Jewish lobby blocks EU support for UN Gaza report

Pressure from European Jewish lobbyists has forced the members of the European Parliament to change their plan to pass a resolution demanding implementation of the Goldstone report on Gaza war.

The decision to backtrack on the agreement regarding the wording of a draft was taken on Tuesday after the president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor, warned that implementing it would gravely damage EU-Israel relations, Ha’aretz reported.

The UN-sponsored Goldstone report on Israel’s offensive in Gaza details what investigators call Israeli actions “amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity.” The 575-page account asserts seven incidents in which Palestinian civilians were shot while leaving their homes, trying to run for safety or while waving white flags.

The report also mentions that Israel violated international humanitarian law in several ways. Dozens of Palestinian police officers were killed at the start of Gaza onslaught when Israel bombed their stations. The security agents were not involved in resistance and should have been treated as civilians. Palestinians in addition were forced to walk ahead of Israeli soldiers when searching civilian neighborhoods.

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Judge Richard Goldstone’s report in October, and the General Assembly followed suit in November.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during three weeks of Israel’s land, sea and air assault on the impoverished coastal sliver in December 2008-January 2009. The offensive also inflicted USD 1.6 billion in damages on the Gaza economy.