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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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May 5th,
2009 - Israel Criticizes UN Report - Before It is Released |
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Israel Criticizes UN Report
- Before It is Released - On IDF Strikes that Hit UN in Gaza Marian Houk American Chronicle May 5, 2009 In an astonishing
illustration of the matrix of the Israeli government, the Israeli media, the
role of leaking, and attempts to influence international policy and opinion,
the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) sent out an email at 11:22 this
morning [Jerusalem time] denouncing a UN report that has not yet been
released. The MFA also partially
reveals the contents of a not-yet-sent letter that the UN Secretary-General
has addressed to the UN Security Council. The MFA communique states
that "UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will today (Tuesday, 5 May 2009)
send to the UN Security Council [in the "letter", apparently] his
response to the summary of the report of the internal inspection committee,
which he previously formed. The committee examined the events in which nine
UN installations were damaged during Operation Cast Lead". In this letter, according to
the statement from Israel's MFA, "Secretary General Ban criticizes the
firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli towns, and praises the coordination
between the Israel Defence Force (IDF) and the UN during Operation Cast Lead". This may come as a surprise
to some in the UN. UNRWA officials recounted to a Human Rights Watch (HRW)
team their frantic efforts, including listing their log of multiple phone
calls over a two-hour period to various contacts in the IDF, to stop the
closer-and-closer firing of White Phosphorus near the main UNRWA compound in
Gaza City on 15 January. HRW reported that UNRWA Gaza Field Administration
Officer Scott Anderson, a retired U.S. army officer, who was in the UNRWA
compound when the shelling started, "speculated that the IDF was
'walking' the artillery fire across the area - firing shells along an arc at
evenly spaced intervals". The Human Rights Watch team later reported
that no Israeli ground troops were operating in that area at the time, but it
was crowded with Palestinian civilians and UNRWA personnel. As a result of
the fires caused by the White Phosphorus, many millions of dollars of
supplies were burned in the warehouse area of that UNRWA compound. A few days
later, in the same UNRWA compound, UNSG BAN addressed television cameras of
major international media while standing in front of the still-smoldering
supplies. The UN report at issue is
that of the special Board of Inquiry set up by UNSG Ban Ki-Moon to look into
IDF military strikes (the IDF says they were not intentional attacks) that
hit some nine UN targets or installations in Gaza, including the main UNRWA
Compound in Gaza City (that actually happened the day UNSG Ban arrived in
Israel for a visit), and a UN school in the northern Gaza Strip a couple of
days later, as well as several UN local staff workers. The UN Board of Inquiry was
headed by Ian Martin of the United Kingdom, and was looking at incidents
involving death and damage at the the UN installations in Gaza during Israels
22-day military operation. The Board of Inquiry began work on 12 February,
and its other members are Larry Johnson (United States), Sinha Basnayake (Sri
Lanka) and Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Eichenberger (Switzerland). The MFA statement said that
"The State of Israel rejects the criticism in the committee's summary
report, and determines that in both spirit and language, the report is
tendentious, patently biased, and ignores the facts presented to the
committee. The committee has preferred the claims of Hamas, a murderous
terror organization, and by doing so has misled the world. As noted by the
Secretary General in his letter, during the course of its work the committee
met with the Israeli team, which cooperated fully and with complete
transparency. The Israeli team presented various intelligence materials,
including videos, aerial photographs, eye-witness reports and other material.
None of this information is reflected in the report". While the UN report will
apparently call for further investigation, the MFA takes a stern tone to the
contrary: "Israel views the publication of the report's findings as the
end of the internal UN inspection process. The UN is responsible for drawing
its own conclusions regarding the means it should implement to contend with
the complex reality in which a terror organization operates in proximity to
UN installations without differentiation and in a manner that endangers UN
activities. We expect clear statements and action from the UN in this
regard". Is the Israeli MFA
criticizing UNRWA for not taking action to prevent Hamas from being "in
proximity to UN installations"? (Even the massive firepower used during
the IDF military operation in Gaza failed to do this.) And, is Israel in a position
to declare the end of any UN investigation process? In fact, as these words were
being written, another UN team of independent investigators, appointed by the
UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, yesterday began a week-long meeting to
prepare for their fact-finding mission to the region. The Human Rights
four-person team is headed by Judge Richard Goldstone of South Africa, former
prosecutor for International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda, and will include Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at
the London School of Economics and Political Science at the University of
London; Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and former
Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders;
and Colonel (retired from the Irish Armed Forces) Desmond Travers, member of
the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal
Investigations (IICI). And, in an entirely separate
domain, a UN Human Rights treaty body is meeting in Geneva today and tomorrow
to review Israel's compliance with its obligations under the Convention
Against Torture. The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday that "Israel is
likely to answer questions on its treatment of Palestinian detainees, the alleged
existence of a secret interrogation center known as Facility 1391, the
closure of the Gaza crossings, and the West Bank security barrier when it
appears before the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva on Tuesday and
Wednesday". But, if a Haaretz report on
Tuesday afternoon is correct, the UNSG may have already conceded several
points in his as-yet-undelivered letter. Haaretz said that Ban wrote that his
Board of Inquiry's report "was not legally binding ... In the letter,
the UN chief condemned Hamas cross-border rocket fire on Israeli civilians,
attacks that sparked the conflict and, according to the Israeli paper, were
ignored by the UN committee in its report. Ban also commended the Israel
Defense Forces for its close coordination with the world body during the
3-week operation, as well as the cooperation given by Israel with the
report's authors. He said his representatives were holding meetings with the
Israeli government on implementing the report's recommendations. The UN chief
added there would be no further reports by the world body on the
subject". So, far from reacting
strongly in order to "save face", has the UNSG in fact already
caved in to this Israeli pressure? The Haaretz report added
that "Ban made the comments in a letter he agreed to attach to the
report at the request of Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Gal, who
traveled to New York on Monday for meetings with Ban's aides on the
matter". Before the Israeli MFA
response to the Board of Inquiry report, Israel's most widely-read newspaper,
Yediot Ahronot (in Hebrew), published an article containing very strong
reactions from various Israeli officials, and by 8:24 am, its
English-language website YNet had a slightly-softened version online. A selected summary of items
in the Hebrew press sent out to journalists by the Israeli Government Press
Office (GPO) a short while later recounted that, according to Yediot Ahronot,
"Israel livid: UN prepared deadly report on Gaza Strip operation. UN
AGAINST IDF. UN report determines: IDF intentionally fired at UNWRA
institutions and people in Gaza during 'Cast Lead'. Israeli source: If they
do not soften wording, this is an earthquake". But, from the reaction sent
out by the MFA, we learn that the report has already been softened once.
Israel now wants it softened even more. On top of that, Israel wants the UN
to stop its "internal investigation process". And the MFA is demanding
that the UN to take an even clearer stance against Hamas, than it already has
- the UN is an integral part of the Quartet [whose other three members are
the U.S., European Union, and Russia], which has adopted it its entirety the
Israeli conditions for refusing to deal with Hamas. However, the UN has major
humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip, which it will not abandon even
though Hamas is currently in charge there. And, the UN Security Council has
in the Gaza Strip, and the UN has major humanitarian operations there, 1.5
Palestinians (the majority of whom are refugees) are crowded, living under an
Israeli-imposed blockade administered by the military, and largely prevented
by Israel from leaving. And, the UN Security Council Resolution (1860)
adopted on 8 January, "calls for the unimpeded provision and
distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food,
fuel and medical treatment". "All I can say is that
I am sooooo relieved that I can't be accused of leaking this report",
said one UN spokesperson in Jerusalem. "But, what do the Israelis think
they're doing? I thought they were supposed to be so good at media
management. What this will do is make it all the harder for the UN to back
down from any stiff conclusions, and make it impossible to water down any
more what might have been watered down already". According to the MFA leak,
"The Secretary General further emphasizes in his letter that the UN
inspection committee is not a judicial body and is not authorized to examine
legal issues". That, of course, is one
explanation for the apparent fact that the UN Board of Inquiry report does
not accuse Israel of war crimes. The Yediot Ahronot article
in Hebrew (translation into English supplied by a UN contact) reported that
"The report was placed on the UN secretary generalīs desk a few days
ago, and it is liable to generate a diplomatic earthquake. The reportīs
authors chose to ignore Israelīs contentions and determined unequivocally:
Israel deliberately fired at UN institutions even though it knew it was
forbidden. The report accuses Israel of disproportionate fire and excessive
use of force. The report also states that Israel shot at Palestinian
civilians unnecessarily and excessively. It should be noted that the report
is worded one-sidedly and includes numerous and grave charges against Israel.
On the other hand, the report almost entirely ignores Hamas and the rocket
fire at Israeli communities". As a result, the article
said, this report's findings would - if left as they are - "open up the
possibility of charging top Israeli officials in legal institutions all over
the world and drag Israel into deep diplomatic mud". Yediot Ahronot reported that
"A person on the American delegation to the UN told Yedioth Ahronoth
yesterday: 'Except for accusing Israel of war crimes, this report has
everything. This is a report that is unprecedented in its gravity toward
Israel, and Israel will have to lick the wounds of the report for many years,
if the current wording is accepted as is' ... A member of the French
delegation said yesterday that if the reportīs conclusion are accepted,
Operation Cast Lead is liable to drag Israel into a relentless diplomatic war
that was worse than what it underwent during the second Intifada". So, according to this article
in Yediot Ahronot, "When the intention to make the report public became
known, the new Foreign Ministry secretary general, Yossi Gal, left for New
York to receive the draft of the report and to hold talks with top UN
officials to persuade them to delay publication, to change some of the sharp
language and to promise that in the press conference that will take place
after the report comes out, that the secretary general will balance the harsh
findings in it. Israeli officials are very troubled by the timing of the
publication - on the eve of President Shimon Peresīs meeting with UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tomorrow [Tuesday] morning. Peres is expected
to have held a harsh talk last night with the secretary general and to demand
of him to delay publication. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also called
the UN secretary general from Rome and had a harsh talk with him. As far as
is known, the secretary general made it clear that it was not possible to
change the content of the report or to delay publication. The pressure is
therefore focusing now on having the secretary general try to minimize the
damage in the remarks he will make at the press conference that he is
expected to hold after publication". The English-language version
of this story, published on YNet, reported that "Although the report
does not accuse Israel of committing war crimes and does not include a
recommendation for legal proceedings, Jerusalem views it as a one-sided and
even hostile document, as it fails to mention the Hamas terror directed
ceaselessly at the civilian population in Israel. After receiving the report,
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deliberated for several days on how to respond
to it. He eventually worded a summarizing and 'softened' three-page document,
which he plans to submit to the Security Council on Tuesday. The original
report included a recommendation to probe two incidents which involved the
use of phosphorus, but this recommendation was not adopted by Ban, as he
believes it exceeded the mandate given to the committee.
The Israeli
Information Forum held a conference call Tuesday morning to discuss the
issue. Representatives of the Prime Minister's Office demanded that Israel
refrain from capitulating or apologizing following the UN report. One of the
decisions made was to remind the world that Hamas is a terror organization
which caused the war and operated among civilian population and near UN
facilities, firing thousands of rockets into Israel. The PM's Office reps
also said that the IDF's operation in Gaza followed numerous warnings
The Israeli MFA, in its
statement emailed around this morning, said that "Immediately upon the
conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, and unrelated to the UN investigation,
Israel carried out independent inquiries into the damage caused to the UN
installations. The findings of these inquiries were published two weeks ago,
and proved beyond doubt that the IDF did not intentionally fire at the UN
installations. Not only have the Hamas terrorists not conducted such
inquiries, they have use violence and intimidation against citizens of Gaza
as tools to prevent them from presenting the actual truth. In this manner
they have deceived the investigators, the UN and public opinion. Israel emphasizes
that despite the fact that it was cleared of suspicions of war crimes raised
during Operation Cast Lead [apparently, the MFA means here that Israel was
cleared by itself, or by the recently-released IDF preliminary investigation
conclusions], the report completely ignores the eight years of attacks
against Israel that preceded the decision to initiate the operation, and
ignores the difficult circumstances on the ground as dictated by Hamas and
its methods of armed operation". International law experts,
however, are nearly unanimous in arguing that, contrary to what the MFA is
claiming here, there is an obligation not to fire on an area where it knows
there are civilians - unless, and this is a big loophole, the military value
of the target is so high that it is absolutely essential to do so, and
totally unavoidable. An op-ed contribution
published in the Jerusalem Post today, written by Rabbi Arik Ascherman, one
of the leading figures in the Rabbis for Human Rights organization, made the
same point, but argued on the basis of Jewish moral teachings rather than
international law. In his article, Rabbi
Ascherman writes: "I don't know the truth about Gaza. I doubt that many
of you reading these words know either. As a Jew, a rabbi, an Israeli and a
Zionist, I desperately want to believe the IDF that there was nothing to the
transcripts from the Rabin Academy, or any other investigated incident. But,
I can't. And, I need to know. I must know whether my country is living up to
commitments we made to ourselves in our Declaration of Independence 61 years
ago that Israel's foundation be 'freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by
the prophets of Israel', and that 'it will be faithful to the principles of
the charter of the United Nations'. The Jewish tradition I am sworn to uphold
demands that, even when pursuing a just cause such as self-defense, we must
do so through just means (midrash) ... May we reduce the threat to our
soldiers by violating the teaching allowing us to kill those coming to kill
us but forbidding us to kill innocents even to save ourselves (Sanhedrin)?
Are we content saying, "Our hands did not shed this blood" (Deut
21:8), or do we accept responsibility if we haven't done enough to prevent
bloodshed (Sotah)?" In his piece, Rabbi
Ascherman also states "That is why Rabbis for Human Rights and other
Israeli human rights organizations are calling for an independent state
investigation not in the hands of the IDF". An independent state
investigation means, of course, an Israeli investigation. Many Israeli human
rights figures have noted that if Israel did an investigation of its own that
others would find credible, then the calls for further
"fact-finding", and "inquiry" would quiet down. But, they
say, as it is, the facts that the UN and other international bodies are
steadily producing will almost certainly be used - failing a credible Israeli
investigation - by other national or international courts. External link: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/101428 |