US House of Representatives votes to condemn Goldstone Report

Wednesday November 04, 2009 04:18

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

The US House of Representatives voted today to condemn a United Nations Report on war crimes carried out during Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip in January.

US Congress building in Washington DC

The bill had one hundred fifty co-sponsors,, and called on the President to oppose any endorsement or consideration of the UN Report known as the ‘Goldstone Report’ after its author Richard Goldstone. 36 Congressmembers opposed the measure; 22 abstained.

While the House Bill stated that the Goldstone Report contained serious flaws, it failed to mention what those flaws were.

It also stated that the mandate for the UN Human Rights investigation was unfairly biased against Israel.

But it failed to mention that the mandate required the UN Human Rights team to investigate human rights abuses by both Israel and the Palestinian fighters.

During the investigation, United Nations representatives were kept out of Israel, despite repeated attempts to enter Israel to investigate alleged war crimes carried out by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups.

The Goldstone Report called on both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority led by Hamas to investigate the incidents detailed in the report.

The Report accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, and says that if the Israeli government and the Hamas party refuse to carry out internal investigations within six months, that the matter should be turned over to the International Criminal Court.