Explanation of Vote (EOV) by the Israel before the General Assembly 64th Session

Vote on Report of Fact Finding Mission on Gaza Conflict

New York( 

5 November 2009

ISRAELI REPRESENTATIVE:  Thank you again, Mr. President.  Two days after the revelation o
f Hamas’ newly improved Iranian-made rockets and one day after the interception of a ship, the Francop loaded with hundreds of tons of rockets and ammunition destined to be launched at Israeli population centers, a grave event, we have just complained an hour ago to the Security Council.  This draft resolution mocks the reality faced by democratic states such as Israel that confront relentless terrorist threats.  
The draft resolution before us endorses and legitimizes a deeply flawed, one-sided and prejudiced report of the discredited Human Rights Council and its politicized work that bends both fact and law.  It disregards Israel’s inherent right to defend its citizens in the face of ongoing terrorist attacks.  
It represents yet another pretext to bash Israel at the UN and is detrimental to any positive diplomatic engagement in the region.  It attempts to export from Geneva to New York a campaign of delegitimization.  
While Israel has been conducting professional, credible and thorough investigations as part of its standard operating procedures, and irrespective of any UN report, the report before you attempts to draw an implausible equivalence between Israel, a democracy exercising its inherent right to defend itself from terrorist attacks, and those who target Israeli civilians and operate from behind Palestinian mosques, hospitals, schools, and human shields or, alternatively, those who effectively are absent from Gaza at this point.  
The draft resolution in OP4 refers to “Palestinian side.”  Yet, although we have received a clarification and without respect to what we have heard, I will still put a question before the Assembly as to who precisely this accountable “Palestinian side” is.  
Is this the Palestinian Authority who was ousted from power in the Gaza Strip in a bloody coup?  Is it the Hamas terrorist organization that violently seized control of Gaza, an organization that rejects the recognition of Israel and any peaceful solution of the conflict.  For these and other reasons, Mr. President, Israel called for a recorded vote against this draft and will vote against this draft and we urge all other member states to do the same.  
Thank you, Mr. President.