UN-Truth

Just over half of the members — 25 out of 47 — of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva voted Friday to endorse the Goldstone Report on last winter’s Gaza war that they would otherwise not have considered until March 2010.

The Palestinian leadership which agreed, and which requested, the deley of five months as a result of “intense diplomacy” by the U.S., realized it had made a “mistake” after being startled by the groundswell of anger from all segments of Palestinian society, and went back to the UN Human Rights Council this week to rectify the error.  It received substantial support from human rights organizations, and even the sympathy of many of the states who had originally pushed the Palestinians to postpone this moment.

Some of Israel’s main backers called for an impartial and independent “internal” investigation into what happened during the three-week military offensive (27 December to 18 January).  Hamas, too, has to do the same.

According to news reports, 6 members of the Human Rights Council voted against this resolution, while 11 members abstained.

The Israeli media is still full of articles denouncing the report, Goldstone, and virtually any criticism of Israel’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead.

It is not clear how far this victory will go to rehabilitate the Palestinian leadership who appeared to be unaware, at the beginning of October that ignoring this report would matter so very much.

Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations