Report: HR Council votes on Friday to condemn “Israel” and adopt Goldstone

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) started a special session on Thursday in order to discuss the Goldstone report to condemn "Israeli" bloody actions that lead to the killing of at least 1400 Gazans during a three-week onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip as well as the continuous recent "Israeli" action in East Al Quds (Jerusalem) and in and around the Al-Asqa Mosque.

On Thursday, most member states expressed their concerns about the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip, and chastised "Israel" for failing to cooperate with the UN-ordered fact-finding mission into the December-January war in Gaza.
As the session stretches into Friday, body members are to vote for the endorsement of the report and condemn "Israel" of its violations in the occupied territories and continuous attacks on Al Aqsa mosque.

According to resources, the formal reason for the special session -after it was delayed earlier upon request of the Palestinian Authorities under US pressure - is a resolution submitted by the Palestinian delegation supported by the 54 countries of the African Group, the 57 countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the 22 Arab countries.

This session also calls for adoption of the Goldstone report, implementation of its recommendations, and the referring of the report to the General Assembly.

The endorsement of the report, which would open the door for the Security Council to bring "Israelis" before the International Criminal Court at The Hague for prosecution for either war crimes or crimes against humanity, was initially delayed as President Mahmoud Abbas' government initially buckled to US pressure, moved to defer a motion in the Human Rights Council to endorse the report.

But after receiving an avalanche of criticism from domestic politicians and civil society in addition to other external criticism, the Palestinian diplomats in Geneva as well as Palestinian authorities in Ramallah, Palestine decided to push for urgent consideration of the Goldstone report.

Speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Riad Al-Maliki, the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister called for the world to hold "Israel" accountable for its "savage attack" on Gaza.

"The world has for too long witnessed Israel's impunity, knowing fully well that this has been repeatedly fuelled by the lack of punishment and accountability" he said.
According to Reuters, Navi Pillay, the United Nations top human rights official has also backed the report accusing "Israeli" forces of the war crimes.
Pillay's endorsement of the report by an expert group led by South African judge Richard Goldstone came as "Israel" warned the UN Human Rights Council that approving the document risked undermining Middle East peace.
In her speech, Pillay cited concern about the restrictions on Palestinians wishing to enter Al Aqsa and expressed "dismay" about the Israeli blockade of Gaza that she said "severely undermines the rights and welfare of the population there."
Moreover, Pillay refused to consider the accountability of the crimes and the endorsement of the report as "impediment to the peace process", describing it as "a step towards a lasting peace process."

But since the report strongly condemns all policies and measures taken by "Israel", the occupying power, including those limiting access of Palestinians to their properties and holy sites and calls on "Israel" to stop digging and excavation work around the Al Aqsa Mosque as well as other Christian and Islamic holy sites, Pillay says the resolution would be difficult for "Israel's" allies to endorse.

And as Tel Aviv has been lobbying world leaders to prevent advancement of the report, threatening to stop Middle East peace negotiations, the "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he won't allow a special session (of the Human Rights Council) and that he will not allow the resolution to pass.

Yet the Palestinian envoy to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, expressed confidence on Wednesday that the resolution would gain enough votes in the Human Rights Council to move on to New York, where it would carry more weight. Khraishi said: "The world is not going according to Netanyahu."

On the same note, Knesset member of the Labor Party, Ophir Pinez-Paz, visited Chairman of the "Israeli" Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Knesset and asked him to convene a meeting of the committee as soon as possible to discuss "the fear of the collapse of "Israel's" political image internationally" since the Goldstone report caused a lot of political damage to the "Israeli Entity".

According to resources, the United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to endorse on Friday the Goldstone Report on Operation Lead Cast and its recommendations, despite the diplomatic efforts undertaken by "Israel" and the United States in recent days.