The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution urging Israel and the Palestinians to investigate war crimes charges leveled in a controversial UN report on the Gaza war. The vote on the non-binding resolution was 114 countries in favor with 18 opposed, including Israel and its ally the United States and 44 abstaining. No country has veto power in the assembly. The Arab-drafted resolution followed up on a 575-page report on the Gaza war commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, written by a panel led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone and published in September. The report blasted both sides in the December-January conflict, which killed over 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, but was harsher toward Israel, which refused to cooperate with Goldstone and has reacted with outrage to his findings. The resolution follows Goldstone in calling on Israel and the Palestinian side to undertake within three months credible investigations into the report's charges. It also asks U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to transmit the report to the Security Council. But diplomats said all five veto-wielding permanent council members opposed council involvement, so it was unlikely the 15-nation body would take action. The US Deputy Ambassador, Alejandro Wolff accused the U.N. of being unbalanced when handling Arab-Israeli matters. We believe that the Goldstone Report is deeply flawed, including it's unbalanced focus on Israel, its sweeping conclusions of law, the excessively negative inferences it draws about Israel's intentions and actions, its failure to deal adequately with the asymmetrical nature of the Gaza conflict, its failure to assign appropriate responsibility to Hamas for its decision to base itself and its operations in heavily civilian populated urban areas, and its many over-reaching recommendations, said Wolff.
