UN to debate Goldstone Gaza report next week

[azurnoir]

The United Nations General Assembly announced late Wednesday it will meet next week to consider a report that accused both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the offensive in Gaza last winter.

General Assembly President Ali Treki received a letter from the president of the Human Rights Council transmitting the report and requests from Arab nations and the 118-member Nonaligned Group of mainly developing nations asking the assembly to consider its findings and recommendations during the first week of November, Assembly spokesman Jean Victor Nkolo said.
He said Treki intends to convene a plenary meeting of the General Assembly on Nov. 4.

The report recommended that the Security Council require both sides to carry out credible investigations within three months into alleged abuses during the conflict - in which 13 Israelis and almost 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed - and to follow that up with action in their courts.

If either side refuses, the investigators recommended that the Security Council refer the evidence for prosecution by the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, within six months.

The secretary-general reiterated that alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws must be investigated and those responsible should be held accountable.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124478.html

[oberliner]

1. Will those debate records be public?

Does the UN make that available?

[azurnoir]

2. I have no idea n/t

[azurnoir]

3. On second thought seeing that trancipts of security council

and UNHRC debates are made public such as this one here

U.N. Ruling: Islamic Sharia Taboo in Human Rights Council Debates

http://blog.unwatch.org/?p=178

I would say that yes the transcripts would most likely be made public and I am sure UN watch will be on it
Is there some reason you would believe the debate transcripts in this case would be kept secret?

[oberliner]

6. UN Watch?

I'm asking if the UN itself provides transcripts of GA debates online. If so, do you know where they could be found? Can they be accessed for free?

[azurnoir]

7. I said UN Watch because they are the ones

who published the debate I linked to perhaps you did not notice, but they seem to close tabs on UN matter particularly where Israel is concerned
If UN watch did not get the transcripts from the UN where did they get them?
what difference does it make who publishes them?
As to the debates them selves I would check the UN site when they commence
and may I note there do seem to be implications in your questions that something will be hidden from the public or that there will be some sort of dishonesty why?

[bemildred]

4. Israel envoy to UN: Human Rights Council betrayed its own values

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Professor Gabriela Shalev said on Friday at the organization's weekly assembly that the UN Human Rights Council had betrayed the very values and principles it was established to protect.

Shalev spoke after the assembly was issued the Rights Councils' annual activity report, which includes the Goldstone report findings that accuse Israel and the Palestinians of war crimes during the Gaza offensive in December 2008.

Friday's discussion preceded the upcoming deliberation on Wednesday at the UN assembly regarding the report's conclusions.

Shalev accused the council of constant and exclusive discrimination against Israel and said that more than half of the council's meetings have dealt with condemning Israel for one reason or another.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124803.html

[bemildred]

5. Exclusive: 'Goldstone report - the terrorists' Magna Carta'

'I don't think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza," Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan, said during an interview with the BBC during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in January.

Kemp later appeared before the UN Human Rights Council on October 2009 and reiterated: "he Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare. Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population…

"The <...> IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza <...> the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas' way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians..."

---

To be clear, this is drivel, not serious, the reference to the Magna Carta is really all you need to see in that regard. This is the thrust of the article:

The inescapable conclusion is that the whole report is invalid and cannot form a basis for any decision or action.

Well, all I have to say is good luck with that.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256799045773&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[shira]

8. this is a great article....do you really believe the report is a valid basis for actions?

1. If you believe the report is a valid basis for actions, does that mean you disagree with almost all criticisms of the report (like in the OP)?

2. Or do you realize it's not a valid basis for action - that it's in fact a lousy report for reasons given in the OP - but you want to see something done nevertheless?

[bemildred]

9. Israel's UN ambassador: Goldstone report was born of hate, executed in sin

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, spoke at the opening of a UN General Assembly debate on a report accusing Israel of having committed war crimes in Gaza, saying that the report was "conceived in hate and executed in sin."

---

Shalev, one of the first speakers at the UN debate, began her address by offering her and Israel's condolences for the victims of the terror attacks recently carried out in Baghdad and in Pakistan. She went on to exert her belief that the debate held Wednesday wasn't "real" or straightforward, because instead of confronting terror, the UN General Assembly chose, once again, to disconnect itself from reality.

Shalev criticized Goldstone's mission, saying that from its inception, it was a "politicized body with predetermined conclusions."

The report is a product of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, she argued, calling it an organization obsessed with Israel which has produced more condemnations of Israel than all the other UN member states combined.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1125890.html

[LeftishBrit]

12. What puzzles me in all this...

is the quasi-religious terms that keep being used. It's particularly odd here, as Shalev is a lawyer by profession, and one would expect her to argue for legal inadmissibility of evidence, facts being wrong, etc. rather than the report being 'executed in sin'. Does anyone know if this sort of rhetoric is a general tendency in the UN at the moment, or a tendency in Israeli politics?

[bemildred]

13. Yes. Good question.

That's what struck me, the religious terminology. I expect that from the Ayatollahs, but not from "Western" diplomats.

[Violet_Crumble]

15. I suspect she has moments where she just blurts things out...

I was just reading an article I found about her, and it looks like she has little outbursts every now and again, coz there's nothing that I read about her that indicated any sort of religious outlook that would lead to carrying on about *sin*. So, it's probably more likely she was mouthing off. Considering she's been dropped into the whole diplomacy thing at the deep end, it's a surprise there's not more stuff like that from her....

http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3626572,00.html

[azurnoir]

10. Arabs, Israelis clash on Goldstone report in UN debate - Update

Arab and Non-Aligned Movement countries urged adoption of the so- called Goldstone report. They introduced a draft resolution for that effect.

The report blamed both Israel and Hamas for the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians and 10 Israelis during the December-January conflict.

The UN debate in New York was held after the US House of Representatives late Tuesday adopted a resolution with a 344-36 vote condemning the Goldstone report as one-sided. It called on the US government to oppose any further consideration of the report in multilateral fora.

Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, leader of the 119-nation Non- Aligned Movement at UN headquarters in New York, condemned the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure in the conflict.

"Nothing justifies a policy of collective punishment of a people under occupation, destroying their means to live a dignified life," Abdelaziz said.

The Organization of Islamic Countries, represented by Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari, complained that the humanitarian and human rights situation in Gaza has worsened for the Palestinians "living under illegitimate occupation ... under terror and fear."

"The UN inability to bring Israel under the umbrella of international law has, unfortunately, harmed the image of the UN in the Islamic world, especially with the daily desecration of our holy places in al-Qud al-Sharif (Jerusalem)," he said.

Israeli ambassador Shalev denounced the 192-nation assembly for staging an unrealistic debate.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/293268,1st-lead-arabs-israelis-clash-on-goldstone-report-in-un.html

[bemildred]

11. Seems to be a lot of wild incoherent talk.

First Shalev calls the report "conceived in hate and executed in sin", and then she complains about "unrealistic debate".

The Arabs seem to have figured out that they have to be scrupulously "fair" about condemning Hamas for its sins, but I don't expect that is hard for them to swallow anyway.

[bemildred]

14. Gillerman sent to NY to help in anti-Goldstone PR campaign

Former Ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman is scheduled to leave for New York Wednesday night to assist in Israel's PR campaign amid the fallout from the publication of the Goldstone Report, which says the IDF and Hamas committed war crimes during their December-January conflict in Gaza.

"This is war, and in war when you are sent a Tzav Shmone (emergency draft order), you enlist," Gillerman told Ynet.

Gillerman is heading to New York at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as the UN General Assembly is debating the Gaza war report.

Arab member states and their supporters are hoping to refer the report to the Security Council and, further on down the line, even to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3800421,00.html