West Bank's festivities soured by UN deferral of war crimes vote

[Scurrilous]

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"THOUSANDS OF Palestinians and foreigners swept into Taybeh at the weekend for its annual Oktoberfest, celebrating not only the West Bank village’s delicious grapes, figs, olive oil and embroidery but also its golden beer.

It was a glorious day filled with debke dancing by school children, a puppet show for younger children and salsa music by a Brazilian band.

But a sour note intruded. After lunch senior politicians retired to a corner with Bassem Khoury, minister of national economy. Later he told The Irish Times : “I was in Geneva on Friday when the UN Human Rights Council was set to vote on the Goldstone report calling for an investigation of possible war crimes during Israel’s January war on Gaza. I told Ramallah that we had enough votes to pass the resolution. But they decided to postpone until March. This is a disaster.”

He dismissed threats by the Obama administration to drop efforts to revitalise the peace process if the Palestinian Authority insisted on a vote now. “Let them, there is no peace process, anyway,” he asserted, expressing the view of most Palestinians, as well as European diplomats with whom I had lunch.

The Goldstone report has become, next to Israeli settlements, a major concern of people on the West Bank. Since he joined the cabinet in May, Mr Khoury battled settlement financing by French and Belgian banks and settlement exports to Europe. “We expect action on these issues from EU governments.”

At the weekend Mr Khoury tendered his resignation over the Palestinian Authority’s involvement in the deferral of the Goldstone report.

The Goldstone reversal and Mr Khoury’s resignation are serious blows to President Mahmoud Abbas, already condemned for meeting Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the invitation of US president Barack Obama without getting any commitment on a settlement freeze."

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