British Jews have attacked the government and Foreign Secretary David Miliband for failing to take action against the Goldstone Report, claiming they have “lost credibility”.

In an unprecedented move, the Board of Deputies, the Zionist Federation and the Jewish Leadership Council have voiced their anger at the decision of the British government to abstain from the vote at the UN General Assembly.

In a joint statement, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies expressed their dismay over the lack of action by the British government regarding the report and demanded nothing less than a ‘no’ vote by Britain at the UN, calling the report “a sustained political attack upon Israel”.

The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favour of endorsing the Goldstone Report.

In total, 114 states voted to adopt the report and 18 objected. Britain was one of the 44 states which abstained.

The Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies had previously written to the Foreign Secretary David Miliband, stating that anything less than a “no” vote from Britain would be unacceptable.

Israel and the US voted against the decision, as did Germany, Holland, Canada and Australia. Most of the other EU states, including France, abstained.

Former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dore Gold will discuss the UN report into human rights violations during the Gaza war with the man who wrote it, South African judge Richard Goldstone.

Mr Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations and President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, will debate the merits of the reports with Judge Goldstone and then both will take questions from the audience.

The UK Jewish community has explicitly criticised Britain’s position on the Goldstone Report, in an unprecedented move.

In a joint statement issued by the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies, British Jews expressed their dismay over the lack of action by the British government regarding the report, which is being debated at the UN General Assembly today.

Their statement demanded nothing less than a ‘No’ vote by Britain at the UN, calling the report “a sustained political attack upon Israel”.

The US ambassador to the UN has shunned the debate over the Goldstone Report at the meeting of the UN General Assembly.

Ambassador Susan Rice did not attend any discussion of the report, and her deputy Alejandro Wolff listened only to the speeches from Swedish ambassador, Anders Lidén, who was representing the European Union, and that of the Israeli ambassador Gabriela Shalev.

The United Nations General Assembly has begun debating the Goldstone Report in New York.

Arab delegates presented a resolution calling on UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon to act on Goldstone’s recommendations, which included referring Israel and Hamas to the International Court of Justice in the Hague if no action had been taken within six months.

More than 40 people are due to speak during the debate, which is expected to run until Thursday.

The UN General Assembly is likely to defer judgement on the report to the UN Security Council