Madam, – It is disturbing but unsurprising that the Israeli ambassador (September 21st) chooses to denounce the UN’s comprehensive Goldstone Report into the Gaza conflict last December and January as “outrageous”. Rather than being “one-sided and prejudicial”, as the ambassador claims, the report concludes that both Israeli armed forces and Palestinian groups were guilty of war crimes.
The UN-mandated independent fact-finding mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone records that some 1,400 Palestinians and nine Israelis were killed during the 22-day conflict. The ambassador claims that Israel acted only in defence of its citizens during that conflict. However the report finds that most of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces were unarmed civilians, including some 300 children.
These findings are supported by reports from Human Rights Watch and also an investigation by Amnesty International last January, which began even before the conflict ended. The Israeli government refused to co-operate with Amnesty’s investigation, which found evidence of deplorable human rights abuses including Israeli forces using Palestinian civilians as human shields and instances of lethal and intentional attacks on civilians. Some of the Israeli attacks were launched with the intention of spreading terror among the civilian population and with no justifiable military objective.
Our report also supports Goldstone’s conclusion that Palestinian groups launched repeated attacks into civilian areas of southern Israel, which constituted deliberate attacks against civilians and thus war crimes.
In spite of repeated calls by Amnesty International and numerous other bodies for both sides to stop attacks on civilians, we have seen little progress from either party. This raises the fear that civilians will again bear the brunt if the conflict resumes.
Both sides have failed to carry out independent, credible investigations and prosecute those responsible for the atrocities of the conflict. Now the UN Human Rights Council must act immediately to implement the recommendations laid out by the Goldstone Report, which if put in place will offer the best hope to secure justice for victims. – Yours, etc,