US House asks Obama, Clinton to oppose UN report

The U.S. House of Representatives condemned a U.N. report Tuesday that accuses Israeli forces and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes in Gaza early this year as "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy."

The document, commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council, accuses both Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group of war crimes but presents Israel's actions as much more serious.

On a 344-36 vote, the House passed a nonbinding resolution that urged President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "to oppose unequivocally any endorsement" of the report. Twenty-two representatives voted "present."

Rep. Steny Hoyer, leader of the House's Democratic majority, said the report is "unfair, unbalanced and inaccurate" in its portrayal of Israel's response to rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza.

The U.N. General Assembly planned to take up the report's findings on Wednesday.

Thirteen Israelis and almost 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the Dec. 27-Jan. 18 conflict.

The 575-page report accuses Israel of applying disproportionate force, targeting civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure and using human shields in its offensive to stop militant rocket fire. It also criticized rocket squads affiliated with Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for attacking Israeli civilians.

The report recommends that the U.N. Security Council require Israel and authorities in Gaza to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the alleged crimes. If they do not, the report says, the U.N. Security Council should refer the report, as well as the 180 interviews and 10,000 pages of documents on which it is based, to the International Criminal Court, a permanent war crimes tribunal.

Clinton has criticized the report as one-sided. She called its recommendations "unprecedented for any country, not just Israel."

Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who sponsored the resolution, also took issue with how the United Nations has handled the report and its recommendations.

"As Israel is being ostracized at the U.N., violent extremists in Gaza continue to fire rockets and mortars at innocent Israelis," said Ros-Lehtinen.

Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, one of two Muslims in Congress, said the "resolution should be opposed because it suppresses inquiry; inquiry, that is the hallmark of democratic societies."

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The resolution is H.Res.867

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