"Israel 'very unlikely' to cooperate with UN war crimes probe"

Israel is "very unlikely" to cooperate with a UN agency's probe into whether Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the recent Gaza war, a[n Israeli] government official said Wednesday.

Hamas, meanwhile, said it is ready to work with the investigators, to be led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who served as chief UN prosecutor of war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Read the full article in Haaretz. Unsurprisingly, Israel again hopes it can get away with impunity. Blood doesn't wash off that easily, though, and the war criminals behind the 2009 Gaza massacre must be brought to justice.

Professor John Dugard on Apartheid, Occupation and International Law

"Professor [John] Dugard is a member of the Institut de Droit International. Since 1997, he has been a member of the U.N. International Law Commission and was, from 2000 to 2006, the Special Rapporteur on Diplomatic Protection to the Commission. From 2002 to 2008, he was a judge ad hoc in the International Court of Justice. From 2001 to 2008, Dugard served as Special Rapporteur to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. His present principal interests are international criminal law and diplomatic protection."

Via: KABOBfest, Palestine Center
Blogs: Kristen Vänster, PGS, Esbati, Utrikesperspektiv, Sommelius
Newslinks: AB, Barometern

UN Special Rapporteur Falk: attack on Gaza "was not legally justified given the circumstances and diplomatic alternatives available"

Article in Jerusalem Post. Some excerpts;

"UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk charged Tuesday that Israel's military incursion into Gaza "was not legally justified given the circumstances and diplomatic alternatives available, and was potentially a crime against peace."

He made the comment as he presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, claiming that the IDF's 22-day operation in January appeared to be "a war crime of the greatest magnitude."

Falk argued further that Palestinian rocket fire into Israel had been mostly a retaliatory act."

"The level of destruction, he said, went well beyond anything that could be characterized as a mistake.

"It is not a matter of mistakes and fallibility but rather a massive assault on a densely populated urbanized setting where the defining reality could not but subject the entire civilian population to an inhuman form of warfare that kills, maims and inflicts mental harm," said Falk.

Israel could have protected its civilian population by extending a cease-fire with Hamas that expired in December rather than attacking innocent people in Gaza, Falk said.

While Israel has repeatedly argued that Palestinian rocket attacks were unprovoked, Falk claimed that in the six months that proceeded Operation Cast Lead, it was largely Israel that had failed to observe the cease-fire and it was Hamas which had retaliated.

From 2000 to 2008, he said, in 79 percent of violent flare-ups between the IDF and Palestinians in Gaza, it was Israel that had broken the calm with an act of violence.

The cease-fire, in the second half of 2008, he said, broke down when Israel killed a Palestinian in Gaza on November 4. This was followed by mortar fire in retaliation. An IDF air strike was then launched that killed an additional six Palestinians.

"The breakdown of the cease-fire seems to have been mainly a result of Israeli violations, although this offers no legal, moral or political excuse for firing of rockets aimed at civilian targets," said Falk.

Hamas, he said, would have been ready to extend the cease-fire if Israel had reopened its borders.

Falk said Israel had violated the Fourth Geneva Convention, which regulated the actions of an occupying power and rejected Israel contention that since it withdrew from Gaza it was no longer bound by those laws.

Israel is obligated to that convention given that it controls the Gaza borders, including the sea and airspace, said Falk.

"By imposing a blockade since the summer of 2007, it has profoundly affected the life and well being of every single person in Gaza," said Falk."

See also: PFLP comments on Falk's report (in Arabic)
Newslinks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

'IDF used Gaza boy as human shield'

Article in Jerusalem Post. Some excerpts;

"IDF soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield during the Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza, a group of UN human rights experts said Monday.

The army ordered the boy to walk in front of soldiers being fired on in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa and enter buildings before them, said the UN secretary-general's envoy for protecting children in armed conflict."

""Violations were reported on a daily basis, too numerous to list," said Coomaraswamy.

Coomaraswamy, who visited Gaza and Israel for five days in February, said her list constituted "just a few examples of the hundreds of incidents that have been documented and verified" by UN officials who were in the territory."

"These atrocities are mediaeval carnage in modern times" - Bangladesh speaks out against Israeli aggression at U.N. session in Geneva

Whilst EU and USA keep propping up Israel in the midst of on-going war crimes, new Bangladeshi government has continued on the line of sharply condemning the Israeli assault on the Gaza strip. Bangladesh has dubbed the aggression as a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian laws.

Bangladesh sponsored a special Human Rights Council (HRC) on January 9, 2009, along with the OIC, Non-Aligned Movement and Arab groups, to discuss the developments in occupied Palestine. At the session the Bangladeshi ambassador at the U.N. in Geneva, Debapriya Bhattacharya, said that "These atrocities are mediaeval carnage in modern times", referring to the conduct of Israel.

Bhattacharya demanded that the parties immediately implement the resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council. The Bangladeshi government has also called on Israel to stop its interference with deliveries of humanitarian supplies.

Source: Daily Star