Ban Ki Moon’s call to Probe Israeli War Crimes in Gaza – By: Latheef Farook

Ban Ki Moon’s call to Probe Israeli War Crimes in Gaza.
Why not implement two UN reports gathering dust in UN shelves.

By: Latheef Farook Courtesy Latheef Farook

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call on Wednesday 6 August 2014 to investigate Israel’s violations of international law during its ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip made UN a mockery. This call is yet another move by the UN which has become US-European powers’ cheap tool to implement their evil designs on Muslims worldwide, to hoodwink the world.

Already there are two reports prepared by UN teams clearly stating that Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during its 2008/2009 military strikes on Palestinians in Gaza.

These reports were gathering dusts in the UN shelves

Now the question is why not implement these two reports and bring the UN’s most condemned entity Israel ,the monster created by the UN in violation of the very UN charter   and all legal principals and  moral values, to book.

For example, between December 27th 2008 and January 18th Israel, using the most sophisticated and most destructive fighter planes and weapons supplied by United States attacked starving Palestinians in Gaza which was virtually turned into a slaughterhouse.

During the 22 days of its carnage  Israel killed 1,334  Palestinians  one-third of them children ,injured 5,450 injured, one-third of them children,dispalced 100,000 displaced, made homeless 50,000 ,destroyed 4,100 residential homes and buildings  , damaged 17,000 damaged (together accounting for 14 percent of all buildings in Gaza),destroyed 29 destroyed educational institutions, including the American International School, destroyed or damaged 92 mosques,1,500 destroyed shops, factories and other commercial facilities,20  ambulances, ruined 35-60% of agricultural land  and caused an estimated damage of  $1.9 billion in total gaza destestimated damages.

The destruction was suspended only in time for President elect Barack Obama to take his oaths as the new President of the United States.

The United Nations prepared two reports on the violation of international laws and human rights committed by Israel during this invasion   .First one was a 34 page report by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay while the second one was by South African jurist Richard Goldstone who presented his report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in mid September 2009.

In the first  report  Navi Pillay lambasted the “nearly total impunity” for the violations.  In her report Navi Pillay added that” there is significant evidence that Israeli forces violated international law and human rights. The already critical human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory deteriorated further during the war.”

She said that…significant prima facie evidence indicates that serious violations of international humanitarian law as well as gross human rights violations occurred during the military operations,   compounded by the blockade that the population of Gaza endured in the months prior to Operation Cast Lead and which continues”.

These violations included arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, extrajudicial execution, forced eviction and home demolition, settlement expansion and related violence and restrictions on freedom of movement and expression.

The UN also appointed a Fact-Finding Mission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone which concluded in its report that there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law   and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.

gaza damage2-001A press release issued in New York and Geneva on 15 September 2009 stated that the UN Fact Finding Mission finds strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza conflict; called for end to impunity.

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.

The report concluded 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 prolonged situation of impunity has created a justice crisis in the Occupied Palestinian

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

However the United States which preaches human rights to the world while violating not only human rights and international laws but all accepted norms of human values, rejected the UN Fact Missions’ report to please the Jewish state knowing very well that this move would win the wrath of the blackmailed and silenced world enlightened of US-Israeli designs.

Meanwhile it was reported that the Obama administration will not allow the Goldstone report recommendations on Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war to reach the International Criminal Court.

The report also said that the Obama administration is ready to use the U.S. veto at the U.N. Security Council to deal with anyburngaza other “difficulties” arising out of the report and made clear to the Palestinian Authority that Washington is not pleased with a P.A. petition to bring the report’s allegations against Israel to the International Criminal Court.

Palestine Authority President Mahmud Abbas was to take up the issue with the International Criminal court.

However Mahmud Abbas, a stooge of Israel and the west, failed to take up the issue with ICC, sold and betrayed the Palestinians and saved Israeli war mongers. Of course he was rewarded well for this treachery.

Despite all these crime records, defying the world as it has always done, Israel invaded Gaza once again in 2012 and killed more than 600 people besides   destruction to infrastructure.

Now comes the ongoing massacre killing  1901 as  at  10 August, 73  percent of them were children besides destroying the infrastructure depriving water, food and medicine and the  destruction of residential and commercial buildings.

Israel can do this because it knows   that their stooge, President Barack Obama, installed in the White House by the Zionist Jews, will defend   at any cost. This is what President Obama did from the very beginning of the current carnage.

His repeated policy was Israel has the right to defend itself from the Palestinians in Gaza. Obama   also provided weapons to continue to slaughter innocent Palestinian men, women, children and the aged.

Certainly this very same Obama and his partners in crime in Europe are not going to allow UN   to punish the fascist state of Israel and thus the carnage is expected to continue with Arab dictators led by Saudi Arabia collaborating with Israel.

Under such circumstance Ban Kimoon’s call for an inquiry is nothing but eye wash.