Israel braces for UN debate on Gaza war report
Thu Oct 15 04:49:02 EST 2009
Wed Oct 14 17:49:02 UTC 2009
JERUSALEM, Oct 14 AFP - Israel is bracing for what is expected to be a bruising UN debate on a report that accuses it and Hamas of war crimes during its Gaza offensive at the turn of the year.
The UN Security Council was expected to discuss the so-called Goldstone report on Wednesday at its regular monthly meeting on the Middle East, a day before the UN Human Rights Council reopens its own debate in Geneva.
The UN-mandated fact-finding mission headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone drew sharp criticism from Israel, which reiterated on Wednesday that adopting the report would scupper any chance of resuming Middle East peace talks.
"It's not reassuring that such a report can be taken seriously by democratic countries, as it is a completely unrealistic, biased and preposterous," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
The report recommends that its conclusions be forwarded to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague if Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas fail to carry out credible investigations within six months.
Palmor said such a move "risks torpedoing the launch of peace talks and creates a dangerous precedent for any country that wants to defend itself against terrorist attacks" .
Israel did not co-operate with the Goldstone team, saying the mission's mandate was biased against the Jewish state from the outset.
Israel's UN ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, meanwhile, said her country was counting on its main ally, the US, in case the report comes to a vote before the Security Council, where Washington wields veto power.
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the United States will impose their veto in case of a vote by the Security Council," she told army radio.
And Defence Minister Ehud Barak spoke by phone to the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Norway and Spain and told them adoption of the report "would seriously hurt our efforts to deal with terrorism".
"The Goldstone report is a deceitful, distorted and biased report that encourages terror. Adopting it would encourage terror all over the world," Barak's office quoted him as saying in a statement.
