UN report of war crimes

[b-j]

guardian.co.uk
World news
Gaza


Israel's offensive against Gaza last January was "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population", for which some Israelis should face "individual criminal responsibility", a UN investigation has found.

The inquiry, led by the former South African judge Richard Goldstone, concluded that both the Israeli military and Hamas committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the three-week conflict, but singled out Israel and its policy towards the Palestinians of Gaza for the most serious condemnation. The inquiry rejected Israel's argument that the war was a response to Palestinian rocket fire and therefore an act of self-defence.

In a 575-page report (pdf), released tonight, the inquiry said Israel should be required to investigate the allegations raised and if it fails to do so the case should be passed to the prosecutor of the international criminal court. It accused Israel of "grave breaches" of the fourth Geneva convention and of a war crime for using Palestinians as human shields during the fighting.

Israel refused to co-operate with the inquiry, arguing that the UN human rights council, which commissioned the study, is biased against Israel.

"Both the mandate of the mission and the resolution establishing it prejudged the outcome of any investigation, gave legitimacy to the Hamas terrorist organisation and disregarded the deliberate Hamas strategy of using Palestinian civilians as cover for launching terrorist attacks," the Israeli foreign ministry said.

But Goldstone, who is Jewish and has strong links with Israel, defended the work of the four-person team. "There should be no impunity for international crimes that are committed," he said. "It's very important that justice should be done."

He rejected any suggestion of bias: "To accuse me of being anti-Israel is ridiculous." He said it was in the interests of both Israel and the Palestinians for the truth to be established.

Goldstone's team looked in detail at 36 incidents during the war. It studied the deaths of 22 members of the Samouni family who, following instructions from Israeli soldiers, were sheltering in a house in Zeitoun, east of Gaza City. The house was then hit by Israeli fire. The killings were a grave breach of the fourth Geneva convention, the inquiry said.

It found seven incidents in which civilians were shot while leaving their homes, waving white flags and sometimes following instructions from Israeli soldiers.

A "direct and intentional attack" on the al-Quds hospital, in the south of Gaza City, which left the building seriously damaged and forced the evacuation of patients, may amount to a war crime.

The report was critical of Palestinian armed groups, saying their rocket fire did not distinguish between civilian and military targets in Israel, caused terror among civilians and amounted to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

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the report
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[Faw_Peter]

I would like to give an advice, not blow on ash that still burns, because it will ignite harder. The world does not needs this true because those who died will not turn back, but this truth can bring new problems, new offerings, and too wanted peace and calmness will not endure on this planet...

[b-j]

thanks, I agree with you that we need to forget some facts like: 9/11, US attack on Japan,....etc. maybe we can live in peace, but the burn in Gaza is still hot 1.5 M pls are deprived of the basics of life; bread, oil, medication, money, work,...
and we are just watching!!


On June 16, 2008, noted Israeli historian Ilan Pappe explained "The Israeli Recipe for 2008: Genocide in Gaza, Ethnic Cleaning in the West Bank." He wrote:

"Not long ago, I claimed that Israel is employing genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip." After re-thinking this highly-charged term, he "concluded with even stronger conviction: it is the only appropriate way to describe what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza" because of its repeated atrocities now greater than ever.

In his January 3 "Israel's Righteous Fury and Its Victims in Gaza" article, Pappe updates his outrage:

Once again, "Israel is engulfed....with righteous fury that translates into destructive policy in the Gaza Strip. This appalling self-justification for the inhumanity and impunity....is based first and foremost on sheer lies transmitted with a newspeak reminiscent of (Nazi Germany). Every half an hour," radio and TV bulletins call Gaza victims "terrorists and Israel's massive (slaughter) self-defense."
Israel is the righteous victim. Gazan men, women, and children "a great evil....There are no boundaries to the hypocrisy....It seems that even the most horrendous crimes, such as the genocide in Gaza, are treated as discrete events, unconnected to anything (from the past) and not associated with any ideology or system."

BBC NEWS
TUC votes to back Israeli boycott

Union members have voted to support a boycott of goods produced in what they call "illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories".

Delegates at the TUC in Liverpool backed the move in protest at Israel's military campaign in Gaza in January.

They also supported calls to withdraw investment from some Israeli companies.

But suggestions of a wholesale boycott of all Israeli goods and services were blocked by the TUC's general secretary Brendan Barber.

He said: "This is not a call for a general boycott of Israeli goods and services which would hit ordinary Palestinian and Israeli workers, but targeted, consumer-led sanctions directed at businesses based in, and sustaining, the illegal settlements."
..............................

Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans were killed during the three-week operation at the start of this year. Israel puts the figure at 1,166.

FBU president Mick Shaw told delegates there had been "unbelievable human suffering", adding: "We have a history of supporting boycotts, such as the one against apartheid in South Africa.

"There is no doubt that had an effect."

Israel's deputy ambassador in London said on Wednesday that such a move would not help prospects of peace in the region and would harm both Israeli and Palestinian workers.

But Hugh Lanning, chairman of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said it was a "landmark" decision.

The TUC is an umbrella organization of 58 British unions, representing about 6.5 million workers. Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2009/09/17 15:17:57 GMT

:quoi :quoi

[b-j]

(AGI) - Geneva, October 16 – The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted the Goldstone report on the Israeli offensive last January in Gaza which accuses both Israel and Hamas of having committed war crimes. The adoption of the report passed with 25 votes in favor, 6 against and 11 abstentions. In the 575 page report the investigating commission led by Richard Goldstone, a former constitutional judge from South Africa, asks Israel and Hamas to investigate the war crimes committed during the Cast Lead offensive between December 27 2008 and January 18 2009 in a credible way and within six months, asking otherwise for the UN Security Council to remand the question to the International Court of Justice. :banghead

Israel tried in every possible way to prohibit consideration of the Goldstone report, which it considers spoiled, during the special session of the council in Geneva. Premier Benjamin Netanyahu has said the report awards terrorism and is a threat to the peace process. ....... :deg

The resolution contains numerous references to Israel, including one to the ''recent violations of human rights in East Jerusalem'',
hock: hock:

[b-j]

THE latest ...

the 192-member Assembly a few days earlier adopted a resolution on the report of the United Nations fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict, which found that Israeli forces and Palestinian militants had committed serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law, possibly amounting to crimes against humanity, during the conflict in December 2008 and January 2009

After two days of debate in the Assembly, at UN Headquarters in New York, 114 Member States voted in favour of a resolution endorsing the report’s findings and its recommendations for further action. Eighteen States voted against the resolution and another 44 countries abstained.

The fact-finding mission was set up earlier this year at the request of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.