The United Nations Security Council has moved up its regular monthly meeting on the Middle East as a compromise response to Libya's request to convene a special session on the Goldstone Report.
The report, which accuses Israel of "war crimes" in Gaza, also said that Hamas terrorists who control the region "may have" been guilty of "possible" war crimes as well.
The Council is scheduled to meet next Wednesday, October 14, rather than on October 20, and is expected to focus on the accusations by retired South African Judge Richard Goldstone, who led the U.N. commission that investigated Israel's counter-terrorist Operation Cast Lead last winter in Gaza.
The new meeting came as a surprise, inasmuch as an agreement had been reached at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva less than a week earlier to put off action on the report until March 2010.
Palestinian Authority U.N. observer Riyad Mansour said he spoke for the PA, Arab nations and 118 nations that comprise the Non-aligned Movement of developing countries in expressing strong support for the Libyan request. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas reneged on his agreement to withhold his support for such a discussion after facing criticism from Hamas and activists on the PA street.
A vote on a Security Council resolution scheduled for this Friday is aimed at condemning Israel for refusing to cooperate with the Goldstone Commission. Israel said the investigation was inherently biased, and thus there was no point in cooperating with the probe.
Individual Israelis who chose to testify before the commission confirmed the truth of Jerusalem's claim. Sderot Media Center director Noam Bedein described committee members yawning, and Judge Goldstone actually falling asleep during testimony about the repeated traumas inflicted on Israelis due to terror attacks emanating from Gaza.
The U.S. said also called the report "deeply flawed," but has not taken any concrete steps to immediately protect Israel from any fallout that might occur.
European Jews Sue EU over Gaza Rockets
Fifteen European citizens living in Israel have filed a lawsuit against the European Union for failing to protect its citizens from Gaza terrorist rocket fire while they are living in Israel.
The citizens of Britain, France, Italy and Hungary filed a claim with the European Commission, demanding that the EU intervene in the funding of terrorism in Gaza, and take action to protect them from terrorists while they live in Israel, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The EU has a duty under Article 3.2 of the European Treaty to offer its citizens “an area of freedom, security and justice,” reads the group's petition. All 15 litigants currently live in the rocket-battered southern Israeli town of Sderot.
The group is demanding that the EU stop the transfer of European funding to the Hamas terrorist organization that controls Gaza, prevent known terrorists and their leaders from entering the EU, and prevent non-profit organizations from misusing European funds.