Palestinians drop push for UN Human Rights Council vote on Goldstone report

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has decided to defer until March 2010 a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council to condemn Israel's conduct of the Gaza Strip offensive, officials said. The UN body had been expected to vote on the resolution on Friday. A Palestinian diplomat stated that the PA wanted to gather more support for the resolution and allow the Human Rights Council’s members to study the report further.

The resolution would have endorsed the Goldstone Commission report on the Gaza conflict, which accuses both sides of war crimes and called for the General Assembly or Security Council of the United Nations to follow up on the investigations into alleged violations. If the sides did not investigate themselves, Goldstone said the International Criminal Court should take up the case.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned on Thursday that passage of the resolution would deal a "critical blow" to the Middle East peace process. Officials said the Palestinians came under pressure from the US government, which has said that the Goldstone proposals should wait until after peace talks have resumed.