IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 867 
Calling on the President and the Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally 
any endorsement or further consideration of the ‘‘Report of the United 
Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’ in multilateral 
fora. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 23, 2009 
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN (for herself, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, and 
Mr. ACKERMAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Calling on the President and the Secretary of State to oppose 
unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration 
of the ‘‘Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mis-
sion on the Gaza Conflict’’ in multilateral fora. 
Whereas, on January 12, 2009, the United Nations Human 
Rights Council passed Resolution A/HRC/S–9/L.1, which 
authorized a ‘‘fact-finding mission’’ regarding Israel’s 
conduct of Operation Cast Lead against violent militants 
in the Gaza Strip between December 27, 2008, and Jan-
uary 18, 2009; 
Whereas the resolution pre-judged the outcome of its inves-
tigation, by one-sidedly mandating the ‘‘fact-finding mis-
sion’’ to ‘‘investigate all violations of international human 
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•HRES 867 IH 
rights law and International Humanitarian Law by . . . 
Israel, against the Palestinian people . . . particularly in 
the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression’’; 
Whereas the mandate of the ‘‘fact-finding mission’’ makes no 
mention of the relentless rocket and mortar attacks, 
which numbered in the thousands and spanned a period 
of eight years, by Hamas and other violent militant 
groups in Gaza against civilian targets in Israel, that ne-
cessitated Israel’s defensive measures; 
Whereas the ‘‘fact-finding mission’’ included a member who, 
before joining the mission, had already declared Israel 
guilty of committing atrocities in Operation Cast Lead by 
signing a public letter on January 11, 2009, published in 
the Sunday Times, that called Israel’s actions ‘‘war 
crimes’’; 
Whereas the mission’s flawed and biased mandate gave seri-
ous concern to many United Nations Human Rights 
Council Member States which refused to support it, in-
cluding Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Canada, 
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Re-
public of Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, 
and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern 
Ireland; 
Whereas the mission’s flawed and biased mandate troubled 
many distinguished individuals who refused invitations to 
head the mission; 
Whereas, on September 15, 2009, the ‘‘United Nations Fact 
Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’ released its re-
port; 
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•HRES 867 IH 
Whereas the report repeatedly made sweeping and unsubstan-
tiated determinations that the Israeli military had delib-
erately attacked civilians during Operation Cast Lead; 
Whereas the authors of the report, in the body of the report 
itself, admit that ‘‘we did not deal with the issues . . . 
regarding the problems of conducting military operations 
in civilian areas and second-guessing decisions made by 
soldiers and their commanding officers ‘in the fog of 
war.’ ’’; 
Whereas in the October 16th edition of the Jewish Daily For-
ward, Richard Goldstone, the head of the ‘‘United Na-
tions Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’, is 
quoted as saying, with respect to the mission’s evidence- 
collection methods, ‘‘If this was a court of law, there 
would have been nothing proven.’’; 
Whereas the report, in effect, denied the State of Israel the 
right to self-defense, and never noted the fact that Israel 
had the right to defend its citizens from the repeated vio-
lent attacks committed against civilian targets in south-
ern Israel by Hamas and other Foreign Terrorist Organi-
zations operating from Gaza; 
Whereas the report largely ignored the culpability of the Gov-
ernment of Iran and the Government of Syria, both of 
whom sponsor Hamas and other Foreign Terrorist Orga-
nizations; 
Whereas the report usually considered public statements 
made by Israeli officials not to be credible, while fre-
quently giving uncritical credence to statements taken 
from what it called the ‘‘Gaza authorities’’, i.e. the Gaza 
leadership of Hamas; 
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•HRES 867 IH 
Whereas, notwithstanding a great body of evidence that 
Hamas and other violent Islamist groups committed war 
crimes by using civilians and civilian institutions, such as 
mosques, schools, and hospitals, as shields, the report re-
peatedly downplayed or cast doubt upon that claim; 
Whereas in one notable instance, the report stated that it did 
not consider the admission of a Hamas official that 
Hamas often ‘‘created a human shield of women, chil-
dren, the elderly and the mujahideen, against [the Israeli 
military]’’ specifically to ‘‘constitute evidence that Hamas 
forced Palestinian civilians to shield military objectives 
against attack.’’; 
Whereas Hamas was able to significantly shape the findings 
of the investigation mission’s report by selecting and 
prescreening some of the witnesses and intimidating oth-
ers, as the report acknowledges when it notes that ‘‘those 
interviewed in Gaza appeared reluctant to speak about 
the presence of or conduct of hostilities by the Pales-
tinian armed groups . . . from a fear of reprisals’’; 
Whereas even though Israel is a vibrant democracy with a 
vigorous and free press, the report of the ‘‘fact-finding 
mission’’ erroneously asserts that ‘‘actions of the Israeli 
government . . . have contributed significantly to a polit-
ical climate in which dissent with the government and its 
actions . . . is not tolerated’’; 
Whereas the report recommended that the United Nations 
Human Rights Council endorse its recommendations, im-
plement them, review their implementation, and refer the 
report to the United Nations Security Council, the Pros-
ecutor of the International Criminal Court, and the 
United Nations General Assembly for further action; 
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•HRES 867 IH 
Whereas the report recommended that the United Nations 
Security Council— 
(1) require the Government of Israel to launch fur-
ther investigations of its conduct during Operation Cast 
Lead and report back to the Security Council within six 
months; 
(2) simultaneously appoint an ‘‘independent com-
mittee of experts’’ to monitor and report on any domestic 
legal or other proceedings undertaken by the Government 
of Israel within that six-month period; and 
(3) refer the case to the Prosecutor of the Inter-
national Criminal Court after that six-month period; 
Whereas the report recommended that the United Nations 
General Assembly consider further action on the report 
and establish an escrow fund, to be funded entirely by 
the State of Israel, to ‘‘pay adequate compensation to 
Palestinians who have suffered loss and damage’’ during 
Operation Cast Lead; 
Whereas the report ignored the issue of compensation to 
Israelis who have been killed or wounded, or suffered 
other loss and damage, as a result of years of past and 
continuing rocket and mortar attacks by Hamas and 
other violent militant groups in Gaza against civilian tar-
gets in southern Israel; 
Whereas the report recommended ‘‘that States Parties to the 
Geneva Conventions of 1949 start criminal investigations 
[of Operation Cast Lead] in national courts, using uni-
versal jurisdiction’’ and that ‘‘following investigation, al-
leged perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted’’; 
Whereas the concept of ‘‘universal jurisdiction’’ has fre-
quently been used in attempts to detain, charge, and 
prosecute Israeli and United States officials and former 
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