GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Council voted Friday to endorse a report on last winter’s Gaza conflict that calls on Israel and authorities in Gaza to carry out credible investigations into alleged abuses or face possible referral to international war crimes prosecutors.
The decision means that Israel could find itself facing a request at the UN Security Council to refer the case to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, whose jurisdiction Israel does not accept.
Although a US veto at the Security Council would be virtually assured, Friday’s decision will keep attention on the report, compiled by an expert panel chaired by respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone.
The 575-page report concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields and destroyed civilian infrastructure during its Dec. 27-Jan. 18 war on Gaza.
It also accused Palestinian armed groups including Hamas of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through rocket attacks on southern Israel. During the war 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
The report, commissioned earlier this year by the UN Human Rights Council, recommends that the 15-member Security Council require both sides in the conflict to show within six months that they are carrying out independent and impartial investigations into alleged abuses. If they are not, the matter should then be referred to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Friday’s decision to endorse this approach followed two days of debate. The Palestinian-backed resolution passed 25-6, with mostly developing countries in favor and the United States and five European countries — Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Ukraine — opposing.
Eleven mostly European and African countries abstained, while Britain, France and three other members of the 47-nation body declined to vote. Russia and China, two permanent members of the UN Security Council, were among those voting yes.
“The clock on the report starts now,” said Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority’s UN ambassador in Geneva.
In order to be adopted, a UN Security Council resolution must get nine yes votes, and no veto by a permanent member. The US is likely to use its veto to block any call to get the International Criminal Court involved in the dispute or to take action against Israel.
Officials from the Palestinian Authority visited the International Criminal Court on Friday to present legal arguments in favor of giving the court legal authority over territory it controls — something only sovereign nations are allowed to do. The Palestinian Authority is technically an autonomous entity, not a state.
Palestinians hope that, if the court accepts its request, court prosecutor Moreno Ocampo would then have jurisdiction to launch an investigation into war crimes committed by both sides during the Gaza conflict even without an order from the Security Council.
Ocampo had no comment on Friday.
