Rights Groups Condemn Bid to Quash Goldstone Report

By Eli Clifton

"WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (IPS) - International human rights groups have raised concern over a proposed non-binding resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives which would call on the White House to oppose any future endorsement or consideration of Judge Richard Goldstone's "Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict"..........

The Israeli government and right-wing Christian and Jewish Zionist groups have vocally denounced the report as unfairly critical of Israeli Defence Force (IDF) actions and heavily biased in favour of Hamas.

"We agree with the Obama administration, which has clearly said the biased and flawed Goldstone Report is based on an anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council mandate, makes unacceptable recommendations and undermines the peace process," said Josh Block, spokesperson for the right-leaning American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

"In echoing the administration's condemnation and calling for concrete action, Congress will be sending the strong message that the United States will not stand for turning the victim into the perpetrator," Block went on to say.

The pending congressional resolution would, "[call] on the President and the Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the 'Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict' in multilateral fora," which stands in contrast to the State Department's position on the report.

"We have serious concerns about the Goldstone Report and its unbalanced focus on Israel and its sweeping conclusions of law," a State Department spokesperson told IPS. "We believe the report should be handled within the U.N. Human Rights Council and we disagree with many of its recommendations including that it should be taken up by the U.N. Security Council."

The resolution's recommendation that the Obama administration oppose any consideration of the report in the "multilateral fora" struck human rights NGOs and church lobbies as a hypocritical approach to international law......"