RAMALLAH: The Palestinian leadership made a mistake by suspending action on a UN report on Gaza war crimes, a member of President Mahmoud Abbas’ inner circle said on Wednesday — the first such acknowledgment after days of protests in the West Bank and Gaza.
At issue is a 575-page UN report that alleged both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s three-week offensive in Gaza last winter.
Last week, Abbas withdrew Palestinian support for a vote in the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to have the report sent to the UN General Assembly for possible action. Such a vote would have been a first of many steps toward possible war crimes tribunals.
With the Palestinians out of the picture, the council set the report aside for six months.
Abbas made the decision under heavy US pressure, Palestinian and Israeli officials have said. US officials told Palestinian leaders that a war crimes debate would complicate efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, according to participants in such meetings.
Abbas’ aides have defended the step, saying the Palestinians needed more time to win international support for the UN report. They said deferring action did not mean burying the report.
But Abbas apparently underestimated the angry response at home. With every day, there were more protests, marches and statements of condemnations, not only from his Hamas rivals, but also from human rights groups and intellectuals.
On Wednesday, senior Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio that the Palestinian leadership had erred.
“What happened is a mistake, but (it) can be repaired,” said Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization. “We have the courage to admit there was a mistake.”
Meanwhile, Hamas has asked Egypt to delay the signing of a Palestinian reconciliation deal that Cairo had announced for later this month, a source within the group said on Wednesday.
Hamas “asked Egypt to postpone the session for the signature of the agreement,” the source said, asking not to be named.
In Gaza, public outrage at Abbas reached a new level on Wednesday, when hundreds of posters criticizing the Palestinian president appeared in public areas around Gaza City.
A crew dressed in civilian clothes was seen putting up the posters Wednesday morning, though it was not immediately clear who headed the campaign. The posters were signed “Intellectuals and university professors.”
In an apparent attempt at damage control, Abbas’ government is now backing a request by Libya to convene the UN Security Council for an emergency session on the report, written by South African judge Richard Goldstone. Council members were to meet Wednesday to discuss the request.
Libya is the only Arab member on the 15-nation council, the UN’s most powerful body.
Whether the Libyans and Palestinians succeed remains to be seen.
The United States is expected to argue that the Security Council should not take up the document until the Human Rights Council considers it. The US, along with four other permanent members of the Security Council, can veto any resolution before the Council. Israeli officials declined comment on the council meeting.
The Goldstone report accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately harmed civilians.
