been changed, particularly under the watch of professional lawyer Obama?
Re. Jasper I find it amusing that as an American you condemn religious education in the ME. Are u aware that until the 1960's, you still had morning prayer in schools, and until today, people throughout the United States are still discussing evolution vs creationsism? As a Palestinian and an atheist, I condemn all forms of religious education, but I can confidently say that the Palestinians are not the worst offenders, they are certainly no worse than the Jews in Israel, and they preach a far milder form of religion than that of the Gulf. They are ironically more extreme now, after 60 years of living in sub human conditions, but they still preach a very mild form of Islam, and they are extremely tolerant towards other religions... I guarantee, if your were displaced from your home and lived in constant deprivation for the greater cause of a Jewish homeland, you would have an issue with Jews too... FYI My family's Christian!
Americans will be onthe streets next protesting over the right wing extremists in Israel attack- ing Palestinians. They represent the corrupt and ugly faces today of US/Israeli relations. Plus the IAF/IAF assault on Gaza was over the top and Americans are still fuming over the killing of Gazans and their police force. Dutch
in Gaza war was waged by Israel to stop the crimes. Report is work by a lackey masquaraded in judge's robe. Germans did prosecute Jewish people for marrying German women during Holocaust. You know, they had a law that Jewish man can not marry... now they have a law that Jewish men can not shoot back when someone bombards their kindergartens. And a Jewish by nationality lackey dressed in a judge's robes is working it up for the masters.
...with smart, capable Palestinian Arab leaders, there would be peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs with both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs building their own independent states for the sake and for the futures of their respective children instead of trying to figure out strategies and tactics about how best to destroy the Jewish state ... "With smart, capable, transparent Palestinian leaders.....the state of Israel would be in big, big trouble today"(Swiss Dino)
The Goldstone report was risible both in its tortured explanations as to how israel is the legal "occupying force" in Gaza (not withstanding that the very need for military action to suppress rocket fire would indicate not that Israel as occupier violates Palestinian rights but that Israel is not a de facto or de jura occupier and cannot command the will of the actual governing authority, Hamas) and in its attempt to state, despite photographic and video evidence to the contrary, that Hamas was not conducting military operations from within civilians. There can be no doubt that the Palestinian Authority and their diplomatic corps have zero intention of including Hamas, their would-be partner, in any puniitive action or discussion.
Ha ha, what happened? USrael excuse writers on strike?
What forces rational parents to support ultimately self-defeating slogans such as "liberation before education"? By the way, the latter slogan was often heard in the liberation struggle in South Africa, and was widely thought to contribute to a so-called "lost generation" of youths. Looking back, it looks like most of those youths actually fared quite well, many of them have well-paid jobs and are making a positive contribution to South African society today.
... come from, Dino? Answer: from the children. And when you have an education system where scholarship is defined as mastery of the Koran, and the rest of the school day is filled with praising martyrdom and hatred of Jews, what do you expect these children are going to become? Smart, capable, transparent Palestinian leaders? I don't think so.
Israel killed them all: Ghassan Kanafani, Najy al-Ali, Abu Jihad ... The rest are in jail. Or can't travel because they can't get permits. Or live in hiding because they are wanted. Only the collaborators like Abbas and Dahlan get to wander around the world, eating fine meals, and trading their people's land and dignity for a pittance.
Today Iran sentenced one of the leaders of the opposition parties to deat. Can you imagine the outcry if Israel ever did such a thing. Ofciurse no one in the Arab or Muslim world will even comment on this Iranian act.
Israel? Come on UN you cannot condemn an angel!
Israel should simply ignore the UN. If a rocket if fired from gaza or leb, then responsd immediately and give no regard to who is in the way. Israel will be blamed for killing civilians either way, so why even bother trying to minimize their deaths. Also remember that the US/NATO bombed that stolen oil tanker and killed dozens and dozens of civilans. Maybe the UN wants to investigate that too. Of course the UN should not bother itself with terrorist actions against civilians.
If the Palestinians had smart, capable, transparent and courageous leaders who negotiate in good faith, there could be a real and permanent peace between Israel and the Arabs.
Putting Abbas in a corner just drives the PA to pursue Israel on all diplomatic fronts. Israel offers so little--so the only hope is international pressure--from whatever source--Goldstone, the Temple Mount--whatever. The victory in New York will look pretty hallow soon.
Goldstone will start real hard work for the next few years... possibly another war... forget peace negotiations... fill the West Bank with even more settlements... replace Fatah and Hamas with Al Qaeda... then another war... Goldstone Junior enters the fray... gets the Nobel peace prize...
well said but i should add smthing... the pal state would be there for 60 years if they had that kind of leaders who accept to live side by side at first time before many wars and blood spilled... now both side wouldnt be in big trouble unfortunately they dont and wont have that kind of leaders! not because they re not capable but because their society swallows that kind of people! unfortunate for pals and israel
I hope this report gets the full attention it deserves and the whole world will truly understand the type of government that operates in Israel. I also hope the perpetrators of these horrific war crimes have to face international trial and are arrested and humiliated, just like Milovsevic.
Abbas...weak and useless. Too little and waaaaay too late!
....the state of Israel would be in big, big trouble today. Unfortunately the Palestinian people don't have such leaders.
The pals seem so immaterial to any 'peace' process as that is the farthest thing from their agenda. Let them take comfort in their rockets and licking their wounds. As long as they are labeled 'terrorists' expect more misery due to their lack of smarts.
The report should be debated in an open forum. I believe Goldstone had no hidden agenda and is trustworthy. We have all seen the videos and news coverage of the Gaza invasion. It appears Israel is culpable. However Netanyahu appears to be committed to a Nixon style cover-up. Both he and the USA are committed to suppressing the report.
The Palestinians, for one thing, never stopped agitation over the Goldstone "report" through Libya and have been provoking, threatening, and increasingly inciting another "Al Asqa Intifida"--the typical Palestinian standard operating procedure: work the Palestinian community into a fever pitch over imagined Jewish sins, attack the Jews, then blame the Jews for what they "made" the Palestinians do. Yet another interminable round of Palestinian intifidas must not be permitted without measures directly aimed at immediately protecting Jewish life, interests, and safety, and demonstrating to the Palestinian nationalist community that this tactic has reached the point of diminishing returns.