U.N. Council backs Gaza war-crimes report
UNITED NATIONS | The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday forwarded to the General Assembly a fact-finding report that accuses both Israel and the Palestinians of committing war crimes during Israel's three-week siege of the Gaza Strip.
The council, meeting in Geneva, voted to endorse the report submitted by South African jurist Richard Goldstone. The report has recommended that the U.N. Security Council require both sides in the conflict to show within six months that they are carrying out independent and impartial investigations into the alleged abuses.
If they are not, the matter should be referred to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the report said.
Six nations, including the United States, voted against endorsing the report. At the Security Council, Washington is expected to veto any proposal to refer the matter to the ICC, which Israel does not accept.
Several senior U.N. officials endorsed the strongly worded report, and indicated their dismay that Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militias had, according to the investigation, committed war crimes against civilians.
Both sides are accused of using Gazans as human shields during the winter invasion.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and General Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya have in recent days publicly endorsed the investigation.
Earlier Friday, the 47-member Human Rights Council approved by a 25-6 vote to chastise Israel for failing to cooperate with the Goldstone mission. Eleven countries abstained, most of them African and European nations that don't want to spoil their relations with Washington.
Ms. Pillay, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Office in Geneva, issued a statement Friday calling on governments in the region to conduct their own "credible, independent and transparent" accounting of their military operations in early January.
An estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Palestinians died during the siege, many of them civilians trapped by Israeli and Egyptian government refusal to unlock the checkpoints that bind Gazans in densely wrapped territory. Thirteen Israelis - including two soldiers - died.
"War criminal" calls interrupt Israeli PM's speech, UN backs Gaza war crimes report
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