Complete cave: The Palestinian Authority today acted in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to freeze the Goldstone Report, preventing it from going to the Security Council and International Criminal Court.
Raji Sourani of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights blasted the PA’s action as a “grave mistake.”
Reports a friend: The resolution the PA sponsored would “extend the mandate” of the Human Rights Council’s committee of experts on the Goldstone Report, asking for further investigation and reporting by this committee— even though that committee has completed its favorable report already. What the PA deliberately failed to do, notwithstanding the urging of countless domestic and international human rights groups, was to put forward a resolution to refer the HRC experts’ report to the General Assembly and Security Council. This would put in motion action on the Goldstone Report recommendation that the Security Council submit that matter to the ICC for prosecution, should parties fail to adequately investigate/punish, which the HRC report delivered last week so concluded. The PA was under pressure from the US and Israel to let Goldstone languish in Geneva, which this pathetic resolution accomplishes– for the sake of the peace process.
And thus the PA confirms the worst accusations of its critics.
Peace process? Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Foreign Minister, addresses the General Assembly in New York and says the peace process should continue for “decades” and include population transfers, ethnic cleansing by another name.
