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TechnoratiUN Rights Council Condemns Israeli Offensive in Gaza
GENEVA - A divided UN Human Rights Council voted on Monday to condemn Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and set up a probe into "grave" human rights violations by Israeli forces against the Palestinians.
![[United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employees hold a U.N. flag stained with red paint during a protest in the West Bank city of Hebron against Israel's offensive in Gaza January 12, 2009. (Reuters/Nayef Hashlamoun/West Bank)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/un-0112.jpg "un-0112.jpg")
The resolution setting up a fact-finding mission was adopted despite the lack of Western support.
Thirty-three African, Asian, Arab and Latin American countries voted for the resolution. Thirteen mainly European states abstained, while Canada was the only country to vote against.
The 47 member council -- frequently critical of Israel in the past -- normally seeks to adopt resolutions by consensus.
Western countries said the text put forward by Arab and African states was too biased and failed to clearly recognise the role that rocket attacks launched by Palestinian militants played in triggering the offensive.
Last minute changes failed to overcome the differences after the special session on the violence in the Gaza Strip spilled into a second day.
The European Union's representative said the EU could have supported some elements, but found the text too one-sided despite its concern about human rights violations in Gaza.
Israel also dismissed the resolution as biased and cast doubt on the Council's credibility. The United States is not on the Council and steers clear of it.
The text released by the UN Council "strongly" condemned the Israeli military operation in Gaza, saying it had "resulted in massive violations" of the human rights of Palestinians.
With the toll surpassing 900, including nearly 400 women and children, according to Gaza medics, it called for "urgent international action" to halt "grave human rights violations by Israel".
The draft resolution also called for an end to rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
But the key contents were four overlapping probes targeting Israel.
The resolution tasked 10 UN experts on human rights and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay with two separate probes into the violence.
It also set up an independent, international fact-finding mission to "investigate all violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by Israel", while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was asked to investigate the bombing of UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.
During the first day of the session on Friday, Pillay had warned that human rights violations in Gaza were extremely serious and some attacks that hit civilians and relief workers might warrant prosecutions for war crimes.
"Credible, independent and transparent" investigations were a first step towards ensuring accountability, she added on Friday, warning that "violations of international humanitarian law may constitute war crimes for which individual criminal responsibility may be invoked."
Julie de Rivero of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said lack of consensus and the resolution's focus on Israel "undermined its credibility."
Israel has refused to cooperate with similar fact-finding missions in the past, as well as a UN special rapporteur on the human rights of the Palestinians, complaining of bias because they fail to consider attacks on Israelis as well.
Israeli authorities last month detained and turned back the UN expert, Richard Falk, upon his arrival at Ben Gurion airport, accusing him of "legitimising Hamas terrorism."
25 Comments so far
Show AllSometimes you are actually hilarious in your comments. But mostly, your very one-sided anger and childish approach is boring, serena. Attacking gringos will solve nothing.
Once again, you seem to think that you're living in an "enlightened" country - Mexico. "You got a long way to go, gringos, to recover even a hair of credibility in regard to protecting human rights!"
Ha, Ha! - right, serena - like the bribe-infected, drug-carteled, protectors of human rights - the Mexican government, the Mexican police and the Mexican military - are something to brag about.
Wake up serena! We're all living within the same corrupt Empire, and if things are going to change, we the people (of Mexico, the U.S. and elsewhere) need to be on the same page!
Another asinine post, maggie may.
I am not on the same page with you. Nor do I care to be.
If you can quote where I have ever said that Mexico is an "enlightened country", I will fly you to Mexico City first class next week. That should be incentive for you to read every post I have written on this website.
By pointing the finger at Mexico--the supplier of your drugs and your nannies and toilet cleaners and lettuce pickers--do you think that distracts the world's attention from the fact that YOU, every one of you, is paying for the genocide in Occupied Palestine?
If you believe that, I still have a few of those beachfront lots left in... Nebraska.
PS: You never bothered to tell us what you are doing to save the world--don't do anything positive, apparently--just get loaded and troll on internet sites.
Pan
Want your land
Want your money
Want your representatives
Want your mind closed
Anything left
Time for real welfare reform: cut off Israel's welfare check from the US.
In the context of this conflict Hamas rockets are irrelivant as they are relitively harmless and are fired in response to persistent Israeli occupation and continued settlement expansion.
Resistance to occupation is legitimate - period.
The French resistance in WW2 took measures that the Nazis considered terrorist acts also.
It is this thought process that is the cause of this never ending conflict. As long as Hamas is launching rockets Israel will continue both the block aid and the military actions in Gaza.
Peace will only come when both sides hold their fire. While resistance is legitimate, but the true purpose of resistance is to end the occupation...now ask yourself if Hamas's actions have bettered the lives of Gaza's population or has it worsened the lives? This form of resistance has only led to more occupation.
The French Resistance didn't launch mortar attacks at German schools-a slight difference.
The previous post was brought to you by a Zionist shill.
The latter post was brought to you by a paranoid schizophrenic.
Another example of progressive enlightenment...why bother to argue the merits of an opinion when one can just resort to name calling!!
And now for the good news:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military plan to ship munitions from a Greek port to a U.S. stockpile in Israel has been canceled due to the conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command issued a tender on December 31 for a ship to deliver 325 standard 20-foot containers of ammunition on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.
Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Greek port had been considered as a possible location from which to transfer ammunition from a larger ship coming from the United States.
Note: what Reuters failed to include was the rather large demonstrations in Astakos against Israel and the US...just after the local papers reported on the proposed shipment of arms to Israel from their port.
The UN can condemn all they want but they have been enabling the Israeli zionists all along plus they're not discussing Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
Who are the "YOU" that you are talking about serena? It certainly isn't me. You've supposedly escaped the wrath of the American Empire by moving to Mexico, apparently in your view, one of the more progressive governments in the western hemisphere - otherwise, why would you move there? And why are Americans so desperate that they think Canada offers any real change? We're all living within the same Empire.
serena, your anger is aimed directly at those of us who decide to remain here in the country we were born in. I, for one, consider myself an American revolutionary - throwing off the shackles of Empire by my everyday, conscious decisions - and I'm certainly not one of the American delusionaries who expect any change to result from the election of B.O.
I hope that you, serena, are on the front lines of supporting the indigenous peoples of Mexico - because they surely need your help - regardless of your apparently preceived concept of an "enlightened" Mexican government.
Canadians cannot escape blame for their UN Human Rights Council vote by pointing to their Conservative government. They had their chance as late as October 2008. Though the Tories may be heading a 'minority' government, they are still the largest in the Parliament - which means what? True, votes got split between parties - but, like the 2004 US election, there was enough knowledge of the Conservative Party policies and priorities, and, to their credit, those guys didn't care to hide them either. They said where they stood on issues and what they would do, and got the votes - period! Just as George Bush got voted in for the second term even when Iraq was a mess. The other major party was headed by Stephane Dion - but his Liberal Party did not get enough votes, though he tried explaining his 'green shift' policies in his French accent - I guess he was not charismatic enough (that is, he couldn't talk like a professional politician). Just as John Kerry was, Stephane Dion got swiftboated over trivial issues. And when the opposition parties tried to cobble together a coalition, there was such a hue and cry in the whole country - more interest than in the election itself! Everyone was saying that the opposition was trying to 'steal' the elections! And a 'Governor General' agrees to shut down the Parliament based on just one meeting with this Stephen Harper guy, without hearing from the other parties? And I understand she got back into the country only the previous day after some overseas trip.
Someone needs to remind them that in a Parliamentary system, people vote for their local MP, and the MPs then choose the Prime Minister - but during the coalition saga, everyone was acting like it was a Presidential system. Coalition governments are quite common in many countries, and they do work. The 'first-past-the-post' rules of the current electoral system which passes for democracy in many countries is seriously flawed. Parliamentary system can be improved by having some kind of a 'proportional representation', a 'right-to-recall', etc. How come Canadians are not talking about these?
Highintel: Can we do better?
Actually, many Canadians _are_ talking about Proportional Representation and Coalition Gov'ts, and working to bring the change about.
bligh4
Heck, Canada was a member of the 11 country UN committee on Palestine that recomended partition in the first place. Then they voted in favor of it at the general vote.
"Canada" was the only country to vote against the resolution. As befrgl points out, "Canada" here means the conservative government that most Canadians voted against in the last election. This government seems joined at the hip to Israel and does NOT represent the majority of Canadians. It's a disgraceful crew and the sooner it's out the better.
befrgl
I am completely ashamed of the "illegitimate" gov't. of Canada. In lock step with the zionist u.s. regime. These people closed down parliament last year because they were sure to lose a confidence vote. Completely illegal, but who cares? They just spent billions buying war gear from israel and u.s., including drones and hellfire missles...to be used against whom? We are supposed to leave Afghanistan shortly, and we used to be known as peacekeepers, but these toadies are working overtime to create enemies for us. They should be deported to israel or put in concentration camps in texas. Nobody mentions the theft of the Natural Gas reserves offshore of Gaza, legally sold to british gas, but the Palestinians will never see their $4 billion share as israel has crowned them with the "terrorist" title. I am not anti-semetic or anti-jewish, but call the zionist leaders gangsters and murderers without conscience, promoting their land grab since 1917 until now, especially since 1948. the western zionist press ignores history and makes big news of hollywood sob stories. Pray for common sense and global peace.
Yes yes, lets give the Nazis a fair shake.
The NaZionist state has nuclear weapons, and should any European government take any action, they would be deployed -- against Paris, or Rome, or Madrid, or St. Petersburg -- and then blamed on "jihadists".
How do we get rid of this corrupt & venomous reptile?
Yeah..great job there Canada.
Helluva a way to show some moral leadership.
Why not offer to send some spiked clubs they use in seal hunts to the Israeli army so they can fight off terrorists with made in Canada weaponry?
Canada now has a staunchly pro-Israel Conservative government. More and more Western governments (mostly Conservative) are falling under Zionist influence. However, this split is indicative of where Israel draws its support -- the former Imperial and Colonial powers who understand Israel's settler ideology.