The UN General Assembly will meet next week to consider a report that accused both Israel and Palestine of war crimes and possible crimes during their war in Gaza.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council endorsed the report by an expert panel chaired by South African Judge Richard Goldstone on Oct. 16 and recommended that the General Assembly take it up during the current session.
General Assembly President Ali Treki
freshwater pearl necklace received a letter from the president of the Human Rights Council transmitting the report and requests from Arab nations and the 118-member Nonaligned Group of mainly developing nations asking the assembly to consider its findings and recommendations during the first week of November, Assembly spokesman Jean Victor Nkolo said.
He said Treki “intends to convene a plenary meeting of the General Assembly on Nov. 4.”
The Goldstone report concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeting civilians, using Palestinians as human shields, and destroying civilian infrastructure during its incursion into Gaza to root out Palestinian rocket squads.
It accused Palestinian armed groups of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through its rocket attacks on southern Israel. Hamas, the
naughty castles Palestinian Authority’s main rival, controls Gaza and most armed groups in the territory.
The report recommended that the Security Council require both sides to carry out credible investigations within three months into alleged abuses during the conflict — in which 13 Israelis and almost 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed — and to follow that up with action in their courts.
If either side refuses, the investigators
silver pearl necklace recommended that the Security Council refer the evidence for prosecution by the International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal, within six months.