Palestinians want urgent UN rights debate on Gaza

GENEVA — Palestinian diplomats in Geneva said Friday they are pushing to bring forward a U.N. Human Rights Council debate on alleged war crimes committed by Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza earlier this year.

Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, said the request for an urgent meeting was prompted by violence this week in Jerusalem that he blamed on Israel and which he also wants discussed.

Last week, the Palestinian Authority agreed to delay debating a U.N. report on the conflict until March over concerns that going ahead now could harm the fragile Middle East peace process. The decision led to street protests by Palestinians and condemnation around the Arab world.

“We deferred, so we were expecting that the Israelis should respect in some way human rights, but this act of aggression against people, against the human rights and humanitarian law, is unbelievable,” Khraishi said.

Israeli officials in Geneva could not be reached for comment.

There have been repeated outbursts of unrest in Jerusalem since last week, sparked by rumors spread among Palestinians of an attempt by Jewish extremists to harm the Islamic holy sites in the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

Khraishi’s comments appear to indicate a mounting effort by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to deflect criticism for earlier holding off pursuing Israel over alleged war crimes in the Gaza fighting.

The Palestinian leadership has already backed a Libyan push to debate the report in the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 14.

The head of the Organization of The Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said earlier Friday that his group would support Palestinian efforts to raise the report in the Geneva-based U.N. rights council that originally commissioned it.

“You know that OIC countries and public opinion were saddened by the withdrawal (of the report),” Ihsanoglu told reporters in Geneva.

The Organization of The Islamic Conference is a powerful force in the 47-nation council and can usually muster the 17 votes necessary to force an emergency meeting.

The 575-page report, drawn up by a team of experts led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone, concluded that Israel used disproportionate force and failed to protect civilians during its Dec. 27-Jan. 18 incursion into Gaza. Israel has rejected the war crimes allegations, saying they resulted from bias against the Jewish state.

The report also accused Palestinian armed groups of possible war crimes, including firing rockets into civilian areas and using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas, the Palestinian Authority’s main rival, controls Gaza.

Thirteen Israelis and almost 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the conflict.

Khraishi said the Palestinians would try to have the report approved in every possible forum, to give weight to its recommendation that the alleged war crimes be investigated by independent and impartial bodies, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague, if necessary.