Amid strong Israeli opposition, the UN General Assembly prepared yesterday to ask Israel and the Palestinians to launch credible, independent probes of alleged war crimes committed during the Gaza War nearly a year ago.
The 192-member body was to vote on a non-binding text pushed by Arab states that endorses a UN report calling for investigations “that are independent, credible and in conformity with international standards.”
The text also asks UN chief Ban Ki-moon to monitor the implementation of the draft resolution and report back to the General Assembly within three months with “a view to considering further action, if necessary, by the relevant UN organs and bodies, including by the Security Council.”
Israel has launched a vigorous campaign to try to stop adoption of the Arab-sponsored text in the Assembly, where the major powers cannot exercise the veto right they wield in the Security Council.
Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon accused the Palestinians on Tuesday of “manipulating international institutions in order to hurt and criticize Israel.”
The Arab text faces certain opposition from the US, the Jewish state’s staunchest ally, and possibly from some European countries that see it as one-sided.
But the sponsors of the draft can count on broad support among nonaligned, African and Muslim-majority countries, which make up the majority of the UN membership.
The Arab resolution essentially backed key recommendations in a UN report by a panel led by former judge Richard Goldstone on both Israel and Palestinian militants’ conduct during the 22-day Gaza conflict that ended in January, killing some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
Goldstone, a South African Jew and respected former international prosecutor, recommended that Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas — which rules the tiny coastal enclave of Gaza — face possible prosecution before the International Criminal Court in The Hague if they fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.
His report was endorsed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council last month and the UN Security Council mentioned it during its monthly debate on the Middle East on Oct. 13 without taking any action.
The US House of Representatives meanwhile on Tuesday adopted a sharply worded but symbolic resolution urging US President Barack Obama to fight UN endorsement of the Goldstone report’s findings.
Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a non-binding resolution crafted by Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that calls the report “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.”
It also urges opposition to the report’s findings in any international forum.
“It’s unfortunate that the United Nations deals with Israel, in my opinion, in a totally biased and unbalanced way. And it is the only country in the world, Israel, that has a special focus by the United Nations,” Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.
But in a letter sent to Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen, Goldstone said the congressional resolution was riddled with “serious factual inaccuracies and instances where information and statements are taken grossly out of context.”
He said the text ignored the fact that he pressed the Human Rights Council to ensure the probe’s mandate was broadened to include “rocket and mortar attacks on Israel” and that the final report highlighted “the serious findings made against Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups.”
The Council passed a resolution endorsing the Goldstone report that singled out Israel’s actions but not Hamas.
The UN debate comes as Washington faces an Arab backlash over US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s praise for Israel’s offer to ease the growth of its settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Clinton arrived in Cairo on Tuesday for hastily convened talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after she was roundly criticized for praising as “unprecedented” a pledge by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit settlement growth.
The Israeli move falls far short of previous US demands for a complete halt to all settlement activity.
Clinton had also called for a speedy resumption of peace talks that were suspended during the Gaza War over the new year, despite Palestinian insistence that Israel must first freeze settlement activity.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese