Israel bullied Abbas into deferring UN vote

[joeblow]

Israel bullied Abbas into deferring UN vote
Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:21:52 GMT

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=11 ... =351020202



Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas was bullied by Israel to postpone a UN vote on the Goldstone report last year, an Israeli newspaper says.

Abbas' decision to request the UN Human Rights Council to postpone a vote on the Goldstone report about the Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip followed a particularly tense meeting with the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service.

Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin told Abbas that if he did not ask for a deferral of the vote on the critical report on last year's military operation, Israel would turn the West Bank into a "second Gaza," Haaretz reported.

Diskin also threatened to revoke the easing of restrictions on movement within the West Bank that had been implemented earlier last year.

The Shin Bet chief, during the meeting, warned that Israel would withdraw permission for the mobile phone company Wataniya to operate in the Palestinian Authority. That would have cost the Palestinian Authority tens of millions of dollars in compensation payments to the company.

The Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip last year killed over 1,400 Palestinians, including many women and children.

MH/JG/DT