Gaza War on The Huffington Post

Goldstone Report "Irredeemably Biased," Says U.S. House

2009-11-04T13:11:07Z

The US House of Representatives has rejected as "irredeemably biased" the findings of a UN-sponsored report which says Israel committed war crimes during its military assault on the Gaza Strip.

The house on Tuesday voted 344 to 36 in favour of a non-binding resolution calling on Barack Obama, the US president, to maintain his opposition to the report, which was written by a panel led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge.

The report accused Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group, which has de facto control of Gaza, of war crimes during the 22-day conflict in December and January.

But most of its criticism was directed towards Israel's conduct during the offensive, in which human rights organisations say about 1,400 Palestinians - many of them women and children - were killed.

Continue reading at Al Jazeera.

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MJ Rosenberg: Dems in House to Pass Resolution Defending Gaza War

2009-10-31T09:51:23Z

The good news is that J Street is opposed to it.

The bad news is that the 800 pound gorilla, AIPAC, and its satellite organizations are pushing it hard.

The House resolution, which will pass on Tuesday, basically endorses everything Israel did in the horrific Gaza war while bashing Judge Richard Goldstone for documenting war crimes committed in that war (320 dead Palestinian kids!).

After the vote I'll post the roll call and you will see that some of your favorite "courageous" liberals are none too courageous when it comes to this issue. Some of the very House members who denounce the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war and God knows how many other US military actions (often rightly) go mute when it comes to Israel. In fact, most of them do. In other words, they are courageous when there is no cost for it.

Passing this resolution will damage US security by stating to the world that when Bibi asks us to jump, we jump even higher. (Note to Congress: Did you ever consider just saying you don't agree with Goldstone's findings or did AIPAC reject that approach?)

Here is the resolution.

Next week: the names of the Democrats who vote for it, just so you know why John F. Kennedy would not be writing Profiles in Courage about Congress in the 21st century.

I doubt they will pass it by voice vote because then they can't get "credit" from AIPAC.

Hagai El-Ad: Netanyahu on Goldstone: "Looking Into" Doing the Right Thing, for the Wrong Reasons

2009-10-26T11:24:52Z

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.

Israel Pushes To Change International Laws Of War After Damning Gaza Report

2009-10-21T14:01:19Z

Israel's prime minister has instructed his government to draw up plans for a "world wide campaign" to lobby for changes in the international laws of war.

The order from Binyamin Netanyahu follows a special cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss Israel's response to the UN's Goldstone report, which condemned Israel's actions during the 22-day war on Gaza earlier this year.

The meeting also called for the formation of a special committee to deal with the international legal consequences of the report and the prospect Israeli officials could face war crimes trials abroad.

The Israeli government contends international law needs to be amended in order to fight global terrorism.

"The prime minister instructed the relevant government bodies to examine a worldwide campaign to amend the international laws of war to adapt them to the spread of global terrorism," Netanyahu's office said in a statement following Tuesday's meeting.

It added that the cabinet had also instructed justice ministry officials to form a committee to deal with the prospect of "legal proceedings abroad against the state of Israel or its citizens".

"We need to keep punching a hole in this lie that is spreading with the help of the Goldstone report," Netanyahu was quoted as saying in the statement.

Ethan Bronner: In The Mideast, Force Trumps Diplomacy

2009-10-20T09:58:38Z

JERUSALEM As the Obama administration tries to broker a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is a dark truth lurking: force has produced clearer results in this dispute than talk.

Gaza Pet Store Suffers During Time Of Strife And Instability (VIDEO)

2009-10-19T15:56:55Z

(TIME)-- Among the businesses affected by the Israeli blockade and the lack of peace in Gaza is a pet store whose owner breeds exotic cats.

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Richard Goldstone: Why I Investigated Israel's Conduct In Gaza

2009-10-19T11:09:51Z

Five weeks after the release of the Report of the Fact Finding Mission on Gaza, there has been no attempt by any of its critics to come to grips with its substance. It has been fulsomely approved by those whose interests it is thought to serve and rejected by those of the opposite view. Those who attack it do so too often by making personal attacks on its authors' motives and those who approve it rely on its authors' reputations.

Goldstone Attacks UN Resolution On His Gaza War Report

2009-10-16T14:31:05Z

Richard Goldstone, the South African who headed a United Nations investigation into the Gaza war, slammed the UN Human Rights Council's endorsement of his commission's report on Friday, Haaretz reports.

Goldstone reportedly disagreed with the language of the UN resolution, which condemns Israel for its actions in Gaza but fails to criticize Hamas. Goldstone's report attacked the actions of both the Israeli army and Hamas.

Goldstone told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps before the vote that the wording of the resolution was unfortunate because it included only censure of Israel. He voiced hope that the Human Rights Council would alter the wording of the draft.

The Jerusalem Post quotes Goldstone as saying, "There is not a single phrase condemning Hamas as we have done in the report."

Israel also slammed the UN endorsement on Friday, calling it "unjust," Haaretz reports.

"Israel will continue to exercise its right to self defense and to preserve the security of its citizens...Israel believes that the decision harms efforts to protect human rights in accordance with international law and hinders efforts to promote the peace process as well as encouraging terror organizations around the world," according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Hamas, meanwhile, called the decision a "victory for the Palestinian victims," the Jerusalem Post reports.

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip expressed hope that "the vote on the report will serve as the basis for prosecuting Israeli war criminals."

...
Moussa Abu Marzuk, a top Damascus-based Hamas leader thanked the UN Human Rights Council for endorsing the Goldstone report on Operation Cast Lead, and said the resolution adopted on Friday benefits all the Palestinian people.

Read more on the UN's endorsement from the AP:

GENEVA - The U.N. Human Rights Council voted Friday to endorse a report on last winter's Gaza conflict that calls on Israel and authorities in Gaza to carry out credible investigations into alleged abuses -- or face possible referral to international war crimes prosecutors.

The decision means that Israel could find itself facing a request at the U.N. Security Council to refer the case to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague -- whose jurisdiction Israel does not accept.

Although a U.S. veto at the Security Council would be virtually assured, Friday's decision will keep attention on the report, compiled by an expert panel chaired by respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

Israel bitterly denounced Friday's decision, with officials arguing that continuing the course of the Goldstone report would embolden terror groups around the world -- with nations reluctant to fight them for fear of facing the same fate as Israel.

The 575-page report concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields and destroyed civilian infrastructure during its Dec. 27-Jan. 18 campaign to root out Palestinian rocket squads.

It also accused Palestinian armed groups including Hamas -- which controls Gaza -- of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through rocket attacks on southern Israel. In the years leading up to the conflict Israel absorbed thousands of rocket attacks, which caused only a handful of fatalities but badly disrupted life in the area neighboring Gaza. During the campaign 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

The report, commissioned earlier this year by the U.N. Human Rights Council, recommends that the 15-member Security Council require both sides in the conflict to show within six months that they are carrying out independent and impartial investigations into alleged abuses. If they are not, the matter should then be referred to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, the report says.

Friday's decision to endorse this approach followed two days of debate. The Palestinian-backed resolution passed 25-6, with mostly developing countries in favor and the United States and five European countries -- Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia and Ukraine -- opposing.

Eleven mostly European and African countries abstained, while Britain, France and three other members of the 47-nation body declined to vote. Russia and China, two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, were among those voting yes.

"The clock on the report starts now," said Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority's U.N. ambassador in Geneva.

In order to be adopted, a U.N. Security Council resolution must get nine yes votes, and no veto by a permanent member. The U.S. is likely to use its veto to block any call to get the International Criminal Court involved in the dispute or to take action against Israel.

Officials from the Palestinian Authority visited the International Criminal Court on Friday to present legal arguments in favor of giving the court legal authority over territory it controls -- something only sovereign nations are allowed to do. The Palestinian Authority is technically an autonomous entity, not a state.

Palestinians hope that, if the court accepts its request, court prosecutor Moreno Ocampo would then have jurisdiction to launch an investigation into war crimes committed by both sides during the Gaza conflict even without an order from the Security Council.

Israel does not accept the court's jurisdiction.

Ocampo had no comment Friday.

In Ramallah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed Friday's vote.

"What is important now is to translate words into deeds in order to protect our people in the future from any new aggression," Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.

Israel and the U.S. called the Goldstone report "flawed" because it ignored Israel's right to defend its people from Palestinian rocket fire. They warned that the vote could jeopardize Middle East peace prospects.

Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, also said endorsing the report could have far-reaching consequences.

"Whoever votes in favor of endorsing the report must understand that next time it will be the soldiers and officers of NATO in Afghanistan, and then Russian soldiers and officers in Chechnya," Lieberman said late Thursday.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the resolution "provides encouragement for terrorist organizations worldwide and undermines global peace."

U.S. diplomat Douglas M. Griffiths told the council that Washington was disappointed with the outcome of the vote.

"We're focused on moving forward in the peace process and we feel that this is a distraction from that," Griffiths told The Associated Press.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urged both sides earlier this week "to carry out impartial, independent, prompt and effective investigations into reported violations of human rights and humanitarian law."

___

Associated Press Writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Aron Heller in Jerusalem and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Jamal Dajani: Israel-Turkey: No TV Drama

2009-10-16T10:26:04Z

It's amazing what a little controversy can do to the ratings of a mediocre television show: it drives them up through the roof. And that's exactly what happened to what used to be a "barely-watched" Turkish drama series called Ayrilik: a love story that develops between the lead characters during Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" on the Gaza Strip. The show, which airs on Turkey's state-owned TRT television, depicts Israeli soldiers murdering innocent Palestinian civilians. One particular segment showed images of Israeli soldiers shooting a smiling young girl in the chest, steamrolling a tank through a crowded street and lining up a firing squad to shoot at a group of Palestinians.

Ayrilik's producer owes some gratitude and thanks to Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman who has recently complained to the Turkish government over its airing when he said on Wednesday that, "broadcasting this series is incitement of the most severe kind, and it is done under government sponsorship." Since then the show has been making headlines in both Turkish and global media, drawing more audience to TRT television and curiosity-seekers to YouTube to watch clips of the show.

This is not the first time a Turkish drama has caused a buzz in the Middle East. Last year a cheesy series called Noor (light) became a phenomenon when it captured an audience of 85 million viewers when it aired its last episode. The show's popularity increased when some Muslim Imams accused it of violating Islamic values and the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa against watching it.

The saga between Israel and Turkey is not about a television drama, although in reality it has unfolded like one ever since the rise of the Justice and Development Party in 2002. Turkey's ties with Israel have been deteriorating rapidly since Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip last winter, which left hundreds of Palestinian civilians dead. However, tensions between the two allies hit a peak after Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stormed out of a conference during the Davos summit this year where he confronted Israel's President Shimon Peres over the Palestinian civilian casualties during its offensive on Gaza. Wagging his finger at Peres, an emotional Erdogan accused him of "murdering children on beaches" -- an outburst that made Erdogan a hero in the Arab world.

Adding more fuel to the fire, Turkey has recently banned Israel from an international air exercise in protest against its actions in Gaza, then announced that it will hold military exercises with its nemesis Syria. The announcement came after officials from Ankara and Damascus held the first meeting of a new co-operation council in the Syrian city of Aleppo aimed at ending years of tension between the two neighbors.

For decades Turkey has been looking to the West. It has been eager to please the United States, Europe, and NATO. It has been obsessed with membership to the EU, though snubbed thus far. What's more interesting is the fact that the Turkish military, which usually determines the country's strategic path, even when it goes against the will of the people, is keeping mum about the political decision which could signal a major shift in Turkey's future alliances.

For decades, Turkey has been Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world. It was the second Muslim majority country (after Iran) to recognize the State of Israel. The Islamic Revolution ended Iran's ties with Israel, and although Turkey's ties with Israel will not be severed, they have been permanently damaged.

UN Row Over Goldstone Report Threatens To Sink Middle East Peace Plan

2009-10-16T09:00:45Z

The Middle East peace process was on the brink of collapse last night as Britain and other European countries failed to back Israel in a key vote at the United Nations.

UN Endorses Goldstone Gaza Report Accusing Israel Of War Crimes

2009-10-16T00:01:13Z

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday endorsed a report that accused both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of committing war crimes during their December-January conflict in Gaza.

In a special session, 25 of the body's members voted in favor of the resolution that chastised Israel for failing to cooperate with the UN mission led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone. Another 6 voted against and 11 abstained.

The resolution agreed in Geneva simply calls for the U.N. General Assembly to consider the Goldstone report and for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report back to the Human Rights Council on Israel's adherence to it.

The report calls for the UN Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court if the Israelis or Palestinians fail to investigate the alleged abuses themselves.

The countries that voted against the report included the U.S., Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine.

China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua and Nigeria voted in favor of the report.
...

MJ Rosenberg: John Bolton: Israel Should Nuke Iran

2009-10-14T20:00:35Z

The neocons are ratcheting it up a few notches. All the way to nuclear war.

Here is what former ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said in Chicago on Tuesday.

"Negotiations have failed, and so too have sanctions...So we're at a very unhappy point -- a very unhappy point -- where unless Israel is prepared to use nuclear weapons against Iran's program, Iran will have nuclear weapons in the very near future," he said.

In other words, the way to avert the danger of a nuclear attack is to launch a nuclear attack.

Read this from Daniel Luban at Inter Press Service.

And know this. John Bolton is no outlier. Like Feith, Perle, Kristol and Krauthammer, he is at the heart and soul of neoconservatism.

Give him credit. He says what neocons think. It's war they want, even nuclear. Anything to stop nuclear proliferation!

Will Bolton get his war? Not likely. But Luban explains what he's really up to. "It is nothing new for Bolton and his neoconservative allies to threaten an Israeli strike against Iran. But Bolton's use of the "n-word" is, I believe, new for him, and marks a significant rhetorical escalation from the hawks. An Israeli strike, nuclear or otherwise, without U.S. permission remains unlikely. But as it often the case, I suspect that Bolton's intention is less to give an accurate description of reality than it is to stake out positions extreme enough to shift the boundaries of debate as a whole to the right."

In other words, nuclear war is only Bolton's dream -- something to hope for but not really expect to get.

Crossposted at Media Matters Action Network

Turkey TV Drama Shows Israeli Soldiers Brutally Killing Children, Exacerbating Rift Between Nations (VIDEO)

2009-10-14T16:46:29Z

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday complained to Turkey over a new television drama airing there that depicts Israel Defense Forces soldiers as brutal murderers.

Lieberman instructed staff at the Foreign Ministry to protest in the face of their Turkish counterparts. He stressed that airing this type of show reflects a grave level of incitement against Israel - and with government approval.

The show, called Ayrilik, features a love story that develops between the lead characters during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media reports.

However, a partial episode available on YouTube depicts multiple images of the IDF brutalizing the Palestinian population by shooting children in the chest and kicking elderly people on the ground, among other things.

CAUTION: GRAPHIC VIDEO

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Harsh Gaza Report Creates New Obstacles For Obama

2009-10-14T14:53:27Z

JERUSALEM -- (AP) A U.N. war crimes report against Israel and Hamas meant to promote justice and accountability has instead created new obstacles for the Obama administration's Mideast peace push and deepened an internal rift among Palestinians.

Israel says that if the case against it gains steam, the Jewish state will not be able to make the wide-ranging concessions necessary for any peace deal. Hamas, the militant group that violently seized control of the Gaza Strip more than two years ago, is reaping benefits from the report's fallout, while shrugging off the serious allegations the document makes against its own fighters.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Western-backed Palestinian president whose forces hold sway in the West Bank, has been seriously weakened by perceptions among his people that he caved in to U.S. pressure over the affair.

The 575-page report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes during last winter's war in Gaza -- compiled by the respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone -- has largely overshadowed an aggressive U.S. drive to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

A month after the report's release, Israeli leaders are denouncing it daily and speaking about little else.

International condemnation of Israel is gaining momentum, meanwhile, with two U.N. debates on the Goldstone report scheduled this week.

Of the report's many unintended consequences, perhaps none was as noteworthy as the fallout from Washington's decision to pressure the moderate Palestinian president into backing down from a demand to press the case against Israel in the United Nations.

While the Palestinians have since reversed course and the case is going ahead this week in New York and Geneva, the damage has already been done. Abbas has been vilified at home as a sellout, and his Hamas rivals are taking full advantage.

U.S. officials argued that pursuing the case against Israel would hurt efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Paradoxically, however, Abbas' initial willingness to go along with that line of thinking has hurt peace efforts, as his domestic standing has been eroded at a time a strong Palestinian leader is required for peace negotiations.

Israel, infuriated by the report's allegations that it deliberately targeted civilians in its quest to root out Palestinian rocket launchers, has begun a diplomatic blitz to counter the criticism.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the foreign ministers of France, Britain, Spain and Norway ahead of a debate beginning Thursday in the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"The world's democracies must understand that adopting the report would badly compromise their ability to deal with terror organizations and terror overall," Barak said in a statement Wednesday.

One of the reasons the report has caused such an uproar in Israel is its author's background. Goldstone is Jewish and has supported a number of Israeli causes, including serving as a trustee of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, aware that the proceedings could lead to war crimes trials against Israeli leaders, opened a keynote address to parliament this week by vowing never to allow that to happen and characterizing Israel's actions in Gaza as self-defense.

"Israel will not take risks for peace if it can't defend itself," he said.

Palestinian leaders say Israel's right-leaning government currently isn't taking any risks for peace anyway.

"The way I see it, (the Palestinian Authority) has nothing to lose going forward with this report," said Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib.

Earlier this month, Abbas' government agreed to delay a vote in Geneva that would have moved the Goldstone report up the U.N. hierarchy, the first of many steps toward possible war crimes trials.

Hamas responded with increasingly harsh attacks on Abbas.

At one rally in Gaza last week, demonstrators threw shoes at a large poster of Abbas. At another, they carried a coffin covered with photos of him, then burned it.

Abbas tried to control the damage, and on Sunday, he said he would renew the push to have the report voted on.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Wednesday acknowledged that the affair has caused "major weakness" for Abbas and "certainly strengthened the hand of those who do not subscribe to our point of view."

The U.N. report also appears to have damaged the prospects of Palestinian reconciliation, just as the sides appeared to be moving closer to putting more than two years of division behind them.

The report also criticized Hamas, accusing it of targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through its rocket attacks on southern Israel. Hamas has brushed off the charges.

Hubbard reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip. AP writers Mohammed Daraghmeh and Michael Barajas contributed to this report from Ramallah.

Gaza Zoo, Too Poor To Buy Zebras, Paints Stripes On Donkeys (PHOTOS)

2009-10-14T14:01:42Z

A zoo in Gaza cannot afford to buy zebras and has instead painted stripes on two donkeys, AFP reports.

Israel controls the movement of goods into and out of Gaza and only allows in humanitarian and basic supplies. The zoo could smuggle zebras into Gaza through tunnels connecting the strip with Egypt, but that would cost $30,000. The zoo director, Mahmud Barghut, told AFP: "We couldn't afford real zebras." Donkeys only cost $700.

The Telegraphs reports that the zoo had two zebras, but they died of starvation during the Gaza War.

Check out this slideshow of the zoo's donkey-zebras and other animals. Is painting the animals a brilliant idea or terribly depressing?

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Gaza War Crimes Debate To Reopen At UN Security Council

2009-10-13T12:54:39Z

GENEVA — The U.N. Human Rights Council will reopen the debate about alleged war crimes in Gaza later this week after Palestinians succeeded in gathering enough support to call a special meeting, officials said Tuesday.

The debate will start Thursday, a day after the U.N. Security Council in New York discusses the Goldstone report, which accuses Israeli forces and Palestinian militants of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during their Dec. 27-Jan. 18 war.

Turkey Bans Israel From Military Exercise Over Gaza War

2009-10-12T09:31:18Z

Turkey has said that it banned Israel from an international air exercise due to begin last week because of its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last December.

The Turkish foreign ministry had earlier said "a technical matter" had prompted a delay in the sixth annual Anatolia Eagle drill.

The event was due to take place from October 10-23 with air forces from the US and Italy, but the drill was cancelled after both Washington and Rome withdrew their participation following Turkey's request to ban Israel from the exercise.

In response to a question from CNN, the US broadcaster, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, said: "We hope that the situation in Gaza will be improved, that the situation will be back to the diplomatic track.

"And that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations as well.

"But in the existing situation, of course, we are criticizing this approach, [the] Israeli approach."

Goldstone Report: Palestinians' Anger At Their Leaders Intensifies

2009-10-09T15:19:51Z

By Mel Frykberg | Inter Press Service

RAMALLAH, Oct 9 (IPS) - The Palestinian Authority (PA) is trying desperately to contain the political fallout following its decision to withdraw support for a UN report into war crimes committed in Gaza in December and January.

The UN Security Council had been due to vote last Friday on a resolution that would have condemned Israel's failure to cooperate with a UN war crimes investigation led by South African judge Richard Goldstone.

Goldstone's report accused both Hamas and Israel of possible war crimes during Israel's three-week bombardment of Gaza at the beginning of the year.

His report further backed the findings of Israeli and international human rights organisations that a significant number of the 1,500 Gazans killed in the war were civilians and that Israel had possibly deliberately targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Following intense U.S. and Israeli pressure, the PA withdrew its hitherto strong support for the report at the beginning of the week. The UN Security Council vote has now been postponed until March next year.

However, Palestinian anger and shock continues to mount in light of the fact that there was a strong possibility that the report could have reached the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, and a number of Israeli officers put on trial, bringing some justice for Gaza's victims.

PA economy minister Bassem Khoury handed in his resignation over the matter, and other factions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) condemned the PA for backing down, while street demonstrations have taken place.

What has especially irked Palestinians is the PA's inconsistency, with some officials admitting to withdrawing support for the report while others simultaneously denying it.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and central Fatah figure Mahmoud Dahlan, despite supposedly being key figures behind the withdrawal, announced that they would establish a commission to investigate why PA support for Goldstone's report had been withdrawn.

"Somebody in the PA is going to be made a scapegoat and forced to pay a big price politically," Dr Samir Awad from Birzeit University near Ramallah told IPS. "It is clear that despite his denials PA President Abbas was behind the decision to withdraw support for the report, but he will never admit to it," Awad told IPS.

However, Ramallah-based Fatah leader Mustafa Abdelhadi was more conciliatory. "We are waiting for answers. We want the PA to explain to Fatah members why they withdrew support for the report as this is a major issue," Abdelhadi told IPS.

Palestinians are well aware that one of the main reasons for the PA's sudden backtracking, besides international pressure, is business interests.

Israel had repeatedly warned the PA that if it continued to support Goldstone's report it would withdraw permission for a second cellular telephone company to be established in the West Bank, an issue of critical economic importance to the PA leadership and to the civilian infrastructure of the West Bank.

Shalom Kital, an aide to Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak, said that Israel would not release a share of the radio frequency it had promised the PA unless the latter dropped its efforts to put Israeli soldiers and officers in the dock over the Gaza attacks.

"It's a condition. We are saying to the Palestinians that if you want a normal life and are trying to embark on a new way, you must stop your incitement," said Kital.

"We are helping the Palestinian economy but one thing we ask them is to stop with these embarrassing charges," Kital added, referring to the UN war crime charges.

Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi also conditioned his support for the establishment of Wataniya, the second telephone company, on PA withdrawal of support for the Goldstone report and a possible UN resolution.

Ashkenazi has been heavily involved in defensive action against the threat of Israeli officers being brought before an international court.

Jawwal, the sole Palestinian telecommunications company in the West Bank, operates on very limited MHz bandwidth provided by the Israelis. Much of the remaining available bandwidth spectrum in the occupied territory is used by the Israeli military.

Approximately 60 percent of the West Bank is under full Israeli control, and Jawwal users are only able to receive calls there but not make outgoing calls. Consequently Jawwal's over-laden network provides poor service and charges high rates for out-of-network calls provided by four unauthorised Israeli mobile companies which step into the void, making significant profits by capturing 30 percent of the Palestinian market.

These Israel companies further refuse to pay taxes or licence fees to the PA for operating telecommunication equipment from illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Wataniya Palestine, which is Qatari-owned but controlled by the Palestine Investment Fund and Wataniya Telecom of Kuwait, had planned to invest 700 million dollars, the second largest private investment in the West Bank, in the second telephone company.

Over the past two years Wataniya Telecom erected 350 telecommunication towers in the West Bank and prepared to challenge Jawwal's domination. Thousands of new jobs were expected to be created in the region as a result.

But the Israelis have been holding up essential telecommunication equipment at their ports and have failed to deliver the necessary 4.8 MHz frequency as agreed to last year. Most major carriers internationally rely on at least 10 MHz to operate.

An Oct. 15 deadline is looming for Israel to provide the necessary frequency. If this is not forthcoming, Wataniya has threatened to withdraw its project which would force the PA to repay an estimated 300 million dollars already invested in licensing and infrastructure fees, and another 200 million dollars in expenses.

The PA does not have this money and relies largely on handouts from Western donors to keep running. Expenditure prioritisation is said to be channelled towards security, business cronies and supporters.

Read more from Inter Press Service.

Palestinians Flip On U.N. Gaza Report After Uproar

2009-10-08T08:45:08Z

published: October 7, 2009

JERUSALEM Faced with a torrent of criticism at home and abroad, the Palestinian leadership abruptly reversed course on Wednesday by endorsing a Security Council debate on a United Nations report accusing Israel of possible war crimes in Gaza.

Abbas Blamed For Goldstone Vote Delay

2009-10-06T12:31:08Z

The Palestinians missed a rare chance by delaying a vote on the Goldstone report which accuses Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, a senior Qatari foreign ministry official has said.

Sheikh Khaled bin Jassem al-Thani, the ministry's human rights department head, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the Palestinian representative to the UN Human Rights Council had requested a delay until the next meeting in March.

"We won't be more royal than the king," he said.

"The Palestinian decision was based on their wishes ... and member states could not take unilateral measures contrary to the wishes of the Palestinian Authority (PA)."

"There were many countries that supported [the report and a vote] ... it could have been adopted, but I think that an opportunity was missed and it may not come back."

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, under pressure from the PA's executive council and the central committee of his Fatah party, has launched an investigation into the delay.

But there appears to be no respite for him from the barrage of criticism from Palestinians.

Sharmine Narwani: Netanyahu's 'Shame' And The Fiction He Weaves

2009-10-01T17:26:11Z

Almost a week after the UN General Assembly speeches by various heads of state, where one statement after another was dissected and laid bare by the thousands of reporters and analysts covering the annual plenary session, one speech has almost universally been ignored. And something rankles.

"Have you no shame," thundered Benjamin Netanyahu to the throngs of senior diplomats, heads of state and assorted dignitaries watching the Israeli prime minister admonish those who remained in the room when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered his speech a day earlier.

Shame, indeed. This, from the leader of a nation that has a pitiful human rights record, standing accused by a United Nations body for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. A country that has an illicit stash of weapons of mass destruction which it refuses to subject to international scrutiny of any sort. A state whose very existence seems possible only through the systemic persecution of the non-Jewish population under its protection.

Break down Netanyahu's speech and you have more fiction than fact, albeit fiction that has very adeptly been spun by successive Israeli governments into the lexicon of our political language.

"For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks," accused Netanyahu, before the very audience he scorned in his speech.

Fact: Between 2005 and 2007, Palestinian groups in Gaza fired about 2,700 rockets into Israel. Israel fired more than 14,600 artillery shells into Gaza during this same period, a statistic Israeli government officials always seem to omit.

But the essence of Netanyahu's fiction remains that Palestinians, and specifically the resistance group Hamas, are the ones who initiate armed conflict.

In a far-reaching and exhaustive study of the issue, MIT Scientist Nancy Kanwisher tracked the entire timeline of killings of Palestinians and Israelis by the other between September 2000 and October 2008. In an article right here on the Huffington Post, she draws some telling conclusions about ceasefires, lulls in conflict, and resumption of hostilities between the two sides:

"It is overwhelmingly Israel that kills first after a pause in the conflict: 79% of all conflict pauses were interrupted when Israel killed a Palestinian, while only 8% were interrupted by Palestinian attacks (the remaining 13% were interrupted by both sides on the same day). In addition, we found that this pattern -- in which Israel is more likely than Palestine to kill first after a conflict pause -- becomes more pronounced for longer conflict pauses. Indeed, of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96%, and it unilaterally interrupted 100% of the 14 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than 9 days."

Kanwisher's data goes on to contest the assumption popular with American and Israeli politicians that Hamas broke the ceasefire leading up to Israel's brutal December 2008 Gaza onslaught:

"The ceasefire was remarkably effective: after it began in June 2008, the rate of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza dropped to almost zero, and stayed there for four straight months...what happened to end this striking period of peace? On November 4th, Israel killed a Palestinian, an event that was followed by a volley of mortars fired from Gaza. Immediately after that, an Israeli air strike killed six more Palestinians. Then a massive barrage of rockets was unleashed, leading to the end of the ceasefire."

But Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was just getting started, and with all the righteous indignation he could muster, proclaimed: "In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza."

Oh. The withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated territories in the world, had become an impoverished hell-hole that nobody wanted to deal with - or that daily confrontations with Palestinian resistance groups and, well, school kids hurling rocks, had taken a toll on the battered Israeli Defense Forces. "Disengagement" from Gaza achieved several other objectives too. It reduced the growing non-Jewish demographic problem for Israel, and freed up resources to focus on carving up the West Bank and significantly increasing the population of Jewish settlers there.

But again, the devil is in the details. Lost in the media euphoria over Israeli troops rolling out of occupied Palestinian territory, a vital fact was overlooked: the occupation of Gaza never actually ended. According to the United Nations, the US State Department, Amnesty International and a whole slew of other NGOs, Israel is the occupying power in the Gaza Strip. It "retains sole control of Gaza's airspace and territorial waters and does not allow any movement of people or goods in or out of Gaza via air or sea," says Amnesty International. And we have seen how often and easily the IDF tanks roll in and out at will.

Back at the General Assembly podium, Netanyahu's fiction-spinning tirade was reaching a fevered pitch - the crux of his message, the thing that Israel most fears. Understand now, that the Jewish state's raison d'etre has always been based on the mass persecution and genocide of Jews by Nazi Germany - the nation was a gift, so to speak, to the victims who deserved a break. So what would happen if, even for an instant, the entire international community catches a view of Israel outside the parameters of victimhood, an image, if shattered, that could undermine its very premise as a safe haven for the persecuted?

Never say. Netanyahu's two-fold mission at the UN last Thursday was firstly to whip up animosity against Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his alleged nuclear weaponization program, and secondly, to neutralize the damaging effects of the Goldstone Report on Israel's three-week military adventure into the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Selected by the UN High Commission for Human Rights to conduct an investigation into "Operation Cast Lead," Israel's code name for the Gaza War, Richard Goldstone was ideal for the role in part because he is a Jew, an acknowledged Zionist, and importantly, the well-respected former chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. In other words, beyond reproach.

In a September 15 press release introducing his 574-page report, Justice Goldstone concluded that "Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity."

Netanyahu at the UN: "Faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel."

He fails to mention that given ample opportunity to participate in the investigation, his government not only refused, but also denied the Mission access to both Israel and the West Bank for interviews related to the inquiry. Palestinian authorities in both the West Bank and Gaza cooperated.

The damning parts of the report undermine entirely Israel's assertions to the international community about its conflict with Gaza, Palestinians and Hamas. It states that "in the lead up to Israel's assault on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip." So much for disengagement.

"Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way," claims Netanyahu.

But Goldstone's Mission found instead "that the following grave breaches of the
Fourth Geneva Convention were committed by Israeli forces in Gaza: willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."

The Report continues: "The repeated failure to distinguish between combatants and civilians appears to the Mission to have been the result of deliberate guidance issued to soldiers, as described by some of them, and not the result of occasional lapses." Furthermore, "There were almost no mistakes made according to the Government of Israel. It is in these circumstances that the Mission concludes that what occurred in just over three weeks at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 was a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population."

Yet with no hint of embarrassment whatsoever, Netanyahu insisted, ""Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians - Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers."

Ah, yes. Human shields. During the carnage, our media and our politicians belted out the Israeli propaganda line that "barbaric" Hamas was using its own population as human shields. Instead, it turns out "the Mission investigated several incidents in which Israeli armed forces used local Palestinian residents to enter houses which might be booby trapped or harbour enemy combatants (this practice, known in the West Bank as "neighbour procedure", was called "Johnnie procedure" during the military operations in Gaza)."

And so on and so forth.

Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel once before - from 1996 to 1999 - has had a history of scandal plague him in office, even an indictment for which he was later acquitted. Former Clinton White House Spokesman Joe Lockhart, in his book "The Truth About Camp David" calls the Israeli prime minister, "one of the most obnoxious individuals you're going to come into - just a liar and a cheat. He could open his mouth and you could have no confidence that anything that came out of it was the truth."

Netanyahu replaced former PM Ehud Olmert, who was brought down by corruption allegations, and indicted on three charges this past August. And that, just a month before former Israeli President Moshe Katsav's trial for rape and other sex crimes got underway.

The apple is rotten at its core. The international community must turn the cries of "shame" back on Israel and its human rights record. And the US administration, which stands so staunchly behind Israel at every turn, must play fair with the Goldstone Report if it is to maintain any credibility in the Middle East as it attempts to launch yet another round of peace talks.

Jessica Montell: The Goldstone Report on Gaza

2009-10-01T13:08:58Z

JERUSALEM - For Jews around the world, the ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is the season of soul-searching, where we ask forgiveness both from God and from our fellow human beings for sins large and small. But this year the Jewish holiday season came just as the UN issued a scathing report on Israel's recent military operation in the Gaza Strip. And so, my government's representatives around the globe have turned the tradition upside-down; rather than taking responsibility and making amends, they spent the past ten days deflecting all accusation of wrongdoing.

The UN fact-finding mission headed by Richard Goldstone found that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in last winter's military operation in Gaza. The report calls on both sides to launch criminal investigations into these allegations and to hold accountable anyone found to have committed these crimes. If either side fails to do so, the mission has requested various UN bodies to take measures to ensure such accountability.

Israel's response is a categorical condemnation of the report as biased and one-sided (Hamas has made a similar condemnation). Government spokespeople and major Jewish organizations claim the report is so fundamentally flawed as to be useless, or worse, a blood libel. The U.S. also criticized the report, dismissing calls for any serious international follow-up.

The full-throated, unequivocal denouncement is unsubstantiated: Israel claims the report ignores eight years of Hamas rocket fire at Southern Israel, though the report firmly denounces these attacks, calling them war crimes. Israel points to the one-sided mandate formulated by the UN Human Rights Council, though we know that Justice Goldstone accepted the offer to head the inquiry only on condition that its mandate was explicitly expanded to include all sides.

This is not to say that the report has no faults. I was disturbed by the framing of Israel's military operation as part of "an overall policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population for its resilience." The facts presented in the report itself would not seem to support such a far-reaching conclusion. In light of the sweeping conclusions regarding Israel, the very careful phrasing regarding Hamas abuses is particularly conspicuous. The mission did not find conclusive evidence regarding Hamas' use of mosques and civilian buildings for military purposes, nor does it criticize Hamas' firing from and shielding themselves within civilian areas. The evidence accumulated over the past eight months regarding both these phenomenon cannot be ignored.

Yet these lacunae are an indictment of Israel as much as of the UN report. Justice Goldstone all but begged Israel to cooperate with the mission and provide all the information it has to make its case. Israel refused, thereby dooming the report to a perhaps inevitable blind spot. I cannot avoid the feeling that Israel actually prefers this emphatically harsh, yet flawed report. Israel's generals and legal advisors will never acknowledge it publicly, but they must know their conduct in the Gaza operation did not accord with international requirements. This would also be reflected in the more measured, nuanced report that would have resulted from Israeli cooperation. Yet such a report would be much harder to denounce.

All the tendentious mudslinging and the more grounded criticism cannot delegitimize the report's central recommendation: that Israel itself must conduct credible investigations into its own conduct. The whole international system is based on the premise that justice should be done at home. Only in cases where there is no possibility of obtaining a domestic remedy does the international community step in to fill the vacuum. The Goldstone report reiterates this premise.

For months the Israeli human rights community has urged Israel to open credible, independent investigations into the hundreds of allegations of military misconduct. Israel has stubbornly refused, largely making do with military debriefings that categorically absolve Israeli forces of any wrongdoing. Only a handful of military police investigations have been opened, and the one criminal investigation to be concluded is the exception that proves the rule. A soldier in the Givati brigade was tried, convicted and sentenced -- for stealing a credit card.

After eight months of lobbying and advocacy, eight months in which B'Tselem sent dozens of cases to Israeli law enforcement officials, I must conclude that left to its own devices, Israel would never conduct the necessary investigations. Such an outcome is intolerable for the Palestinian residents of Gaza, who have no redress for all that they suffered. It is also harmful for Israeli society which has a right to know what was done in its name, and for Israeli democracy. And it is extremely damaging for the international legal system if such a high-profile case can be ignored. Under the circumstances, the international community cannot let this scenario occur.

So Israel now has a choice. It can continue to shoot the messenger and bury its head in the sand, hoping despite all signs to the contrary that this whole controversy will somehow disappear. Or it can initiate a genuine process of truth-telling and taking responsibility. Such a process may well be painful, but we will emerge stronger and healthier for it. As a friend and crucial supporter, the United States should not dismiss the report out of hand but rather encourage Israel to conduct serious investigations.

Jessica Montell is Executive Director of B'Tselem: the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. jmontell@btselem.org

Israel Prepares To Fight War Crimes Claims After UN Gaza Report

2009-10-01T08:51:25Z

JERUSALEM — Stung by a damning U.N. report alleging war crimes in Gaza, Israel is taking extraordinary steps to fend off potential international prosecution of its political and military leaders, hiring high-powered attorneys, lobbying Western governments and launching a public relations blitz.

Israel has dismissed the U.N. investigation into its winter offensive in the Gaza strip as biased, but its latest moves show it is clearly concerned.

Goldstone Defends Gaza Report After "Barrage Of Criticism"

2009-09-29T12:31:30Z

A United Nations investigator has defended a report published earlier this month that accuses Israel and Palestinian fighters of war crimes following the Israeli offensive in Gaza earlier this year.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, Richard Goldstone said a lack of accountability for war crimes committed in the Middle East had reached "crisis point", undermining any hope for peace in the region.

The former South African judge rejected criticism by Israel that the 575-page report was politically motivated.

He said his team was led by a belief in the rule of law, human rights and the need to protect civilians during war.

Goldstone said the report had investigated 36 incidents surrounding Israel's military operation.

"A culture of impunity in the region has existed for too long, the lack of accountability for war crimes and possible war crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point," he said.

"The ongoing lack of justice is undermining any hope for a successful peace process and reinforcing an environment that fosters violence."

Goldstone's report urged the UN Security Council to refer the allegations to the International Criminal Court in The Hague if either Israeli or Palestinian authorities failed to investigate and prosecute those suspected of such crimes within six months.

Michael Posner, the US assistant secretary of state, called on Israel on Tuesday to conduct credible investigations into the allegations, saying it would help the Middle East peace process.