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The US House of Representatives has rejected as "irredeemably biased" the findings of a UN-sponsored report which says Israel committed war crimes during its military assault on the Gaza Strip.
The house on Tuesday voted 344 to 36 in favor of a non-binding resolution calling on Barack Obama, the US president, to maintain his opposition to the report, which was written by a panel led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge.
Steny Hoyer, the Democrat House majority leader, said it was important to adopt an official resolution against the Goldstone report as it "paints a distorted picture".
It "epitomizes the practice of singling Israel out from all other nations for condemnation," he said on Tuesday.
UN assembly pressure
The US house vote came a day before the United Nations General Assembly is expected to debate its own resolution endorsing the findings of the Goldstone report.
Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from the UN in New York, said that while the majority of the assembly's member nations were expected to vote in favor of the resolution, the US vote on Tuesday, although non-binding, was likely to dampen its impact.
"Remember - the key recommendation of Goldstone is to get a credible investigation into the alleged war crimes that the Goldstone commission found evidence of in Gaza, and the UN Security Council is the only body that can move forward and demand an investigation," she said.
"The general assembly just does not have that power. Of course, on the security council, the United States is a veto-wielding member and, as the congressional vote underscores, the US is not going to be interested in moving forward in the Security Council to call for an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC), or anyone else for that matter."
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the UN, criticized the Security Council for so far failing to act "in triggering the mechanism that Goldstone wanted, the investigation, the monitoring and then reporting after six months before considering moving into the ICC".
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the UN, criticized the Security Council for so far failing to act "in triggering the mechanism that Goldstone wanted, the investigation, the monitoring and then reporting after six months before considering moving into the ICC".
"The General Assembly, in a responsible way in the draft we have submitted by the Arab group, which hopefully in the next two days will receive large support, has taken some of the responsibility from the security council ... and asked for the investigation to begin," he told Al Jazeera.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, which sponsored the Goldstone commission, has already voted to endorse the report.
PHOTO CAPTION
PHOTO CAPTION
Head of the United Nations fact finding mission on the Gaza Conflict, former South African judge Richard Goldstone is pictured at the Human Rights Council at the UN office in Geneva in September 2009.
Agencies
