Report: UN to submit pacifying response to Israel's Gaza report
Sources: UNSG Ban has no intention to drag Goldstone report to a fight between Israel and the UN.
By Shlomo Shamir Tags: Goldstone report Hamas Israel newsThe paper United Nations intends to submit a conciliatory rejoinder to Israel's report responding to allegations of war crimes during its war with Gaza spelled out in the report composed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, U.S. sources said on Wednesday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is set to submit his report on Friday, and is expected to distribute it among the Security Council's permanent members as well as to members of the General Assembly.
"[Ban] will likely comment on a few of Israel's allegations, but the Secretary-General has not intention to drag the Goldstone report to a perpetuating fight between Israel and the UN," diplomatic sources in New York said.
The sources added that they believed Ban was more concerned with the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza," adding that "every time Israel dealt directly with the Secretary-General he was understanding of their claims and willing to negotiate a compromise."
An example of such an attitude was already exhibited recently, when the UN demanded that Israel compensate for damages inflicted to some of the organization's buildings in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.
While Ban had at first been hesitant about the claims against Israel made by the UN-appointed committee, talks between the Secretary General's office and Israel resulted in a compromise in which Israel paid the said compensation, which then resulted in the case being closed by the UN.
The diplomatic sources added that although the UN's report was due February 5, that that was not a "sacred date," and following it a process of further consultations among Security Council members will continue, one which may take weeks if not months.
"The UN has its own dynamic and a Secretary-General report is just one step In what could be a long and slow process," the sources said.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour seemed taken aback when asked by Arab journalists to respond to Hamas' report on the Gaza fighting, which it handed in to the UN.
Mansour seemed intent on avoiding the question, likely since an answer from a senior Palestinian Authority would imply recognition of Hamas's authority in Gaza.
Diplomatic sources have said that the reason the answers Hamas passed on to the Secretary-General were left unpublished was that the claims spelled out in the report were "ridiculous from the get go."
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... poor Hamas could only provide the most ridiculous answers... ... But the British want to send Tzipi Livni to jail???
So, is it all "just about money", the UN gets the compensation for the damages, and close eyes on the real issue of human suffering and abuse of human rights! It is a shame to the humanity what the last colonization power is doing to the world!
The key issue for the UN to work on is the honesty of its reports. The problem with the Goldstone report was its flagrant dishonesty. This is part of a regular pattern of UN behavior which reflects the inbuilt bias of a General Assembly unbalanced by the automatic majority of 22 Arab out of 37 Muslim countries over one Jewish oountry. This automatic majority has made a mockery out of the UN Charter and in particular its Article 51 which gives all UN member states, including Israel, the right of self-defence against armed aggression such as the missile attacks launched from Gaza. Goldstone's failure to make the most basic distinction between the illegal aggression of Hamas and legal self-defence by Israel utterly discredits his report as anything but a propaganda excercise.
wow this seems like it's happend before hmmm.....
"has not intention to drag the Goldstone report to a perpetuating fight between Israel and the UN," Thats nice to hear, but lets see the events.