Lieberman to Ban: Don’t Let Goldstone Report Gain Ground in UN

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Posted by realistic bird under Politics Tags: crimes against humanity, Gaza, Goldstone report, Israeli crimes, Israeli policies, news, palestine, Palestinians, Politics, UN, war crimes
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by Hanan Awarekeh, al manar

23/10/2009 Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has asked United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to keep the Goldstone Commission’s report on Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip from advancing to further votes within the international body.

The damning report, which accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, was endorsed the Human Rights Council last week despite opposition from Israel and its allies.

In a telephone conversation late Thursday, Lieberman reiterated his stance that bringing the report for vote in the Security Council or at a General Assembly would harm Middle East peace talks. He said the Palestinians should not be allowed to hold negotiations with Israel on a local level while fighting against it in the international sphere.

The Israeli FM complained to Ban of a distorted reality being created, in which countries which are far from caring about human rights have an automatic majority in every international forum. According to Lieberman, the international arena has become hypocritical and is motivated by prejudices. “We must think about ways to fix this situation,” he told Ban.

South African jurist Richard Goldstone, who authored the damning report, earlier this week accused Lieberman of using the probe to cover his own desire to see the Israeli-Palestinian peace process stall.

Goldstone said that in a conference call on Sunday with 150 U.S. rabbis from left-leaning organizations. “That just is a shallow, I believe, false allegation,” he said. “What peace process are they talking about? There isn’t one. The Israeli foreign minister doesn’t want one at all.”

Lieberman, a right-winger, has drawn fire for criticizing Israel’s past efforts in seeking a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Goldstone’s report accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during the 3-week campaign, but mainly focused on Israeli offenses. It set off an uproar in Israel, and Israeli officials have largely dismissed it as biased. During that war, more than 1400 Palestinians were killed, including 420 children and over 5300 others were injured.

Meanwhile, US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell said Thursday night that the Goldstone Report was “one sided and deeply flawed.” He added that the report was one of the setbacks in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

Earlier, Goldstone has challenged Barack Obama’s administration to justify its claims that the report is one-sided and flawed.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera on Thursday, Goldstone said that he is still waiting for the U.S. to clarify its claim that the report has a number of flaws. “The Obama administration joined our recommendation calling for full and good-faith investigations, both in Israel and in Gaza, but said that the report was flawed,” Goldstone told Al Jazeera.

The commission chair said that once Washington points out the flaws, he would be ready to respond. “I have yet to hear from the Obama administration what the flaws in the report that they have identified are. I would be happy to respond to them, if and when I know what they are,” he said.