Goldstone Report Finds Israeli Military Guilty of War Crimes in Gaza
The Independent reports that a United Nations fact-finding inquiry has found that Israel committed war crimes during its attack on Gaza last winter, as did the Palestinian Hamas. The lion's share of blame in the report, however, falls on Israeli forces, which stand accused of planning out a disproportionate use of force, the punishing of a civilian population, and reckless disregard for civilian lives-- all of which are war crimes in international law. The report suggests that some Israeli actions may have gone beyond being mere war crimes to being crimes against humanity. The report will go to the UN Human Rights Commission, which will likely accept it. The findings could in theory drag Israeli officials before the World Court in the Hague, though in practice this outcome is highly unlikely.
Both the Israeli government and Hamas rejected the report as biased, which is a pretty good indication that it is even-handed.
Aljazeera English has video:
Both rightwing Israeli news sources and Aljazeera English are convinced that the report is so many words on paper and that it will have no effect.
I disagree. Amnesty International has endorsed and defended the conclusions of the report, and Human Rights Watch has also been a supporter of Justice Goldstone. Even the British House of Lords debate on this issue last May displayed a determination that there be no double standard and that Israel be held accountable for any crimes it committed-- likewise Hamas.
Israel's continued inhumane blockade of the people of Gaza and its drive to further colonize the Palestinian West Bank, as well as its tendency to launch wars at the drop of a hat, are increasingly making it an international pariah and impelling a boycott movement, especially in Europe but also Canada. The recent World Council of Churches resolution in favor of some boycotts is also a bellwether. (Nor can such boycotts be avoided by Jewish nationalists' attacks on the academic freedom of boycott proponents such as Neve Gordon; or by Stern Gang character assassination tactics deployed against US academics who protest the policies of the Israeli rightwing.)
Israel is deeply dependent on trade and technological sharing with Europe, and the Goldstone report will give a fillip to the boycott movement. It will also cast a long shadow on future Israeli wars on its neighbors and how they are perceived, as Aluf Benn argues in Haaretz.
The report will color how Israeli politicians' demands for a military attack on Iran are viewed internationally, and it weakens the position of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is defying President Barack Obama by committing to build more Israeli housing on Palestinian land in the West Bank at a time when the US has called for a settlement freeze in preparation for restarting peace talks.
No Israeli official publicly presents a plausible end-game for Gaza and the West Bank. You can't just go on economically strangling 4 million people for decades. Unlike other world conflict situations, Israel is not striving to incorporate the Palestinians as citizens (unlike the case in Sri Lanka, which wants the Tamils as citizens, or in Tibet, where China wants the Tibetans as citizens). In contrast, Israel is keeping the Palestinians stateless, and stateless people have no property or human rights. It is governments that guarantee rights. For those lacking citizenship in a real country, the only glimmer of justice that ever appears is in the form of blue ribbon commissions. Hence Justice Goldstone's report.
End/ (Not Continued)
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/16/2009 12:52:00 AM
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16 Comments:
the only crime war which make Palestinians in Gaza is that they fight with occupants of their soil, UN who accuse them of crime war once again show its cowardness. they were so afraid accusation about antisemitism that they accuse brave Palestinians from Gaza that they are guilty of war crimes. I don't know why this organisation still exist state Israel broke many times charter of UN and noone punish it. In Lebanon during war 2006 does UN condemn Israel no they condemn only Hezbollah the only force which can succesfully defend Lebanon and Lebanon. They stamps sanction on Palestinian after they choose demoocratic goverment lead by Hamas. In 2008 UN recognize petainist goverment of Fayyad which can only compare with judenrat in ghettos. Does UN condemn US for agression on IRaq? No they stamps this agression with next resolutions. In my opinion UN shall be dissolved as League of Nation in 1945, because it doesn't fullfil its task
"disproportionate" use of force – SIC. So a normal (to be defined) use of force against civilians trapped in an open air concentration camp is alright
Wonder why only with Israel also the victim is to blame.
Imagine just an instance a UN Report finding that during the offensive against the Warsaw Ghetto the German used a disproportionate use of force and that both parties are to blame for crimes...
Mind you it is also true that years ago nobody would have dared contemplating that Israel is responsible of anything… Hence this toothless report could be defined as a very very small step in the right direction
"Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is defying President Barack Obama by committing to build more Israeli housing on Palestinian land in the West Bank at a time when the US has called for a settlement freeze in preparation for restarting peace talks."
Actually, Obama has dropped that "request".
"The Obama administration has agreed to Israel's request to remove East Jerusalem from negotiations on the impending settlement freeze.
According to both Israeli officials and Western diplomats, U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell has recognized the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot announce a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem. The officials said the U.S. will not endorse new construction there, but would not demand Jerusalem publicly announce a freeze. "
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1110507.html
Okay, thankfully we have a United Nations truth-telling report condemning Israel of war crimes. Normally Israeli truth-telling is TABOO. Is it possible the tide has finally turned?
Why didn't the world body create 2 nations when they created Israel?
And why don't we create 3 states in that territory? Why does "Palestine" need to have 2 parts? Or why do they need to be the same? Why not have a west and east Palestine with two different parliments/congresses and then have the state of Israel/ et al deal directly with two different partners?
Caught the reactions of Israel's new ambassador to US, Michael Oren, on Lehrer Newshour.
It was remarkable dismissal of the report: what else could be expected of such a report, when Israel has been indicted by the UN and other world entities so repeatedly over the last 50 years for practically everything they have done?
It was remarkable how deftly he was able to interpret the world's reactions to Israeli malfeasance as evidence of congenital anti-semitism. When you think about, that is what all these criticisms boil down to if you start off with a certain point-of-view.
And it is this mindset that stands in the way of ever fairly resolving the essential conflict presented by Israel in the region.
Shameful how the Israeli admin and army keeps using the human shield argument over and over and over again when recently a report from the Israeli soldiers had come which said that the soldiers used civilans as human shield more than Hamas fighters
(See these Haaretz, Atlantic Free Press articles)
Juan says: "You can't just go on economically strangling 4 million people for decades."
Um...., How long has the USA had its illegal and inhumane Cuban Embargo? DECADES
Um...., How many people suffered?population of about 7 million in 1960; now about 12 million.
Biggest outcone of US policy versus Cuba: The blueprint for 9/11--Operation Northwoods--whose planning documents can be read here (pdf).
It is taken for granted that the Obama Government will not seek to protect alleged war criminals.
Israel today stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Using civilians as human shields to terrorize the population, being one such horrific allegation.
The U N Human Rights Commission report today recommends that the Security Council take this matter before the International Criminal Court.
It is taken for granted that the Obama Government will not seek to protect alleged war criminals by allowing LOBBY GROUPS to exert pressure on it to use its VETO to frustrate international justice, the rule of law and democracy.
That would be condoning war crimes, an act from which no Western government could completely recover.
Obama is not likely to take America back 50 years. This is the 21st century and neocons and neozionists are minority groups that may be tolerated but must not be allowed disproportionate influence over the majority, either in the House of Representatives or in society as a whole.
"Um...., How long has the USA had its illegal and inhumane Cuban Embargo? DECADES"
The USA does not have a wall set up along all of Cuba's borders nor does it have an air and naval blockade on Cuba's ports, nor does the USA make periodic military attacks on Cuban civilians, nor does the USA impose its embargo on other nations, who are free to trade with Cuba, and who do in fact trade with Cuba, in spite of the US embargo.
For these reasons and others, the Israeli/Palestinian situation is not comparable. Cuba's problems have little to do with the US embargo, which is largely toothless, because the rest of the world is free to ignore it, ie, is free to trade with Cuba. The rest of the world is not free to trade with the Palestinians, because the Palestinian population are prisoners of the Israelis; the USA exercises no such control over Cubans.
It really makes no sense to compare the US embargo against Cuba to the occupation and slow genocide of Palestine. The embargo is a nuisance to a sovereign and thoroughly independent state. Cubans don't have to endure real oppression: American soldiers aren't shooting their kids randomly on the way to school, confiscating their land, or breaking into their homes at all hours - just for starters.
That no Israeli official publicly presents a plausible endgame is no surprise. The endgame, well-understood by its American supporters, is for Israel to slowly annihilate the Palestinian population - those that can't be starved or dispossessed into leaving. As the Americans demonstrated in Iraq during the 1990s, people will accept the mass murder of hundreds of thousands or even millions, so long as it is done quietly, through starvation and disease.
There is no reason to expect a nation that carried out such a genocidal policy against Iraqi children to object to Israel doing the same thing, so long as they avoid blurting out the truth on 60 Minutes, like Madeleine Albright. The amazing thing is that such nations fancy themselves to be decent and civilized people, but isn't that always the way? Those who practice genocide always know themselves to be superior beings. Does this law have any exceptions?
To anonymous 6:04pm:
The Obama administration has already chosen to protect alleged war criminals from the previous administration, just as Clinton protected Bush 1 and Reagan war crimes and criminals. The USA was convicted of conducting State Terrorism by the World Court and NOTHING ever came of that--no one went to prison and there was NO US investigation of WHY the World Court reached such a decision.
The USA will veto and ignore any and all levels of protest just as it has on every other occasion.
When it comes to the decisions of international institutions, the USA acts just as Imperial Japan did toward the League of Nations. Since the end of WW2, US leaders have not obeyed international law. Perhaps folks should read what the President of the UN's General Assembly has to say on the matter.
Human Rights Council, not Human Rights Committee.
Disappointing to see such a facile assessment from Juan Cole, that both Israel’s and Hamas’s rejection of the report indicates it is even-handed. How about some careful, informed analysis?
See:
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=45797
Readers concerned about genocidal plans, please see:
http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm
Another link of interest for those really interested in evaluating the report:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204518504574416810481957726.html
Ha! Saying anything critical of Israel on left wing liberal sites is now anti-Semitic.
How's that for hypocrisy?
There are a lot of unbiased Blogs to post on. They put principles before personalities.
Juan is looking a little drawn.
Have a nice day. :^)
davr
I can't believe people are trying to label Goldstone as anti-Semitic. There are groups on facebook that accuse him of such associations. What a crazy world we live in.
Clearly his commitment to ending impunity and bringing those to justice in Rwanda and South Africa renders him a terrorist and possibly being an anti-Semite. It's 2009, how long are people going to play the "anti-Semite" card?
It's just another smearing campaign by the conniving right-wing of whom denied all allegations listed in a more than 500 page report before they could have possible read it.
To be honest, I think they're trying to cover themselves by deflecting the attention away from themselves. How can you pick on Goldstone? It's not like they give MacArthur Foundation International Justice awards to people who are considered terrorists. Or is the MacArthur Foundation a bunch of anti-Semites, too?
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