Peace and Justice Post

Playing in Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, in rubble left after Israels January military offensive.

Photograph: AP Photo

CHRIS STEPHEN in New York, The Irish Times, November 7, 2009

ISRAEL YESTERDAY rejected a UN General Assembly resolution calling for investigations into a report alleging that war crimes were committed in Gaza.

Saying the resolution was “completely detached from realities on the ground”, an Israeli foreign ministry statement said Israel would “continue to act to protect the lives of its citizens from the threat of international terrorism”.

Ireland was one of five EU nations to support the resolution, which calls on both Palestinian and Israeli authorities to investigate allegations of war crimes contained in a report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it had supported the UN resolution because Dublin backs the Goldstone report into possible breaches of war crimes law.

“We do fully support the recommendations which call, in the first instance, on the parties to the conflict in Gaza to respond seriously and comprehensively to the findings of the report, by launching appropriate investigations into all the allegations of possible breaches of international law.”

The resolution is non-binding, but calls on UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to monitor inquiries on both sides and report back in three months, when the assembly will consider further action.

“We started the journey today,” said Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour. “We will continue this process until we make sure that the Israeli criminals who have committed war crimes against the Palestinian civilians face justice.” The vote, backed by 118 of the 192 member states, is the latest stage of a controversial process which began last January when the UN’s Human Rights Council condemned Israel’s Gaza offensive, in which 13 Israelis and nearly 1,400 Palestinians died.

In September, Richard Goldstone, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, produced a report on the Gaza offensive which said there was evidence that both Israel and the Palestinians had committed violations of war crimes law, possibly amounting to crimes against humanity.

The most controversial part of the report was Justice Goldstone’s recommendation that if both sides failed to launch their own investigations into the killings, the UN should consider ordering the International Criminal Court to do so.

This UN resolution leaves open that possibility, by saying that if both sides have not carried out credible investigations within three months, the matter could be passed to the UN Security Council, which has the power to order war crimes trials.

Despite much talk of the EU moving towards a common foreign and security policy, member states were split over the resolution, with 14 states abstaining and Ireland joining Cyprus, Malta, Portugal and Slovenia in backing it.

Sweden’s UN ambassador Anders Liden led negotiations on behalf of EU states trying to persuade the Palestinians to accept a watered-down version of the resolution, which did not include endorsement of recommendations that the Security Council should be asked to consider war crimes trials. “We did not bring them together,” said Mr Liden. But he insisted EU states were together in condemning war crimes committed in Gaza, and urging both sides to hold investigations.

What happens next is unclear. If the secretary general reports back in February that either side has not carried out credible investigations, diplomats say there is strong support for the matter to be passed to the Security Council.

The council has previously initiated international war crimes trials for states including Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and former Yugoslavia, but it is unlikely to add Israel to the list.

Only China among the permanent five veto-wielding members backed the General Assembly resolution, with Britain, France, Russia and the US likely to resist approving war crimes trials, saying they could upset chances of furthering the peace process.

Both sides insist they have begun investigations; Israel says probes into any illegal acts are ongoing, and Mr Mansour promised inquiries into Goldstone’s report that missiles were fired into Israel from Gaza. “We will see after three months who will comply and who will not comply.”