United Nations

(JTA) -- Three members of the United Nations fact-finding mission on the Gaza war say they stand by the report and that calls to retract it disregard the rights of the victims.

The three international law experts on Thursday published a statement in the British newspaper the Guardian saying :Aspersions cast on the findings of the report, cannot be left unchallenged."

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A majority of Americans oppose a declaration of Palestinian statehood absent a peace agreement with Israel, a new poll finds.

The poll released this week by the Israel Project showed 51 percent of registered U.S. voters oppose a proposal that the Palestinian Authority "unilaterally declare an independent Palestinian state WITHOUT a signed peace treaty with Israel," while 31 percent support it.

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Legislation calling on the United Nations to rescind the Goldstone report is circulating in both houses of Congress.

A Senate resolution, introduced April 8 by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and James Risch (R-Idaho), calls on the U.N. Human Rights Council to "reflect the author’s repudiation of the Goldstone report’s central findings, rescind the report, and reconsider further Council actions with respect to the report’s findings."

In the Book of Esther read on Purim, King Ahasuerus tells Queen Esther that he cannot revoke his edict calling for the destruction of the Jews but that he would issue a new decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves.

Israel’s consul for media affairs in New York, Joel Lion, offered similar advice this week to the American Jewish community following the surprise mea culpa by Richard Goldstone.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The United Nations Human Rights Council said it will continue to use the Goldstone Report as written, despite its author's retraction of a key finding.

Council spokesman Cedric Sapey told the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot on Monday that the Op-Ed written by Richard Goldstone appearing in The Washington Post of April 2 was his personal opinion and not that of the rest of the committee.

 
March 30, 2011
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Obama administration said it remains determined to end anti-Israel bias at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The State Department on Wednesday released a fact sheet outlining its accomplishments since rejoining the UNHRC in 2009.

At the time, pro-Israel groups and conservatives criticized the reversal of Bush administration policy of boycotting the council, saying it validated the council's almost near-exclusive focus on Israel.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Hamas said it will stop the United Nations from teaching Palestinian children in Gaza about the Holocaust.

The history of the Holocaust is set to become part of a human rights curriculum in Gaza schools run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency that are attended by more than 200,000 Palestinian children, The Guardian reported.