Goldstone report

[Peter Presland]

More on postponement of UN discussion of the Goldstone report. It was done at the request of the PLO leadership. So why would the nominal (though illegitimate since the presidential term expired last January) Palestinian leadership do such a thing?

Norman Finkelstein has the answer. It stinks to the heavens but has a solid ring of routine Israeli modus operandi to it. Abu Mazen and his cronies are clearly so compromised that I doubt they will escape with their lives if the general Palestinian population ever get a say in the matter

Ma’ariv (p. 5) by Amit Cohen et al. — A Palestinian press agency claims that the surprising decision by Palestinian Authority officials to postpone the discussion of the Goldstone report in the UN Human Rights Council is the result of an Israeli threat. According to a report by Shihab, the Palestinian Authority refused Israel’s demand that it withdraw its support for the harsh report, which Israel considered one-sided. Following this, Israeli figures showed the PA a series of tapes in which Palestinian Authority officials could be heard urging Israel to continue the operation in Gaza. Israel threatened to reveal the material to media outlets as well as to the UN and this, in turn, resulted in the Palestinian retreat. It was further claimed that the Palestinians were shown footage showing a meeting between Abu Mazen, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and then foreign minister Tzippi Livni. In the course of the meeting, according to the report, Abu Mazen attempted to convince Barak to continue the operation. Barak appeared hesitant whereas Abu Mazen was enthusiastic. In addition, a telephone conversation recording between Abed Al-Rahim, secretary general of the Palestinian Authority and director of Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi’s bureau was presented. The Palestinian senior official can be heard saying that now is the time to bring ground forces into the Jabalya and Shati refugee camps. “The fall of these two camps will bring about the fall of the Hamas regime in Gaza, and will cause them to wave a white flag,” says Abed Al-Rahim. According to the report, Dov Weissglas told Abed Al-Rahim that such a move could result in the deaths of thousands of civilians. “They all voted for Hamas,” says Abed Al-Rahim, “they chose their fate, not us.” Following Hamas’s allegations against him, Abu Mazen ordered the establishment of an investigative committee to examine the cause for the postponement of the discussion of the Goldstone report, which sparked a furor and much criticism in the Palestinian street. Officially, Israel argues that Abu Mazen withdrew his request for the discussion as a result of Netanyahu making it clear that such a move would greatly harm the peace process.

PS The Goldstone Report probably warrants a separate thread but I posted this here because of my referral to postponement of the report in my previous post.

[Keith Millea]

According to the report, Dov Weissglas told Abed Al-Rahim that such a move could result in the deaths of thousands of civilians. “They all voted for Hamas,” says Abed Al-Rahim, “they chose their fate, not us.”

Someone is going to get a spanking!!!!!!!!

ecruity:

[Keith Millea]

Someone is going to get a spanking!!!!!!!!

ecruity:

For a second I thought I'd hit the wrong link and entered an S & M website.

But all is well that ends in a spanked botty, I suppose.

Oh crap,I thought I was posting to my "special friend".I've been outed!!!!!

:wavey:

[Magda Hassan]

Arabs Seek International Court Action on Israel’s Gaza Invasion
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By Bill Varner
Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Arab nations will press the [url=http://un.org/]United Nations Security Council to refer allegations of Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip to the International Criminal Court, Sudan’s ambassador said today.
Envoys representing the council’s 15 member governments agreed to Libya’s request for a meeting on the Middle East conflict on Oct. 14. Egyptian, Sudanese, Libyan and Palestinian ambassadors said they’d use it to discuss a UN-appointed panel’s findings that Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s three-week offensive against the militant group that began in late December.
The panel recommended that the Security Council require Israel to “launch appropriate” investigations within three months and, if that doesn’t happen, refer allegations of illegal acts to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
“We want this report operationalized,” Sudan’s Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohammad said, speaking as head of the Arab group of nations.
U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said discussion of the report should be confined to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, which has postponed such talks until March.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza on Dec. 27 to stop rocket attacks on its southern towns and cities from the Hamas-controlled seaside enclave. The Israeli military said during its Gaza operation that more than 10,000 projectiles had been fired from the area into Israel since 2001.
Disputed Counts
The Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza said that 1,450 Palestinians were killed during the military operation, while Israel puts the number at 1,166. The army said 13 Israelis were killed in the fighting.
Israel’s military committed “grave breaches” of international law, including “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health and extensive destruction of property,” a summary of the UN panel’s report said on Sept. 15. It also said Israel used human shields, which “constitutes a war crime.”
Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said the report was “very one-sided” and that its recommendations wouldn’t be respected.
The Israeli army presented the results of its own probe April 22 and rejected the allegations that it committed war crimes. The UN panel said those investigations “lack the required credibility.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 7, 2009 19:37 EDT

[Magda Hassan]

Libya war report request denied

Gaza residents put up posters denouncing Abbas for blocking action against Israel [AFP] The UN Security Council has rejected Libya's request to hold a special session on the Goldstone report but agreed to advance a periodical meeting to address the issues it raises.
Published at the end of September, the UN-sanctioned Goldstone report identifies war crimes committed during Israel's war on Gaza between last December and January.
At a closed door session, the UN Security Council decided against an emergency session, but voted to bring forward its monthly meeting on the Middle East by six days, to October 14.
Abdurrahman Shalgham, the Libyan ambassador, flanked by ambassadors for Egypt, Sudan, the Arab League and the Palestinians, earlier said the goal had been to open discussion on what happened in Gaza and "the tragedy for Palestinians living there".
"We have to keep this momentum regarding this report," Shalgham said.

The Security Council met at the behest of Libyan diplomats, who requested an emergency session to discuss its findings.
The report authored by Richard Goldstone highlights a disproportionate use of force by Israel and its deliberately harming of civilians during its Gaza offensive. It also alleges that Hamas fired rockets indiscriminately at civilians in southern Israel.
Anger at Abbas

The council's move comes amid public anger among Palestinians over the support from Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and head of Fatah, that action be suspended in regard to the Goldstone investigation.

In video

Richard Falk on Palestinian leadership's backing for deferment of UN vote on Goldstone report

Hundreds of posters appeared in public areas around Gaza City on Wednesday criticising Abbas.

Abbas is accused of backing the postponement of a UN Human Rights Council vote in Geneva last Friday that would have condemned Israel's failure to co-operate with a UN investigation into the December-January war.
Such a vote would have been one of many steps to bring Israel before a war crimes tribunal, something many Palestinians want to see.
Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said: "There's no doubt the public outrage over the decision by the PA to withdraw support for the Goldstone report continues several days after that decision.
"We saw today some of the more powerful images of the people here in Gaza turning against the Palestinian Authority president."
He said a rally was held and that dozens of people - mostly intellectuals as well as university students, some of whom were relatives of the victims of the Gaza war – attended.
"During the course of that rally, we heard some very strong condemnation of the PA president," he said.
'Offensive gesture'
"We saw a very offensive public gesture. Many of them had taken off their shoes and slapped the posters of the Palestinian president."

In depth










Israel launched a major offensive on the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip in December 2008, saying it wanted to stop rockets fired by Hamas into its territory.

At least 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died during the three-week war.
Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, told Al Jazeera it was possible Libya might try to put a draft resolution forward "but I think there is no chance of any consequential action being taken by the security council".
Still, Ahmed Gebreel, a Libyan government spokesman, said his country had requested the emergency meeting at the UN "because of the seriousness of the report and because we think it's too long to wait until March [to discuss it]".
Hamas and Abbas both backed the Libyan move, with Abbas even sending a delegate to add weight to the Libyan request.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, Abbas's senior adviser, told the Voice of Palestine radio that backing the postponement of the UN human rights council vote was "a mistake".
"We have the courage to admit there was a mistake," he said, but added that the situation "can be repaired".
Palestinians, including members of Fatah, Abbas's party, have strongly criticised the Goldstone vote postponement, holding him responsible for the decision.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said that the controversy surrounding the Goldstone report could affect the Palestinian reconciliation deal which Egypt has said will be signed later this month.
"All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are angry at the [Palestinian] Authority after what happened with the Goldstone report and this could affect the arrangements for the [reconciliation] dialogue," he said on Wednesday.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middle...09578.html

[Magda Hassan]

Falk: The PA Betrayed Its People

By The Palestinian Information Center

October 08, 2009 - GAZA, (PIC)-- Richard Falk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that that the Palestinian authority (PA) in Ramallah betrayed its own people at a moment when the international community was so close to endorse Goldstone’s report accusing Israel of war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

"The Palestinians have betrayed their people, this was a moment when finally the international community indorsed the allegations of war crimes and it would have been an opportunity to vindicate the struggle of the Palestinian people for their rights under international law and for the Palestinian representatives in the UN themselves to seem to undermine this report is an astonishing development," he told al-Jazeera.

The UN official, however, said that the report, despite being delayed, is still very important because it exposed the inadequacy of Palestinian representation at the international level and will encourage groups supporting the Palestinian struggle to continue their efforts in this regard.

For his part, member of the central committee of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine Kayed Al-Ghoul said that delaying the vote on Goldstone’s report is a sin committed by Mahmoud Abbas, demanding him to apologize for this wrongdoing before the Palestinian people.

Ghoul stressed that this apology is a necessary step to stop the negative repercussions and to hold accountable all Palestinian officials who were responsible for what happened.

In the same context, PA official Sa’eb Erekat told Al-Jazeera satellite channel on Tuesday that the PA in Ramallah is responsible for delaying taking action on Goldstone’s report, alleging that there was a misunderstanding of the PA position.

Erekat during his talk to the channel appeared to be trying to absorb the popular anger towards the PA astonishing position against Goldstone’s report.

Senior Fatah leader and former Palestinian ambassador to Egypt Nabil Amr held Abbas on Monday in remarks on the same channel fully and directly responsible for what happened in Geneva and called on him to stop fabricating excuses.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info...e23674.htm

[Jan Klimkowski]

Abbas is, quite simply, a quisling.

Definition: A traitor who serves as the puppet of the enemy occupying his or her country.

[Helen Reyes]

Sounds like they all need a beer summit. Goldstone, Goldstar, what's the difference?

Ehud and Zippythe Pinhead obv had west bank leadership convinced the gaza massacre was on behalf of the PA. inciting civil war, nothing new.

[Peter Presland]

This is seriously good news.

From Al Jazeera:

The UN human rights council has endorsed the Goldstone report on Israel's war on Gaza, which accused the military of using disproportionate force as well as laying charges of war crimes on Israeli occupation forces and Hamas.
The council's resolution adopting the report was passed in Geneva by 25 votes to six with 11 countries abstaining.
The Goldstone report calls on Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, to monitor whether Israel and Hamas conduct credible investigations into the conflict which took place last winter.
Should the two sides fail to do so, it calls on the UN Security Council to refer the allegations to the International Criminal Court.

The Palestinian Authority had initially agreed to defer a vote on the UN-sanctioned report but later backtracked under heavy criticism.
Mike Hanna, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Geneva, said the vote was a "very strong victory" for the supporters of the resolution but that the large number of abstentions was also "very significant".

From Debka File:

Israel outraged by UN Human Rights Council endorsement of controversial Goldstone report

The Goldstone report which condemned Israel and Hamas for war crimes in the January Gaza offensive, reserving special criticism for Israel, was carried by a majority of 25 of the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva Friday, Oct. 16. Six nations including the US, Italy, Holland and Israel voted against, 11 abstained and 5 members, including France and Britain, did not take part in the vote.

Israel's Faux-outrage is becoming tedious. They have a BIG and growing problem - and they know it. They've been rumbled. Which makes them even more dangerous.

I await developments with interest and not a little apprehension

[Peter Presland]

Following the failure of faux-outrage to forestall UN adoption of the report, the mood seems have turned to a sort of whining self-pity.

This from Debka file who are a pretty reliable facilitator for whatever messages the Israeli government wants disseminating:

The UN body administered one of the most damaging blows Israel diplomacy has suffered in recent years, condemning Israel for alleged war crimes in its 22-day Gaza operation last January - but also for work in East Jerusalem such as archaeological excavations.

The damage was compounded by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's personal involvement in spearheading the campaign to have the report buried. Its endorsement has instead buried the stalled peace process between Israel and Palestinian Authority.

Snip...

Netanyahu failed even to persuade French president Nicolas Sarkozy - described by President Shimon Peres as "a great friend of Israel," and the British prime minister George Brown, with whom he had a heated telephone conversation Thursday night - to vote against the HRC motion.
That neither was prepared to oppose Israel's condemnation for war crimes means that Jerusalem cannot count on their support for curbing Iran's drive for a nuclear weapon.

Snip....

The hammer-blow from Geneva came at a bad time for Israel: Turkey has turned on the Jewish state tooth and claw. Israel finds itself up against the entire Arab world, even Egypt and Jordan, with whom it has signed peace treaties. It now finds itself abandoned by presumed friends Britain and France as well.

So - it sees itself as friendless. Maybe an outrageous terroris attack is called for. That might do the trick eh?