Gaza report stirs clash in UN Security Council (Roundup)

By JT Nguyen Oct 14, 2009, 17:06 GMT

New York - The Goldstone report on the December-January fighting between Israel and Hamas provoked on Wednesday sharp clashes between Arab and Israeli envoys during a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East conflict.

Arab governments showed up in force to support the Palestinian Authority, intending to make political gains from the report that Israel and the United States want to bury. The UN Human Rights Council will debate it in Geneva on Thursday, once again exposing the gap between the two sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

US Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff reminded the 15-nation council that the report's findings by a three-member panel under the leadership of well known South African Judge Richard Goldstone is 'not a matter for the Security Council's action.'

'But we do take seriously the allegations in the report,' Wolff said. He urged Israel to 'seriously investigate' the allegations while deploring Hamas' incapability to undertake self-examination.

'We continue to have serious concern about the report, its unbalanced focus on Israel, the overly broad scope of its recommendations and its sweeping conclusions of law,' Wolff said.

Wolff, like many diplomats who addressed the council, reiterated support for a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for each side to implement steps leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state living in peace next to Israel.

He reiterated US demands for Israel to end the construction of Jewish settlements and ease restrictions on Palestinian territories. He also called on the Palestinians to improve security and governance.

The council's monthly hearing on the situation on the Middle East was not intended to conclude with the adoption of any resolution. Arab and Palestinian envoys, among the more than 40 diplomats who signed up to speak, capitalized on the opportunity to bring up the Goldstone report, which the council has so far refused to include on its agenda of discussion.

The report was commissioned by the 47-member council in Geneva, which planned to debate it on Thursday.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Malki charged that Israel was responsible for the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza Strip, citing the report and its findings.

Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev countered Al-Malki, rejecting the use of the council meeting by governments to discuss the report as counterproductive to the Middle East peace process. Israel has rejected the report as one-sided and biased.

'The report favors and legitimizes terrorism. It is a prize for terrorist organizations,' she said.

'For those of us who seek to resume the peace process in the Middle East, debating the Goldstone Report in the Security Council is but a tale '' full of sound and fury, signifying nothing',' she added, using the famous quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Arab and Islamic envoys showed up in force in support of the Palestinians before the 15-nation council in New York in a showdown between them and the council in which the United States can veto all attacks against its ally Israel.

Al-Malki rejected assessments by the United States and the UN that progress had been made to advance a settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

'No real progress has been made in the peace process,' he said. 'The Goldstone report constitutes a wake-up call that cannot be ignored.'

Al-Malki denounced what he called the 'savage' killing of Palestinian people by the Israeli Defence Forces during the Gaza fighting with Hamas.

The Goldstone report, published on September 9, charged both Israel and Hamas with having committed war crimes and acts that amounted to crimes against humanity during the Gaza fighting.

The 547-page report and its findings have infuriated Israel and the United States, with the latter trying to bloc discussion in the UN Human Rights Council.

The report included recommendations on ways to pursue justice for both sides, including for Israeli and Palestinian authorities to engage in 'good faith, independent proceedings' to investigate their own sides within six months.

The report called on the UN Security Council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court's prosecutor in The Hague.

The fighting in Gaza erupted on December, 27, 2008 and lasted three weeks. The report said about 1,400 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Israel suffered the deaths of three civilians and 10 soldiers.

Israel said Hamas fired hundreds of missiles and rockets at residential areas in Israel, threatening the lives of at least 1 million Jews.

The report said the IDF directed its attacks at Palestinians to punish them. It condemned the Israeli blockade on Gaza, calling it a 'collective punishment' to isolate the territory.