The enemy from within: Palestinians ‘drop Gaza report’

Now it is official:

The Palestinian Authority has withdrawn its support from a UN resolution endorsing a UN report into the Gaza conflict, reports say.

The reports, quoting diplomats, say the Palestinian decision was made under strong pressure from the United States.
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Source: BBC

Vote on Gaza report deferred

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has supported a decision to defer a vote on the UN-sanctioned report on the Gaza war until next March, Al Jazeera has learned.

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from Geneva where the UN Human Rights Council is to meet on Friday, said that the Palestinians have not withdrawn support for the report but prefer deferring a final resolution to next year as they wait for a consensus.

Imad Zuhairi, the Palestinian deputy permanent observer at the Human Rights Council, has told Al Jazeera that because of the "historic importance" of the resolution it was important to get fullest possible consensus to pass a resolution to have the 47-member forum adopt the report.

Adopting the report would mean that its is referred to the UN Security Council for further action.

Zamir Akhram, the Pakistan representative to the council, said that it had been decided by the resolution's sponsors - Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Tunisia - to withhold the vote and re-introduce the resolution at the the next sitting of the forum in March 2010.

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He said the resolution would not be tabled because of a lack of consensus.

The Palestinian delegation has also told Al Jazeera that there is a realisation that current attempts to renew negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians would be severely impacted by an insistence that the vote be held at this stage.

The Palestinian Authority had endorsed the Goldstone report when it was released last month, and on Tuesday the Palestinian representative speaking as an observer at the council had said the report "was a professional, unbiased report and related to facts that could not be denied".

In the debate of the draft earlier this week, the wording of the resolution was contested principally by the US, the EU and France, and Israeli media reported that the decision to defer the endorsement follows pressure from Washington.

On Thursday, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said any action to endorse the report would strike a fatal blow to the stalled so-called peace process between Israelis and the Palestinians.

Source: Aljazeera

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