Israeli war crimes on Palestinians UN ignored its own reports and resolutions? By Latheef Farook

Why does the United Nations remains silent on its own report on Israeli war crimes   on dehumanized and starving Palestinians in Gaza? Where are United States and its UNHCR resolution on Israeli war crimes?

These are questions no one dare ask. Raising such questions means paying heavy price- be it UNHRC Commissioner Navi Pillay, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon or even US President Barack Obama-as former US President Bill Clinton paid his price in the form of Monica Lewinsky scandal when he confronted the Jews during his so called peace talks between Palestinians and Israel.

Under such circumstance no one wanted to confront the mafia style Jewish lobbies which rule the US, Britain, France and other European countries. Perhaps this is the reason why President Obama asked UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon to ignore the report to please his Jewish masters.

On 27 December 2008, Israel, using its most sophisticated and destructive fighter planes and weapons supplied by US, started its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, which was 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 including children, displaced 100,000 , made homeless 50,000 , destroyed 4,100 residential homes and buildings   ,  damaged 17,000 building  (  accounting for 14 percent of all buildings in Gaza),destroyed 29  educational institutions including the American International School, destroyed or damaged 92 mosques, destroyed 1,500  shops, factories and other commercial facilities, 20 ambulances, ruined 35-60% of agricultural land and caused an estimated damage of  $1.9 billion  .

 

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 UN prepared two reports on Israeli war crimes on Gaza between December 27th 2008 to January 18th 2009.First one was by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay while the second was by South African jurist Richard Goldstone who presented his report in mid September 2009.

In her report  UNHRC Commissioner Navi Pillay, lambasting the "nearly total impunity" for the violations, stated that” there is significant evidence that Israeli forces violated international law and human rights in their invasion of Gaza compounded by the blockade that the population of Gaza endured  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."While these violations are of deep concern in their own right, the nearly total impunity that persists for such violations (regardless of the responsible duty bearer) is of grave concern, and constitutes a root cause for their persistence," Navi Pillay   said. 

These observations were reiterated by yet another UN Fact-Finding Mission report which concluded that Israel committed “war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity”. The members of the Fact Finding Mission included Justice Richard Goldstone, Head of Mission; former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.   

The report, called Goldstone report   concluded that the Israeli military strikes 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.    

According to the report “Israel deprived Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, denied their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, and limited their rights to access a court of law and an effective remedy. All these acts could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been committed”.  

Jurist Richard Goldstone: (third from left) and his team.

The Mission 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. 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 International Criminal Court ,ICC, Prosecutor.

However, to the shock of the international community, the United States which preaches human rights to the world while committing worst type of crimes against humanity rejected the UN Missions’ report to please the Jewish state. Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, rejected the Fact Finding Mission’s proposal to compel Israel and Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip, to conduct credible investigations into war crimes or face possible prosecution by an international prosecutor.  

Another report stated that the Obama administration will not allow the Goldstone report to reach the International Criminal Court and was ready to use the U.S. veto at the U.N. Security Council to block such a move .They also made clear to the Palestinian Authority that Washington was not pleased with its petition to bring the report's allegations against Israel to the ICC.

Summing up the situation courageous Israeli journalist Gideon  said in the Israeli daily   in Haaretz:” it was an unrestrained assault, another Sabra -Chatilla- on a besieged, totally unprotected civilian population which showed almost no signs of resistance during this operation”.

It’s not so easy to dismiss these findings. For one thing, the report is carefully documented and comprehensive, and is based on field visits, public hearings, almost 200 individual interviews, photos, videos, satellite imagery and a review of more than 300 other reports. For another, its head, Goldstone, is one of the most respected and experienced international jurists. In fact Goldstone himself Jewish and, according to his daughter, is a “Zionist, loves Israel and serves on the Board of Governors of Hebrew University, "I know that if he thought what he did would not somehow be for the sake of peace for everyone in Israel or that it would have hindered such efforts, he would not have accepted the job."  

In yet another article under the title “Israel-Increasingly becoming an international pariah” Juan Cole wrote” Amnesty International   endorsed and defended the conclusions of the report, and Human Rights Watch also been a supporter of Justice Goldstone. Even the British House of Lords debate on this issue displayed a determination that there be no double standard and that Israel be held accountable for any crimes it committed— likewise Hamas.   

On September 25, 2009 the Human Rights Watch urged the European Union to endorse the Goldstone report and "promote an international order where no state is above the law" and asked them to support a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council endorsing the Goldstone report "in its totality."  

 While the international community was trying to bring Israel to book in a   disgraceful move typical of Palestine Authority Mahmoud Abbas helped Israel bury its crimes in Gaza and sold the  suffering and helpless Palestinians whom he claim to represent. In this regard Ali Abunimah, had this to state in the Electronic Intifada, on 2 October 2009;

The Abbas delegation to the United Nations in Geneva (officially representing the moribund Palestine Liberation Organization) sunk to the lowest ebb when it abandoned a resolution requesting the Human Rights Council to forward Judge Richard Goldstone's report on war crimes in Gaza to the UN Security Council for further action. Although the PA acted under US pressure, there are strong indications that the commercial interests of Palestinian and Gulf businessmen closely linked to Abbas also played a part.

The PA's betrayal of the Palestinian people over the Goldstone report, as well as its continued "security coordination" with Israel to suppress resistance and political activity in the West Bank, should banish all doubt that it is an active arm of the Israeli occupation doing tangible and escalating harm to the Palestinian people and their just cause.

As a result Goldstone report is gathering dust today in UN shelves and no one talks about war crimes of Israel which is preparing for its next bloodbath in Iran. Since their advent in Palestine in the early 1930s Zionist Jews committed massacres and genocides on Palestinians starting from Deir Yassin to Gaza carnage.   The UN has passed numerous resolutions accusing Israel of war crimes. All these resolutions were vetoed by US.

Up to date no action taken , leave alone a UNHRC resolution  , to deal with Israel –an entity established in the plundered Palestinians lands by means of violence, lawlessness, deceit  and destruction. Instead, the shameful state of affairs is such that Israeli President Shimon Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both soaked in Palestinian blood, lectured the gullible Americans last week of the need to destroy Iran under their design to rule the Middle East and the world.

This is international justice?  Peace will remain a mirage so long Zionist, US and European war mongers remain at the helm deciding the destiny of the world.