United Nations, November 06: The UN was Thursday set to throw its weight behind Arab calls for Israel and the Palestinians to probe alleged war crimes in Gaza, despite fierce opposition from the Jewish state.
The 192-member General Assembly was to vote on the Arab-sponsored resolution after a two-day debate on a controversial UN report that has accused both sides of war crimes during the 22-day conflict in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.
The report, by a panel led by respected former international prosecutor Richard Goldstone, has been roundly condemned as one-sided by Israel and its main ally, the United States.
“The Goldstone report and this debate do not promote peace. They damage any effort to revitalize negotiations in our region. They deny Israel’s right of self-defense,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said Wednesday.
“From its inception in a one-sided mandate, the Gaza fact-finding mission was a politicized body with predetermined conclusions.”
The US House of Representatives earlier condemned the report as “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.”
Arab UN ambassadors met here Thursday to fine-tune the text of their resolution and decide whether to accommodate concerns expressed by the 27-member European Union.
Several EU diplomats told AFP their delegations were likely to abstain if the text is not amended to “welcome” rather than “endorse” the Goldstone report, which they view as unbalanced.
They also oppose references to possible Security Council action if the report’s findings are not implemented.
A key finding of the UN report was that Israel used disproportionate force in response to repeated rocket attacks by Gaza-based militants and failed to take adequate measures to protect civilians during its Gaza onslaught.
Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the Israeli military offensive in the tiny coastal Palestinian enclave which ended in January.
Goldstone, a South African Jew, recommended that Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas that rules Gaza face possible prosecution before the International Criminal Court in The Hague if they fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.
Libya’s UN deputy ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said the sponsors would not amend the text and intended to put it to a vote later Thursday.
“I can assure you that the resolution will not be changed,” he told AFP. “The vote will take place this afternoon.”
Accepting the changes proposed by the Europeans would essentially gut the text, he said, voicing confidence it will get broad support. “There’s enough votes to get a substantial majority,” he added.
The resolution faces certain opposition from the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, and possibly from a few other countries that also see it as one-sided.
A simple majority is needed for it to pass and the sponsors can count on extensive support among non-aligned, African and Muslim-majority countries, which make up the bulk of the UN membership.
The text also asks UN chief Ban Ki-moon to monitor the implementation of the draft resolution and report back to the General Assembly within three months with “a view to considering further action, if necessary, by the relevant UN organs and bodies, including by the Security Council.”
It also recommends that Switzerland move to convene a conference on enforcement of the Geneva Conventions in occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem.
–Agencies