Jerusalem - The Palestinian Authority, along with Islamic and African states, announced Friday they would defer until March next year voting at UN Human Rights Council on adopting the war crimes report of Justice Richard Goldstone. The Geneva-based body had been expected to vote on a draft resolution later Friday, that would have condemned Israel for not cooperating with the fact finding mission.
The resolution would have also endorsed Goldstone's call for the UN General Assembly or Security Council to follow up on the investigations into alleged violations.
The report accused both Hamas and Israel of committing war crimes in the three-week conflict in the Gaza Strip that began in late December. If the sides did not investigate themselves objectively within six months, Goldstone said the International Criminal Court should take up the case.
Officially announcing the deferral was Pakistan, which heads the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the grouping of Muslim states.
"In order to give more time for a broad-based and comprehensive consideration of the International Fact Finding Mission's report" the OIC asked that the resolution be deferred to the next session of the council in March.
A Palestinian diplomat stated that his government wanted to gather more support at the 47-member body for the resolution and allow the membership to study the report further.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Thursday that passage of the resolution would have been a "critical blow" to the peace process.
Officials said the Palestinians came under pressure from the US government, which has said the Goldstone proposals should wait until after Mideast peace talks have resumed. The US has also alleged the report was "deeply flawed."
"The United States won Israel a reprieve on the Goldstone report, so now it must ensure that Israel genuinely investigates allegations of abuse," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch in New York.
If this does not happen by March, the next session of the council, HRW said the US should endorse the Goldstone report.
Pro-Israel non-governmental groups welcomed the decision to defer the resolution, calling the report "biased."
Human rights groups say about 1,400 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed in the three week war, along with Israeli fatalities of three civilians and 10 soldiers.
