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House calls on Obama, Clinton to oppose UN report

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By ANN SANNER, The Associated Press 5:56 PM Tuesday, November 3, 2009

WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday condemned a U.N. report that accuses Israeli forces and Palestinian militants of war crimes in Gaza last winter as "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy."

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

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the report is "unfair, unbalanced and inaccurate" in its portrayal of Israel's response to attacks from 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 U.N. 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 don't, 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."

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, R-Fla.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., 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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On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/

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November 03, 2009 10:51 PM EST

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