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The UN Fact Finding Mission
on the Gaza Conflict, better known as the “Goldstone
Report,†was presented to the UN Human Rights Council on
Tuesday, September 29. The report recommends that the Security Council pass
the issue to the International Criminal Court if Israel and Hamas do not
make “good faith†efforts to investigate
the allegations within six months.
We have learned that The Palestinian Authority has
dropped its draft resolution before the UN Human Rights Council, in effect
deferring the report until March of 2010. The PA has done this under
intense pressure from the Obama administration (1) and economic blackmail
by Israel (2).
JVP supports the Goldstone Report recommendations
as well as the overall thrust of the document and deplores its deferral
until next year.
It is true that the Goldstone Report is not
perfect, especially because Israel refused to participate in the
investigation. It is also true that the UN’s Human Rights Council
unfairly targets Israel and tends to overlook the human rights violations
of other countries.
JVP believes it is a well-researched, fair-minded
report. It accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes
against humanity, while rightfully placing greater emphasis on Israeli
violations of international law, especially regarding the killing of
civilians.
Further, it confirms numerous previously published
reports by highly regarded organizations including:
• Amnesty
International
• B’tselem
• Breaking the
Silence, whose report is comprised of testimonies of Israeli soldiers
who participated in the operation
• Human
Rights Watch
• Physicians
for Human Rights
The investigation was led by respected South
African jurist Richard Goldstone. He’s a former member of the
South African Constitutional Court and former Chief Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
He also happens to be Jewish and has strong ties to Israel, which, though
it should not be a requirement for the position, certainly adds an
important dimension to the increasingly hysterical charges of bias and
Jew-hatred.
Finally, we at JVP are deeply angered by the Obama
Administration, which is working in tandem with the Israeli government to
de-legitimize the findings of the report. Rather than focusing on the
many violations of law, emphasis is being placed on the alleged faulty
methodology of the report and the objectivity of the reporters.
The US pressure seems to indicate that the Obama
Administration’s approach to Israel and Palestine does not
differ significantly from previous administrations, in that it reflexively
protects Israel’s interests, even in the face of violations
of international law. Given President Obama’s stated
goal to renew the peace process between Israel and Palestine, this position
on Goldstone undermines the U.S.’s ability to be an honest
broker in that process.
In addition, JVP is saddened by the response to
the Goldstone Report by many American Jewish leaders. However Rabbi
Brant Rosen, writing in the Chicago Tribune, said just before Yom Kippur,
“Rather
than jointly consider Israel's acts in Gaza, carry out real cheshbon nefesh
(moral accounting), and accept our communal responsibility, it has proven
easier for many of us to employ communal defense mechanisms, and insist
that in this particular case, there's no need for reflection.
Since the report's publication, the UN and commission chair Judge Richard
Goldstone have been vilified and disparaged, by both the Israeli government
and American Jewish leaders. There has been little consideration of the
actual findings, or the fact that Israel refused to cooperate with the
commission, or conduct its own investigation.
As a rabbi, this grieves me deeply. For, painful as it is for us to admit,
Israel's behavior in Gaza has consistently betrayed our shared Jewish
ethical legacy.
This was true before the war, when the Israeli blockade denied Palestinians
basic necessities; it was true during the war, when Israel responded with
disproportionate force to Hamas rockets; and it has been true since the
war.†(3)
JVP strongly urges that the Goldstone Report
findings be taken with all the serious consideration it merits, and that
its recommendations be implemented.
(1) Ravid, Barak, “Source:
Palestinians drop endorsement of Goldstone report†Haaretz, October 2,
2009, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118235.html
and Guttman, Nathan, “Israel, US, Work to Limit Damage of
Goldstone Report†Haaretz, September 27, 2009, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1117314.html
(2) Lynfield, Ben, “Israel Threatens
Palestinian Phone Service Over War Crimes Claims†the Independent October
1, 2009,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/israel-threatens-palestin_n_306748.html
(3) Rosen, Brant, “A Call to Moral
Accounting†September 27th, The Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0927mideastsep27,0,654462.story
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