New York - An Arab-backed draft resolution asked the UN General Assembly on Wednesday to send a controversial report on Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza Strip to the UN Security Council for action. The report was drawn up by a four-member commission headed by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, which accused both sides of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. A total of 1,400 Palestinians and 10 Israelis were killed in the December-January fighting in Gaza. Its conclusions have been sharply criticized by Israel and the United States.
The Arab move was backed by the 119-nation Non-aligned Movement, which together can sway in their favour any votes in the 192-nation assembly. The assembly debated the report on Wednesday, but the more than 45 planned speakers meant the session would continue into Thursday.
The draft requested the assembly to ask UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send the report to the Security Council, the sole body responsible for world peace and security and whose decisions are binding.
The 15-nation council, however, had shunned the report after it was adopted in Geneva on October 19 by the UN Human Rights Council. Israel has the support of Washington and the US House of Representatives, which late Tuesday adopted a resolution with a 344- 36 vote condemning the Goldstone report as one-sided. It called on the US government to oppose any further consideration of the report in multilateral fora, and the US has veto power on the security council.
The assembly debate had its expected drama. Arabs and the sole Israeli representative, Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, clashed in their different interpretation of the so-called Goldstone report.
Shalev single-handedly faced the Arab and non-aligned voting blocs, accusing them of losing their focus on fighting terrorism.
"Rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel," Shalev told the assembly.
"The report before you was conceived in hate and executed in sin," she said. "From its inception in a one-sided mandate, the Gaza fact- finding mission was a politicized body with predetermined conclusions."
Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, current leader of the non- aligned group at UN headquarters in New York, condemned the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure in the conflict.
Abdelaziz introduced the draft resolution to the assembly on behalf of Arab and the non-aligned, urging adoption.
The draft was already sponsored by Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Palestine.
"Nothing justifies a policy of collective punishment of a people under occupation, destroying their means to live a dignified life," Abdelaziz said.
The Organization of Islamic Countries, represented by Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari, complained that the humanitarian and human rights situation in Gaza has worsened for the Palestinians "living under illegitimate occupation ... under terror and fear."
"The UN inability to bring Israel under the umbrella of international law has, unfortunately, harmed the image of the UN in the Islamic world, especially with the daily desecration of our holy places in al-Qud al-Sharif (Jerusalem)," he said.
Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told the assembly that the situation in Gaza for its 1.5 million inhabitants remains "untenable and unacceptable" because of the continuing Israeli blockade.
