Netanyahu hopes Rights Council will reject Goldstone report

Oct 15, 2009, 20:46 GMT

Jerusalem - Israel was hoping for a clear rejection of the so-called Goldstone report now before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

Netanyahu charged that the report supports terrorism.

The report, written by South African war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone and three other international experts, concluded that both Israel and the Hamas movement likely committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during their three weeks of fighting in early 2009.

Netanyahu also lodged serious charges against the council, which he said had the habit of producing a majority for 'the most absurd things.' He insisted that Israel's army had high morals.

Nine months after the end of the Gaza war, Israel is under intense pressure about the war crimes charges.

In the report, Goldstone urges Israel as well as the Palestinians to allow the alleged war crimes to be investigated by an independent commission.

In the absence of such investigations, Goldstone urged the report to be turned over to the International Criminal Court in the Hague for prosecution.

Israel is worried about the possibility that charges could be lodged against politicians and army officers for war crimes. Top officials who would be in the judicial cross-hairs could include former prime minister Ehud Olmert, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni as well as current Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

The council began its debate on Thursday as Israel warned that adopting the document would threaten chances of peace in the region.

The Palestinians had originally gone along with US and Israeli encouragement to postpone consideration of the report until later in the year. But after an outcry against the postponement, the Palestinian leadership asked the rights council to take up the report, gathering more than a dozen countries to support the move.