Euroasian Jewish News

EAJC Address to Countries Supporting Israel in the UN

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress has sent letters of thanks to the governments and foreign ministries of the countries which supported Israel in the vote of the UN Human Rights Council. The letter reads as follows:

«The leadership of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) salutes the countries which have supported the State of Israel during the vote of the UN Human Rights Council on the Goldstone report. In the name of Jewish communities of 25 Eastern European, Asian, and the Asia-Pacific region, the EAJC expresses thanks to the United States of America, Italy, Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, and Ukraine for their position. The representatives of these six countries refused to support the decision of the UN Human Rights Council to submit the report of the Richard Goldstone commission, which accused Israel of war crimes during the anti-terroristic operation “Cast Lead” which took place in Gaza, in December 2008 – January 2009, to the UN Security Council.

The EAJC highly values the objective and principled position of your representatives in the UN. In the opinion of the Congress, which is based on expert comments, the Richard Goldstone commission report is tendentious, one-sided, and biased. For instance, the former commander of the British task forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, whose experience includes earlier participation in the war in the Persian Gulf and peacemaking missions in Bosnia and Macedonia, as well as command of various military units in North Ireland, stated at the UN Human Rights session: “Based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.”

The EAJC leadership expressed its hope that the position of countries which supported Israel in ht UN will continue to be based on impartiality and objectivity.

The submission of the Goldstone commission report for consideration to the Security Council shows that, unfortunately, a dangerous mechanism has been activated in the UN, which is thwarting the attempts to work out a thought-out, objective, and balanced position on the questions of Near East regulation. Thus, the position of countries which refused to support the “Goldstone Report” becomes even more important.

Unfortunately, the UN Human Rights Council has made the decision by a majority of votes to pass the Goldstone report for scrutiny to the UN Security Council. Representatives of 25 countries votd in favor of this decision. Representatives of 11 countries abstained. Five countries did not participate in the vote.

Except the Islam block, the following countries also voted in favor of passing the report to the UN Security Council: Russia, China, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ghana, India, Liberia, the Philippines, Brasil, South Africa, Mauritius, and Nicaragua. Bosnia and Hertzegovina, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Cameroon, Japan, Belgium, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, Uruguay, and Slovenia abstained. Representatives of the United Kingdom, France, and Angola refused to participate in the vote, and representatives of Kyrgyzstan and Madagascar were absent from the hall during the vote.