Indymedia-Lëtzebuerg - Allies press Israel to probe Goldstone Gaza report findings

Western allies on Wednesday pressured Israel to launch credible investigations into UN allegations of possible war crimes by the Israel Defense Forces during the winter conflict in the Gaza Strip. The United States, Britain and France all said Israel should look into findings published last month by a UN mission led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

The Goldstone report accused Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of war crimes during the December-January war in Gaza. Both Israel and Hamas rejected the charges in his report, which is more critical of Israel than Hamas.

At a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East that was not expected to take action, Israel's UN ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, dismissed the report as a waste of the council's time, saying the 575-page document "favors and legitimizes terrorism."

Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff said Washington had serious concerns about the report, including what he said was its "unbalanced focus on Israel." But he repeated the U.S. view that Israel should look into it. "We take the allegations in the report seriously," he told the council. "Israel has the institutions and the ability to carry out serious investigations of these allegations and we encourage it to do so." Wolff said Hamas was a "terrorist organization" that was neither willing nor able to investigate its own behavior. Hamas - the de facto ruler of Gaza - does not recognize Israel's right to exist.

Goldstone's report called for the Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court in The Hague if the Israelis or the Palestinians fail to take up the issue.

Discussion of the report during the council's monthly Middle East debate was a compromise the United States reluctantly accepted. Washington had opposed discussing it in New York, saying it was a matter for the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, or HRC, which commissioned the report. The rights council will discuss the report again on Thursday. Washington joined the HRC earlier this year, vowing to change from within a UN body that Washington and Israel have criticized as anti-Israel.

British Ambassador John Sawers called on Israel to launch proper investigations into the charges outlined in the report. "We note that the Israeli Defense Force has already conducted and is continuing to conduct a number of investigations," Sawers said. "However, concerns remain." "We urge the Israeli government to carry out full, credible and impartial investigations into the allegations," he added.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud urged both sides to initiate "independent inquiries in line with international standards."

UN Undersecretary-General Lynn Pascoe told the council that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also wanted "credible domestic investigations" based on the Goldstone report.

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev on Wednesday criticized the Security Council for its focus on the Goldstone Gaza report, saying that it diverts attention away from other, more pressing Middle East issues. "Instead of discussing the real and worrying questions facing the Middle East, the UN is focusing on the Goldstone report, which Israel believes legitimizes terror organizations," Shalev said. Shalev rejected 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. "An ordinary person would think that an emergency UN session would be called when Gazan and Lebanese terrorists fire missiles into Israeli territory, or because of the Iranian nuclear threat," Shalev continued.

"The pretense of urgency in this session is an attempt to 'hijack' the council's agenda to promote the report, a move supported by none other than Libya - a country that has only recently celebrated the return of the Lockerbie bomber," the ambassador said.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Al-Malki on Wednesday charged that Israel was responsible for the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza Strip, citing the Goldstone report on the December-January fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Arab and Islamic envoys showed up in force in support of the Palestinians before the 15-nation council in New York. The Arab envoys had demanded that the council debate the report of South African Judge Richard Goldstone on the Gaza fighting. The council rejected the demand, but decided to hold its monthly debate on the Middle East situation to allow Arab and Palestinian envoys to speak.

More than 40 speakers have signed up to address the council on the eve of another debate in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on the Goldstone report, which was drawn from investigations by a three-member panel commissioned by the 47-member council.

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."

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