""Whoever votes in favor of adopting this report must understand that next time it will be about NATO soldiers and officers in Afghanistan, and then about Russian soldiers and officers in Chechnya."

Foreign Ministry exerting last-ditch efforts to try to thwart adoption of report accusing Israel of war crimes by United Nation's Human Rights Council. 'We are certain that we are right,' foreign minister says. 'This is the truth and there is no other'

Roni Sofer
Published: 10.16.09, 07:58 / Israel News

Just several hours before a decisive United Nations discussion on a report accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Ynet on Thursday night that "those who believe that they are right should not be afraid of anything."


Meanwhile, Israel is attempting to thwart the adoption of the report, which was written by a committee chaired by Judge Richard Goldstone, by the UN's Human Rights Council.

Lieberman returned to Israel on Thursday evening from visits to Kazakhstan and Austria. His ministry's officials are exerting last-ditch efforts in order to convince countries to thwart the Palestinian resolution at the Human Rights Council, but the foreign minister is aware of the possibility that the proposal would be accepted and that Israel would be humiliated by the report once again.


"We are certain that we are right and we are facing the world with this. This is the truth and there is no other," Lieberman said. "There should be no maneuvers here by us, only one last effort ahead of the Geneva vote. We are pressuring and talking to everyone. The efforts will continue overnight and in the morning, and we are fighting until the very last moment."


According to Lieberman, "Whoever votes in favor of adopting this report must understand that next time it will be about NATO soldiers and officers in Afghanistan, and then about Russian soldiers and officers in Chechnya.

As for the possibility that the proposal would be accepted, the foreign minister said, "We must understand that there is an automatic majority against us at the UN – 117 countries out of 192 are non-aligned countries."


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He added, "We are not excited when there is such an automatic majority. I don't know if it will pass. But if it does and reaches the Security Council, our situation may be better there. Four of the five permanent countries are with us. As for the possibility that it will reach the International Criminal Court in The Hague, I don’t know."

Lieberman praised the Israel Defense Forces, saying, "We know that the IDF is the most ethical army in the world, and that is the way it acted in Gaza. Any decision, and especially one with such an automatic majority against us at the Human Rights Council, does not reflect the truth."