STRASBOURG (EJP)---The European Parliament, the EU’s legislative body, which is meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, will vote on Wednesday  whether or not to adopt the Goldstone report on the Gaza war.

The report was first presented in September 2009 by the head of the UN Fact Finding Mission, South African judge  Richard Goldstone,  to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in November.

The document accuses Israel of having perpetrated war crimes during its military operation against Hamas in January 2009 which was aimed at halting rocket attacks  from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials have stated that the Goldstone report “lacks credibility and reliability” due to its "serious methodological errors." The report, Israel says, is "relying on evidence provided by Hamas, an undemocratic, terrorist organization which is on the EU’s list of terrorist groups."

Israel’s Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said with regard to the EU vote that the Goldstone report fails to “differentiate between the victim and thyine attacker or between terror and self-defense."

European Jewish leaders and members of  the ‘European Friends of Israel’ (EFI), which groups dozens of MEP’s from across the political spectrum within the European Parliament, have worked intensively during the last weeks to block a possible adoption of the controversial report by the assembly.

They have been lobbying key figures within the  lobbying the 736-member European assembly, particularly the Christian-Democrats and Socialists, the two largest political groups. The first is generally more sympathetic to Israeli views than the other one. 

But Wednesday’s vote in Strasbourg – at the request of the European Greens- is likely to divide along party lines.

"It is vital that all of the European parliamentarians understand not just the facts, but the implications of a one-sided resolution," Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, stated recently. 

According to him, "a negative resolution could affect Israeli-European relations, especially at a time when there are so many regional issues of great importance that require Israel and Europe working closely together, most notably Iran."

Ahead of the European parliament vote, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited last month the European Parliament in Brussels where he met with Italian Christian Democrat MEP Gabriele Albertini, who chairs the important foreign affairs committee, and with a group of more than 30 members of the European Friends of Israel. 

According to parliament sources, the EU assembly may call for independent investigations of alleged human rights breaches in the Gaza war instead of voting a motion for resolution tabled by Socialists, Liberal, Green and leftists MEPs.

This motion, which would in fact have endorsed the Goldstone Report, was removed from the parliament's agenda after the Christian Democrats from the European People's Party (EPP) blocked it, one source told EJP.