A UN press release reports that the Goldstone Commission looking into Israel’s 22-day Operation Cast Lead in Gaza from 27 December to 18 January has published its findings — some 574 pages worth of findings — today.
The Goldstone Commission report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva can be consulted in full here .
The UN said that “The Mission found the Government of Israel had not carried out any credible investigations into alleged violations. It recommended that the UN Security Council require Israel to report to it, within six months, on investigations and prosecutions it should carry out with regard to the violations identified in its Report. The Mission further recommends that the Security Council set up a body of independent experts to report to it on the progress of the Israeli investigations and prosecutions. If the experts’ reports do not indicate within six months that good faith, independent proceedings are taking place, the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the ICC Prosecutor. The Mission recommends that the same independent expert body also report to the Security Council on proceedings undertaken by the relevant Gaza authorities with regard to crimes committed by the Palestinian side. As in the case of Israel, if within six months there are no good faith independent proceedings conforming to international standards in place, the Council should refer the situation to the ICC Prosecutor”.
According to the UN, among the findings are: “Seven incidents concerning ‘the shooting of civilians while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags and, in some of the cases, following an injunction from the Israeli forces to do so’ ”
“The Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the Israeli military operation, code-named ‘Operation Cast Lead’, houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings were destroyed. Families are still living amid the rubble of their former homes long after the attacks ended, as reconstruction has been impossible due to the continuing blockade. More than 1,400 people were killed during the military operation. Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been suffered by the population of Gaza … The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population. The destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy which has made the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population. The Report states that Israeli acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, that limit their rights to access a court of law and an effective remedy, could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been committed … [I]n most of the incidents investigated by it, and described in the report, loss of life and destruction caused by Israeli forces during the military operation was a result of disrespect for the fundamental principle of ‘distinction’ in international humanitarian law that requires military forces to distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects at all times. The report states that ‘Taking into account the ability to plan, the means to execute plans with the most developed technology available, and statements by the Israeli military that almost no errors occurred, the Mission finds that the incidents and patterns of events considered in the report are the result of deliberate planning and policy decisions’.”
And, the Fact-Finding Mission also found that “the repeated acts of firing rockets and mortars into Southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups ‘constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity’, by failing to distinguish between military targets and the civilian population. ‘The launching of rockets and mortars which cannot be aimed with sufficient precisions at military targets breaches the fundamental principle of distinction’, the report says. ‘Where there is no intended military target and the rockets and mortars are launched into civilian areas, they constitute a deliberate attack against the civilian population’. The Mission concludes that the rocket and mortars attacks ‘have caused terror in the affected communities of southern Israel’, as well as ‘loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians and damage to private houses, religious buildings and property, thereby eroding the economic and cultural life of the affected communities and severely affecting the economic and social rights of the population’.”
The Mission urges the Palestinian armed groups holding the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to release him on humanitarian grounds, and, pending his release, give him the full rights accorded to a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions including visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Report also covers violations arising from Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, including excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators, sometimes resulting in deaths, increased closures, restriction of movement and house demolitions. The detention of Palestinian Legislative Council members, the Report says, effectively paralyzed political life in the OPT. The Mission found that through activities such as the interrogation of political activists and repression of criticism of its military actions, the Israeli Government contributed significantly to a political climate in which dissent was not tolerated.
The Report also notes serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial executions of Palestinians, by the authorities in Gaza and by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The prolonged situation of impunity has created a justice crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action, the Report says.
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Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera, who headed Amnesty International’s investigation into the conflict in Israel and Gaza.said after the Goldstone report’s release today that “The UN Human Rights Council should endorse the report and its recommendations and request the UN Secretary-General to refer it to the UN Security Council … [T]he UN Secretary-General [should also act] to refer the report to the UN Security Council without delay … The UN Security Council and other UN bodies must now take the steps necessary to ensure that the victims receive the justice and reparation that is their due and that perpetrators don’t get away with murder … The Security Council must refer the Goldstone findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor if Israel and Hamas do not carry out credible investigations within a set, limited period”. The Amnesty International statement said that “both Israel and Hamas have failed to carry out credible investigations and prosecute those responsible. The UN Security Council condemned attacks against civilians during the conflict and urged both sides to respect international law, but so far it has turned a blind eye to the allegations of war crimes and other grave violations committed by both side … The responsibility now lies with the international community, notably the UN Security Council, as the UN’s most powerful body, to take decisive action to ensure accountability for the perpetrators and justice for the victims”.
And, Amnesty International also asked “the UN General Assembly to request the UN Security Council to report to it on measures taken by the parties to ensure accountability for serious violations of international law, and establish a fund to pay appropriate compensation to victims on both sides who suffered loss or damage as a result of unlawful acts”.
The Amnesty International statement added that “The report’s findings are consistent with those of Amnesty International’s own field investigation into the 22-day conflict from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, during which some 1,400 Palestinians and nine Israelis were killed. Most of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces were unarmed civilians, including some 300 children. Palestinian rocket attacks killed three Israeli civilians and six soldiers (four other soldiers were killed by their own side in “friendly fire” incidents). Israeli forces also carried out wanton and wholesale destruction in Gaza , leaving entire neighbourhoods in ruin, and used Palestinians as human shields.
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Israeli human rights organizations called upon the Israeli Government “to take the report seriously and to refrain from automatically rejecting its findings or denying its legitimacy”. They said that they “expect the Government of Israel to respond to the substance of the report’s findings and to desist from its current policy of casting doubt upon the credibility of anyone who does not adhere to the establishment’s narrative”.
The Israeli groups who signed this statement are: Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Adalah, Bimkom, B’Tselem, Gisha, HaMoked, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Yesh Din. They noted that they already wrote “to Israel’s Attorney General to demand that he establish such an independent body to investigate the military’s activities during ‘Cast Lead’, but he rejected their request”.
And they stated that “Human rights organizations in Israel believe that the State of Israel must conduct an independent and impartial investigation into these suspicions and to cooperate with an international monitoring mechanism that would guarantee both the independence of that investigation and the implementation of its conclusions”.
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The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, in a statement broadcast this evening on Palestinian TV , called the Goldstone report a “farce”.
Haaretz reported that “Israel has opened an international campaign to protest a United Nations report which ruled it committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during its offensive on the Gaza Strip earlier this year. The report, compiled by a commission headed by former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, accuses both Israel and the Palestinians of actions amounting to war crimes during the December 27-January 18 battle in the Hamas-ruled territory. The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Israel was “appalled and disappointed” by the damning report. ‘The UN body has dealt a huge blow to governments seeking to defend their citizens from terror'” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. In particular, said Palmor, the commission’s equation of Hamas to Israel in its 600 page report was ‘appalling and disappointing’.” [In fact, the report did not equate Hamas to Israel.]
Haaretz also reported that “Palmor said the report’s conclusions were ‘so disconnected with realities on ground that one cannot but wonder on which planet was the Gaza Strip they visited’.” One could also wonder when Palmor last visited Gaza.
According to Haaretz, “President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are expected to appeal to foreign leaders starting on Wednesday for support on the matter … The Israeli campaign is aimed at preventing a discussion on the report in the United Nations Security Council … ‘This is going to be a long legal and diplomatic operation’, said a senior Israel official familiar with the report. ‘We’ll get our friends across the world active, especially the United States, to prevent the isolation of Israel’. Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, said on Tuesday that “We knew the report would be biased and one-sided, but did not anticipate that it would be so harsh”. The Haaretz report can be read in full
here.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry (MFA) added, in an email sent on Tuesday, that “To date, the IDF has opened investigations into over 100 allegations regarding the conduct of its forces during the Gaza Operation. While most of these investigations were closed because the allegations were found baseless, 23 criminal investigations were opened and are still pending”.
In a separate item sent in the same email, the Israeli MFA stated that Israel is committed to ensuring that its forces act in accordance with international law, and the rules of armed conflict form part of the training of every soldier. In case of any allegations that these principles have not been upheld, Israel is committed to fully investigating and prosecuting offenders. Additionally, any decision not to investigate or prosecute an alleged offence can be appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court.
Following the conclusion of the military operation in Gaza, “Israel initiated a series of far reaching command investigations into various aspects of the conflict, as well as many dozens of specific investigations into particular allegations of improper conduct by soldiers. In the past, such investigations have led to criminal prosecutions and convictions, and in this case a number of criminal prosecutions regarding wrongdoings are already in process”.