Kuwait Times

Published Date: October 14, 2009

JENIN: The Palestinian president says the Hamas-run Gaza Strip is an "emirate of darkness" as the rift deepens between the rival Palestinian factions. Mahmoud Abbas also accuses Hamas fighters of fleeing during Israel's offensive in the coastal area last winter. His remarks yesterday came in response to harsh condemnations from the Islamic militant group.

Hamas is furious over Abbas' recent decision to withdraw support for a UN report on war crimes during the Gaza offensive. Abbas later reversed his stance and is now pushing to have the issue taken up by the UN. But Hamas still seeks to capitalize on widespread outrage against the Fatah leader. Relations between Abbas's Fatah government in the West Bank and Hamas collapsed when Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Meanwhile, The UN Human Rights Council will reopen the debate about alleged war crimes in Gaza later this week after Palestinians succeeded in gathering enough support to call a special meeting, officials said yesterday. The debate will start tomorrow, a day after the UN Security Council in New York discusses the Goldstone report, which accuses Israeli forces and Palestinian militants of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during their Dec 27-Jan 18 war. Israel has rejected the report, claim
ing the investigators led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone were biased against the Jewish state and misled by Palestinian propaganda.

UN officials say 18 of the council's 47 members signed a motion calling for the debate. The backers are: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Senegal. Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority's UN ambassador in Geneva, said the two-day debate would examine the report as well as recent incidents of violence in Jerusalem. It will be the sixth time that Israel has been the subject
of a special session by the Geneva-based council. Each previous session has resulted in a resolution critical of Israel.

We'll wait to take a stance on the debate itself once it begins," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. "We still think that this report is very dangerous and is disconnected from reality. This report was based almost exclusively on Hamas propaganda." The 575-page report was based on about 180 interviews and 10,000 pages of documents. It accused Israel of applying disproportionate force, targeting civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure and using human shields in its offensive to sto
p militant rocket fire. The report also criticized Gaza militants including Hamas for targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through rocket attacks.

Thirteen Israelis and almost 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the conflict. The decision to call for a special meeting of the council marks a turnaround for the Palestinians. Under heavy US pressure, Palestinian diplomats two weeks ago had asked for debate on the report to be delayed until March, resulting in protests at home. Despite angry Israeli reaction and US criticism, the Goldstone report has been widely praised by human rights groups such as Amnesty International and supported by countries in
Europe and elsewhere. - Agencies