[ 06/04/2011 - 11:55 AM ] GAZA, (PIC)-- Deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmed Bahar has said that Goldstone's retraction of accusations against Israel is an expression of his personal opinion and not the position of the United Nations.
The statement comes at a time after Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai contacted the Jewish judge from South Africa to invite him to Israel.
Goldstone headed the fact-finding mission that submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council accusing Israel of committing war crimes during its 2008-9 aggression on the Gaza Strip.
That report was later adopted by the UNHRC which recommended that the Security Council ask prosecutors in the International Criminal Court to review it.
The UNHRC has announced it would not rescind the report based on the newspaper article where Goldstone expressed his opinion but said that that would require a written petition.
”The Goldstone report, which has been submitted to the UNHRC has been finalized in legal terms,” Bahar said. He added that any statements by the committee after that are only personal opinions holding no weight. He also declared that Israeli pressure would not be able to abort the ”world document”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahranot published Tuesday that Judge Goldstone has planned a visit to Israel after a phone call from Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai that followed the retraction.
Goldstone expressed that he would be honored to visit Israel and expressed his love for the occupation country and the Jewish people. He is scheduled for a tour of Sderot and several other Israeli settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip in July.
Previously, Israel had refused to receive him as the head of the UNHRC fact-finding mission to investigate possible war crimes.
”The article [Goldstone retraction] is full of statements that do not reflect professionalism. I believe they are either a large slip from Goldstone or were done deliberately...or out of desire to send a message ending his subjection to pressure, especially in light of talks that he was exposed to boycotts everywhere, and was banned from seeing his children's baptism and was deprived from being received in religious, political and social gatherings in the US, Europe and South Africa,” said Rami Abdo spokesman of the European campaign to end the siege on Gaza, one of the European rights groups to have asked the UN to provide an official position following the Goldstone retraction.
”Despite ammendments to UN decisions, it has never occurred in the UN or the UNHRC to change facts and evidence,” said Hani Sulaiman the president of the national initiative to breakk the Gaza siege in Lebanon.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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