UN body okays Goldstone Gaza report accusing Israel of war crimes

South African jurist Richard Goldstone, who headed a United Nations investigation into the conduct of Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas during Israel's offensive in Gaza last winter, criticized on Friday the United Nations Human Rights Council's decision to endorse the report his commission had compiled.

The council on Friday endorsed the report, which accused both Israel and the militant group Hamas of committing war crimes during the December-January conflict in Gaza.

Goldstone told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps before the vote that the wording of the resolution was unfortunate because it included only censure of Israel. He voiced hope that the Human Rights Council would alter the wording of the draft.

In a special session Friday, 25 of the Human Rights Council's members voted in favor of the resolution that chastised Israel for failing to cooperate with the UN mission led by Goldstone. Another six voted against and 11 abstained.

The resolution agreed to in Geneva calls for the UN General Assembly to consider the Goldstone report and for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report back to the Human Rights Council on Israel's adherence to it.

The report calls for the UN Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court in the Hague if the Israelis or Palestinians fail to investigate the alleged abuses perpetrated.

The countries that voted against the report included the U.S., Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine.

China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua and Nigeria voted in favor of the report.

The abstaining countries included Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay.
Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote.

"This resolution goes far beyond even the initial scope of the Goldstone report into a discussion of elements that should be resolved in the context of permanent status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis," U.S. envoy to the UN Douglas Griffiths said, when explaining why his country was voting against the document.

The U.S. has said the report was unfair toward Israel, something Goldstone repeatedly denied, noting he investigated all sides of the conflict.

France called on Friday to delay the UN Human Rights Council vote in Geneva regarding the adoption of the Goldstone Gaza report by half an hour in a last-minute attempt to lobby allies to reject the report's findings.

The French delegates joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent diplomatic attempts to lobby European counterparts, including Holland, Spain and Denmark, to back Israel's rejection of the report's findings.

In a special session, 25 of the body's members voted in favor of the resolution that chastised Israel for failing to cooperate with the UN mission led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone...What was media covering during this special session at the United Nations, oh yes the hoax story of OH MY GAWD LOOK AT THE BOY IN THE RUN AWAY BALLOON!!!!!!!!!

Folks, there is zero coverage of this on ABCNNBBCBSFOX that I have been able to find. I even went to the FOX News website and used their own search engine and found nothing reported about this. Meanwhile, the TV network news is still going gaga over the UFO balloon hoax from yesterday.

So, I am calling on all the "Rangers" (Free Range Human Beings; that means YOU!) to take this article, or indeed any articles about the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsing the Goldstone Report on Israel's war crimes and send it to your friends, post it in your social networking sites, blogs, anywhere.

Israel knows that the US will obediently veto the Goldstone Report before it goes to the Hague, so now they are trying to limit the PR damage by ordering the servile US media to ignore the story entirely. We, on the other hand, have the means to make sure the general public is aware of this report of Israel's war crimes and its endorsement by the UNHRC, which will not only serve to bring the world's condemnation down on Israel, but further embarrass the United States when they exercise their Security Council veto.

So, Rangers, man your keyboards! Do not wait for orders, but grab thy laptop and ride towards the sound of ... bovine excrement!"