UN/Middle East - Goldstone report

Bid for special Gaza report debate fails

Article published on the 2009-10-08 Latest update 2009-10-08 14:14 TU

Richard Goldstone (c) in Gaza in June
(Photo: AFP)

A Libyan bid to convince the UN Security Council meeting to devote a special meeting to the Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict failed on Wednesday. But the monthly debate on the Middle East will be brought forward and Arab and Islamic countries say they will turn the spotlight on its findings there.

The regular Middle East debate will be brought forward from 20 October to 14 October, according to US deputy UN ambassador Alejandro Wolff after a closed-door meeting of the Security Council.

The 15-member council was divided over Libya's bid for an emergency meeting on the report of South African judge Richard Goldstone's fact-finding mission into last month.

After condemning both Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas for war crimes during this year's Gaza conflict, the Goldstone panel asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to bring its report to the Security Council's attention. That could lead to a referral to the International Criminal Court.

The US has tried to push back discussion of the report, originally with the support of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. But the move faced a backlash in the Arab and Islamic world.

Wolff on Wednesday described the report as "flawed". He claimed that the right place to discuss it would be the Human Rights Council, which has postponed discussion on the matter until March 2010. 

But Arab ambassadors say they will concentrate on the report at the 14 October meeting and will stress its call for Israel and the Palestinians to conduct legal investigations within six months.

Avoiding discussion is "detrimental to Israel's policies in the occupied territories" and puts "the legitimacy of the Palestinian authority is also at stake", says Israeli political scientist Neve Gordon.

And it raises questions about US President Barack Obama's commitment to a new foreign policy, he told RFI.

"Obama came up with the notion of change and 'Yes, we can' and hope and here he is continuing the line of previous administrations. Why is it that a report so important to the international community, to Israel and to the Palestinians is being blocked by the United States?"

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell returned to Jerusalem on Thursday in a further effort to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Washington says that discussion on the Goldstone report, which Israel has dubbed "biased", could disrupt its peace efforts.