Germany urges Israel to take war crimes report very serious

Germany yesterday called on Israel to take the UN report on Israeli war crimes in the Gaza war "very serious."

Addressing media representatives during a routine government press briefing, German Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson Andreas Peschke said it was "important to take this report very seriously."

The report, written by Richard Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor, and three other international experts, accused Israel of committing war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during its three-week military onslaught.

Peschke stressed all sides in the Gaza conflict had to deal with this issue "intensely," saying this was in their own interest," he stressed.

"The Goldstone report is an important contribution to the discussion and analysis of the events in Gaza," Peschke said.

He added that Goldstone had mentioned in his report to the UN Human Rights Council that it was hardly possible to conduct a fact-finding mission inside Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel's former ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, lambasted his country's response to the Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict in a newspaper interview Monday. The Israeli government was wrong to boycott the Goldstone investigation, Primor told the German daily Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.

Some 25 countries out of the 47-member Human Rights Council voted in Geneva last week to accept the report while 11 delegates abstained.

Six nations, including the United States and some European Union nations voted against the resolution.