Arabs seek UN backing for credible probes of alleged Gaza war crimes

Arab and nonaligned nations sought UN General Assembly support Wednesday for their call on Israel and the Palestinians to launch credible probes of war crimes allegedly committed during the Gaza war.

They formally introduced a draft resolution endorsing a UN report by a panel led by former judge Richard Goldstone that assessed 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 -- face possible prosecution before the International Criminal Court in The Hague if they fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.

Some 43 speakers were scheduled to take the floor during the debate called by the Arab UN group with the backing of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

But Israel, which has mounted a vigorous campaign to discredit the Goldstone reports and its findings, slammed Wednesday's debate as "yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel."

"The Goldstone report and this debate do not promote peace. They damage any effort to revitalize negotiations in our region. They deny Israel's right of self-defense," Israel's UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told the assembly.

"From its inception in a one-sided mandate, the Gaza fact-finding mission was a politicized body with predetermined conclusions," she added.

Tuesday Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon held a special meeting with foreign ambassadors to Israel to try to convince their countries to vote against the report.

A key finding of the UN report was that Israel used disproportionate force in response to repeated rocket attacks by Gaza-based militants and failed to take adequate measures to protect civilians during its onslaught.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, highlighed the report's conclusion that the Israeli military onslaught "was planned in all of its phases as a deliberately disproportionate and systematic attack aimed at punishing, humiliating and terrorize the Palestinian civilian population."

He also warned that efforts by Israel and its supporters to discredit the UN report and its authors would not deter Arab states from following up the recommendations "in all relevant international forums, including the Security Council and the International Criminal Court, until the realization of justice with the accountability of the perpetrators of these crimes and violations."

Mansour told AFP that in view of the large number of speakers, a vote on the non-binding resolution in the 192-member assembly was now expected Thursday.

Speaking on behalf of NAM, Egypt's UN Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said "immediate measures" were needed to secure adoption of the call on both Israel and the Palestinians "to launch independent investigations in conformity with international standards" of the alleged war crimes perpetrated during the Gaza conflict.

The Arab-sponsored draft 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."

The Arab text faces certain opposition from the United States, Israel's staunchest ally, and possibly from other Western countries that see it as one-sided.

Speaking on behalf of the 27-member European Union, Sweden's UN Ambassador Anders Liden however urged the parties in the Gaza conflict to "launch appropriate, credible and independent investigations into possible violations of international human rights laws and international humanitarian law in accordance with international standards."

Reiterating the EU's condemnation of "all targeting of civilians and UN facilities during the conflict", he described the Goldstone report as "serious" and said the EU was "committed to assessing it seriously."

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.