UN body to vote on Gaza report

The Palestinian Authority has reversed its position on the report

The UN Human Rights Council is due to vote on whether to endorse a report which accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes in Gaza.

Israel has campaigned intensively to dissuade countries with voting rights from backing the report by Richard Goldstone, which it says is biased.

It says support for the report will hurt attempts to restart peace talks.

The Palestinian Authority initially backed deferring a vote, but changed its position after domestic criticism.

The report is heavily critical of Israel and urges both sides to investigate their own conduct.

If they fail to do so, it calls on the UN Security Council to refer the allegations to the International Criminal Court.

The US has dubbed the report "flawed", but has still urged - along with the UK and France - both sides to launch independent investigations.

The UK, which has voting rights on the Council, is thought likely to abstain from the vote.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to have urged UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to vote against the report in a 30-minute telephone conversation on Thursday night.

Pressure from allies

"Responsible nations have to vote against this decision that supports terror and harms peace," Mr Netanyahu said at a news conference on Thursday night.

Israel argues that it should not be censured for defending itself. It also says countries such as the US and the UK open themselves to criticism of their actions in Afghanistan and Iraq if they back the report.

But the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, reiterated her support for the conclusions of the Goldstone report.

"A culture of impunity continues to prevail in the occupied territories and in Israel," she said at Thursday's opening of the special meeting of the UN Human Rights Council.

She called for "impartial, independent, prompt and effective investigations into reported violations of human rights and humanitarian law".

Israel's envoy said the resolution threatened to "set back peace"

The text of the draft resolution under debate says UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should monitor Israeli and Palestinian compliance with the Goldstone report.

It also contains a condemnation of Israel's policies in East Jerusalem, another issue likely to divide the Council.

Mr Goldstone, a respected international prosecutor who is Jewish, told a Swiss newspaper that he was "saddened" that the resolution proposed by the Palestinians mentioned only allegations against Israel, not against Hamas.

At its first debate two weeks ago, the Council decided to delay its response for six months.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at first agreed to this apparently under pressure from the US, which has been trying for months to restart peace negotiations.

But after much public criticism at home, he demanded that the debate be reopened.

Old divisions

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the problem is that while the Goldstone report is widely regarded by rights groups as fair, the human rights council itself has a history of focusing on Israel's alleged violations.

She says once again the old divisions are appearing, between the US, Israel and Europe on one side, and African and Arab nations on the other.

UN condemns 'war crimes' in Gaza Israel condemns report Key excerpts: UN Gaza report

The Goldstone report accuses Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately harming civilians during the 22-day conflict, which began on 27 December 2008.

Palestinian Hamas militants are accused of indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli civilians.

Israel has rejected the evidence, saying the military is investigating troops' conduct. Hamas has also denied committing war crimes.

Israeli military action destroyed thousands of homes, hundreds of factories and 80 official buildings in Gaza.

Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 people were killed in the violence between 27 December 2008 and 16 January 2009, more than half of them civilians.

Israel puts the number of deaths at 1,166 - fewer than 300 of them civilians. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were also killed.

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