By agency reporter, Ekklesia, November 19, 2009
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has asked the United Nations Secretary-General to make sure that recommendations of a key report about war crimes committed during the conflict between Israeli and Palestinian armed forces in Gaza at the beginning of 2009, are properly followed up.
China View, November 5, 2009
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) — Vietnam here Wednesday voiced concern over the “absence of Israel’s cooperation,” as well as their failure to take “precautious measures” to prevent further abuses of international and human rights law.
Bui The Giang, Vietnamese deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, made these remarks at his address during the plenary General Assembly session here to consider the Goldstone report, which accused both Israel and Hamas militants of war crimes during the 22-day Gaza conflict that broke out on Dec. 27, 2008.
Saed Bannoura,IMEMC, Oct 28, 2009
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A number of European lawyers and human rights activities stated that they obtained names of Israeli army officers suspected of committing war crimes during the war against the Gaza Strip earlier this year.
The lawyers said they would be filing lawsuits against the officers for committing war crimes against the Palestinian people. Israeli paper Haaretz said that the lawyers collected testimonies from residents of the Gaza Strip in preparation to file the lawsuits. The lists are being filed in Britain, Spain, Norway, Belgium and Holland as the legislation in these countries allow arrest warrants against war crimes suspects. Haaretz added that attorney Daniel Makeover, from London, told its reporter that the report of Judge Richard Goldstone will be helpful in the lawsuits. Israel said it would be countering the lawsuits, and that it is preparing legal teams but did not offer further details. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that it is working against the issue which it described as ‘efforts carried out by pro Palestinian groups and their supporters to harm Israel’. Last month, former Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Moshe Yaalon, had to cancel a trip to London due to fears of being apprehended there. Yaalon is the current vice Prime Minister and Minister of the so-called Strategic Affairs. |
Eric Ruder looks at the Goldstone report documentation of war crimes committed during Israel’s Gaza offensive–and the criticism unleashed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ willingness to help Israel suppress the report.
Socialist Worker, October 22, 2009
Families returned to what was left of their homes in Jabalia, Gaza
THE UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution October 16 to forward a report documenting war crimes committed during Israel’s three-week Gaza offensive in late 2008 and early 2009 to the UN Security Council–the first in several steps that could ultimately lead to war crimes tribunals against Israel.
Two weeks before, Palestinian representatives to the UNHRC had requested a delay of the vote in response to prodding from the U.S. and Israel, which tried to bury the Goldstone report–named for Richard Goldstone, the former South African Supreme Court justice who authored the 575-page report–because it meticulously documented Israeli war crimes.
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Khalid Amayreh, uruknet.info, October 21, 2009 In its rabid efforts to whitewash the Goldstone report, Israel is likely to carry out another disingenuous probe into its genocidal onslaught against the Gaza Strip nearly ten months ago. The report, compiled by South African judge Richard Goldstone, himself a Jew, accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians. As many as 1400 Palestinians, mostly non-combatants including more than 330 children, were killed during the 22-day campaign which some historians and intellectuals compared to the allied saturation bombing of the German city of Dresden at the close of the Second World War. |
In a meeting today with America’s Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, Israeli President Shimon Peres condemned the UN for “spreading lies” in allowing the Goldstone Report’s consideration.
The Goldstone Report details war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas during the January invasion of the Gaza Strip. Rice vowed that the United States would stand by Israel “as a loyal friend” and fight against the report in the UN Security Council.
The UN Human Rights Council formally endorsed the report last week, with the US one of the few nations to vote in opposition to it. It has been referred to the Security Council, but the US is expected to use its veto power to prevent it from going any farther.
The report’s contents are largely the same as those from human rights groups that investigated the conflict, in which over 1,000 Palestinian civilians were slain. Israel has insisted that the author, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, is an “anti-semite” for penning the report, and the government has insisted its backers in the UN are also anti-semites which seeks to see the Jews slaughtered.
Pravda, Oct 20, 2009
Tuesday Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his government to draft an initiative to amend the international laws of war after the Goldstone report on its war in Gaza.
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The security cabinet did not, however, discuss calls made by ministers for an internal investigation into the 22-day offensive at the turn of the year that killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, an official told AFP.
“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,” his office said in a statement.
Israel’s closest allies, the United States, Britain and France urged it to investigate war crime allegations raised by the fact-finding missions headed by Richard Goldstone, a former international war crimes prosecutor, AFP reports.
By Cesar Chelala, Information Clearing House, Oct 15, 2009
In what can be considered a sad paradox of history, an analysis of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) actions during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza shows that the IDF violated several of the Nuremberg Principles, as well as the principles of the Geneva Conventions.
The Nuremberg Principles are a set of guidelines established after World War II to try Nazi Party members. They were established to determine what constitutes a war crime. The Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish the standards in international law for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war.
According to Nuremberg Principle I, “Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.” As detailed in the “Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” also known as the “Goldstone Report,” several crimes against unarmed civilians were committed by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
Peace and Justice Post 
Israel rejects endorsement by UN of Gaza report
November 7, 2009CHRIS 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.”
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Tags:China supports the resolution, Chris Strephen, Gaza, Goldstone report, Ireland supports the resolution, Israeli response, Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour, war crimes
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