Last week, Abbas withdrew Palestinian support for a vote in the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to have the report sent to the General Assembly for possible action. Such a vote would have been a first of many steps toward possible war crimes tribunals.
With the Palestinians out of the picture, the Human Rights Council set the report aside for six months.
Abbas made the decision under heavy US pressure, Palestinian and Israeli officials have said. US officials told Palestinian leaders that a war crimes debate would complicate efforts to restart peace talks, according to participants in such meetings.
Abbas defended the step, saying the Palestinians needed more time to win international support for the report. Aides said deferring action did not mean burying the report.
But Abbas apparently underestimated the angry response at home. With every day, there were more protests, marches, and statements of condemnation from human rights groups and intellectuals, as well as from his Hamas rivals, who have rejected the war crimes charges leveled against themselves but want them pursued against Israel.
Yesterday, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior adviser to Abbas, told Voice of Palestine radio that the Palestinian leadership had erred.
“What happened is a mistake, but [it] can be repaired,’’ said Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization. “We have the courage to admit there was a mistake.’’
In Gaza, hundreds of posters criticizing the Palestinian president were plastered on walls yesterday. Abbas and Hamas have been bitter rivals since the Islamic group violently seized control of Gaza from pro-Abbas forces in June 2007.
One poster showed a photo of Abbas with a black X across his face and the words: “To the trash heap of history, you traitor, Mahmoud Abbas.’’
A crew dressed in civilian clothes was seen putting up the posters yesterday morning. The posters were signed “university professors and intellectuals.’’
Later, about 30 professors and protesters concluded a press conference condemning Abbas by hurling shoes at a large version of the poster. Throwing a shoe at someone is considered a severe insult in Arab culture.
