Netanyahu on Goldstone: "Looking Into" Doing the Right Thing, for the Wrong Reasons

Prime Minister Netanyahu was quoted in The Washington Post on Saturday, in response to a question on an independent inquiry following the Goldstone report, responding thus: "We're looking into that not because of the Goldstone report but because of our own internal needs."

There exists both hypocrisy and truth in the Prime Minister's short response.

Hypocrisy, because it is self evident that the Prime Minister, and his government, rejected all calls for an independent inquiry, until the Goldstone report. Now, they are still rejecting these calls while "looking into" launching an investigation. The real possibility of criminal investigations abroad against IDF officers is the only reason for this sudden change of heart from total rejection to consideration. If Israel indeed launches an independent investigation, it may very well shield IDF officers from prosecutions abroad. Countries that sincerely investigate themselves do not leave the door open to residual international authority.

Truth, because Israel indeed should investigate operation Cast Lead for "our own internal needs." The need for accountability, the rule of law, and the defense of human rights is an Israeli need as it is the need of any country wishing to uphold its democratic foundations and preserve its values. And that is exactly the reason while the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, together with the entire community of Israeli human rights organizations, have called for an independent Israeli investigation of Cast Lead. That call was already issued months ago, a short time after Cast Lead, as alarming data was accumulating already during the military operation itself; and that call outlined the criteria for such an independent Israeli investigation to be a real one. Unfortunately, we have bad experiences of how such investigation are handled. For our own internal needs, we need an investigation -- a genuine one.

Finally, a side point on Hamas: non of the above justifies Hamas' actions nor defends that organization's human rights record, for there is none to be defended. Hamas' cruel treatment of Gilad Shalit is one, especifically painful example out of many, and the accumulated record leaves little to be hoped for. Israeli human rights activists that are calling for their government to do the right thing are pressuring their own government for a very basic reason: because we are Israeli citizens and because we care for, and take responsibility for, how our own country and army act. And we would certainly not want Israel to take its moral cues from Hamas, nor use that organization's abuses as excuses.

The laws of war allow for a country to defend itself -- but not everything is moral or legal, even at a time of war, even against a cruel enemy. If norms were violated during Cast Lead, if mistakes, or worse, were made -- deliberate or otherwise -- it is high time to investigate. It is the right thing to do.

Follow Hagai El-Ad on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HagaiElAd

Comments

[ehud uziel]

The issue is accountbility.

Its no matter whether Goldstone is accurate or biased, Israel deserves the international pressure because it didn't take responsibility from the first place, through investigation.
it's about time govrements will be accounted for their violent acts.

but above all - it's time to pressure Israel & Egypt to take of the closure form Gaza!

[Wisdo]

"Hamas' cruel treatment of Gilad Shalit is one"

Excuse me their "cruel treatment"? Shalit is well fed and looked after. he is a POW. Tough cheese if he is locked up. How many of the ten thousand locked up in Israeli dungeons from toddlers to elderly women are getting as good treatment from their captors?

Torture is de-rigeur in Israeli jails, it is legal and sanctioned. Has Gilad been tortured ? no!
According to Ehud Barak: "Gilad looks healthy, a fact which only strengthens my resolve, as well as everyone else's to bring him back home."

In 1999 Israel's Supreme Court ruled that torture can be employed as a "necessity" in exceptional cases when officers have reason to believe they can prevent a crime. This has created a loophole, exempting interrogat­ors/tortur­ers from punishment as long as they claim they tortured in the national interest. Since every Palestinian prisoner may be viewed as possessing information valuable to preventing terrorist attacks, virtually all have been tortured. The Palestine Monitor reports that since 1987 the Israeli Security Agency has tortured at least 850 Palestinians a year during interrogations. Since the Supreme Court ruling in 1999, according to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselm, 85 percent of Palestinian prisoners are still subjected to torture. The Monitor asserts that during the first Intifada (1987-1993), Israeli security "interrogated approximately 23,000 Palestinians." The Public Committee Against Torture (PCAT) estimates that almost all suffered some torture during interrogation.

[Wisdo]

Exhivit a:

In an article in the December 1998 issue of The Progressive, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb reported on the treatment given to a 23-year old Palestinian held on "administrative detention." The prisoner was "cuffed behind a chair 17 hours a day for 120 days . . . [he] had his head covered with a sack, which was often dipped in urine or feces.

Is this happening to Gilad? NO! Id rather be held by Hamas than the IDF.

In 2000 the ben-porat report detailed the systematic torture of Palestinians, a regime that continues to this day:

The latest report by the committee against torture, covering the period from September 2001 to April 2003, alleged that detainees faced a new regime of sleep deprivation, shackling, slapping, hitting and kicking; exposure to extreme cold and heat; threats, curses and insults; and prolonged detention in subhuman conditions.

"Torture in Israel has once more become routine, carried out in an orderly and institutional fashion," concluded the report, which was based on 80 affidavits and court cases.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44664-2004Jun15_2.html

[TheLonelyGod]

"Is this happening to Gilad? NO!"

How do you know?

[Fireslayer]

Good points all.

Bibi continues to lie about a "full investigation" - one conducted by the Public Relations arm of the IDF which did not address with any sincerity or particularity the real international law implications of the aptly named "Cast Lead." Even now Netanyahu suggestion of the possibility of a fresh investigation is, in it's own terms self serving and bereft of integrity.

It is possible that the real crimes may have taken place at the highest levels of governance by both sides. Don't hold your breath on the IDF rolling over on its own. Prospects are dim, or more likely grim for anyone in Hamas being so bold as well.

Further investigation needs to identify the specific Hamas and IDF decision makers who authorized their respective, alleged war crimes and alleged crimes against humanity and a fair trial should be had at The Hague to sort out the truth.

No such truth seeking or taking responsibility is forthcoming from the parties acting on their own,

[LRaff]

Golly--some of the comments on this piece! Nary a reference to all those Moslem-only countries! What a double standard against Israel.

[Wisdo]

I guess people like to stay on topic. Weird is'nt it?

[Kevinexcess]

The double standard is within the Israeli government!!!

[StCuthbert]

Wow. Israel investigates, no one believes them. Israel doesn't investigate, Israel's hiding something. Israel's conducts another investigation, they must be preparing a litany of lies.

Looks like a no-win scenario.

[vascopyjama]

Tell me one occasion when Israel and ever conducted an impartial investigation into the deaths of any Palestinians?

[StCuthbert]

How about you Google "Israeli supreme court decisions in favor of Palestinians" and see for yourself?

[phute]

stcuthbert - call us cynical but look hw we have to put 'Israeli investigation' in inverted commas.

[Kevinexcess]

Through its illegal settlement activities - including the confiscation of land construction and expansion of settlements, the construction of the wall, and limiting of free movement of Palestinians through a variety of check points, the government sanctioned assassinations through Mossad and the IDF, the declaration of a Jewish only state which limits the rights of Palestinians, the total disregard for UN Resolutions, the flagrant breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the denial of legal council to Palestinians, the inconsistent application of Palestinian tax dollars, the block aid of humanitarian agencies, colonization, displacement, and racism, It’s clear that you don’t understand that if all the above where to stop, the Palestinians would no longer vote for Hamas. The services to their people would no longer be needed. Clearly Mr. El-Ad as the director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel your definition of civil rights is very shallow and selective.

[Brewerstroupe]

"Hamas' cruel treatment of Gilad Shalit is one, especifically painful example out of many"

Here are 11,000 more painful examples:

"Othman is just one of 11,000 Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails, 800 of whom are incarcerated under the terms of administrative detention – meaning that they are imprisoned indefinitely without any charges brought against them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/20/israel-palestine-mohammad-othman

[shotei]

They are IMPRISONED, not held somewhere unknown, keeping their families in the dark even about his condition of dead or alive. Palestinians are in prisons where they have visiting hours, lawyers, calls, and all other rights, including access by the Red Cross to check on these conditions.
Shalit was kidnapped.
You are talking about two completely different things.

[Wisdo]

"They are IMPRISONED, not held somewhere unknown, keeping their families in the dark even about his condition of dead or alive"

For your information this is often the case with palestinian prisoners in Israeli dungeons.

They are kept without evidence, often without even a charge and their families are told nothing.

[Wisdo]

Fanned