Of terrorists and “peace activists”
A pro-Palestinian “peace activist” comes up against the harsh reality of life — and death — in Gaza:
Hamas found the body Friday of a pro-Palestinian Italian activist who was killed by al Qaeda sympathizers in the Gaza Strip, raising questions about the Islamist group’s control over the beleaguered enclave. Two men were arrested and others were being sought for the abduction and killing of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, who was found strangled in an abandoned house Friday, Hamas officials said.
Arrigoni was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which describes itself as “a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli apartheid in Palestine by using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles.” Hamas, which claims control over Gaza, expressed its sorrow at the murder: “[Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar] added that foreign activists like Arrigoni were ‘our friends’ and promised that the perpetrators would be punished.” The terrorist group even organized a rally to honor Arrigoni.
You would think that, given its stated commitment to nonviolence, the ISM would distance itself from Hamas. After all, like those who murdered Vittorio Arrigoni, Hamas routinely uses violence to achieve its ends. But on its website you won’t find the ISM spending much time disavowing Hamas’ terrorist tactics. (There’s plenty, however, on Israel’s “war crimes,” Israeli “apartheid,” and the “brutal” tactics of the Israeli military).
If it truly was interested in promoting nonviolence, the ISM would spend at least as much time challenging Hamas’ blatant disregard for human life — both Israeli and Palestinian — as it does attacking Israel. But don’t look for that to happen any time soon. For the ISM, giving Israel a bad name is full time work — and they’re willing to partner with anyone to get the job done.
Comments (3) »Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 11:54 AM | David Kuner
Goldstone reconsidered
The main author of the Goldstone Report, the controversial United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict report that accused both Palestinian militants and Israeli forces of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead, has amended some of his findings. In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, Richard Goldstone offered new information and insights into his original 2009 report, which accused Israel of using disproportionate force, deliberately targeting civilians, and using people as human shields:
Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and “possibly crimes against humanity” by both Israel and Hamas. That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.
The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.
In the op-ed, Goldstone seems intent on shifting the blame for the report’s errors from the authors and onto Israel (for instance, he repeatedly cites “Israel’s lack of cooperation with our investigation” as one of the sources of the misinformation in the report). But while Goldstone’s piece could have been stronger overall, a public reversal like this is significant, and should – hopefully – take at least one weapon from the arsenal of Israel’s critics.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials have launched an international campaign to push the U.N. to repeal the original report.
Comments (33) »Monday, April 4th, 2011 at 10:59 AM | David Kuner
Israel releases counter-report on Gaza
After conducting its own investigation into the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released a report this month detailing its findings in an explicit side-by-side comparison to the U.N. Goldstone Report.
The report finds “four basic flaws” in the Goldstone Report: It does not deal with Hamas’ ideology; it minimizes the extent and gravity of the terrorist activity carried out against Israel from the Gaza Strip (for instance, it does not define rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians as a war crime); it does not deal with Hamas’ illegal military buildup in the Gaza Strip prior to the operation; and it ignores the aid Hamas (far from being isolated in the Gaza Strip) received from nearby terrorist states like Iran and Syria. Israel’s report delves into these facts, which were ignored by the Goldstone Report.
The report concludes that the two most serious flaws in the Goldstone Report are its “superficiality and reliance [on] information which is selective, biased, and sometimes fabricated, and in many instances was provided by Hamas.” In addition, the report explains, although “some of the information accessible to the authors of [Israel's] study was not available to the Goldstone Mission … the Mission systematically ignored vast amounts of available information which contradicted its central thesis or at least raised serious questions about its validity.”
The entire, well-documented report is available online here.
Comments (0) »Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 11:26 AM | Alicia M. Cohn
IDF charges two soldiers in Gaza breaches
Besides rampant inaccuracies and the fact that it didn’t really examine the actions of Hamas, one of the main reasons that supporters of Israel have been so critical of the Goldstone Report is that Israel already has military and civilian courts that are responsible for monitoring any misbehavior in the IDF.
In fact, the IDF itself investigated 36 cases of possible misbehavior among its troops during last year’s Operation Cast Lead, the incursion into Hamas-controlled Gaza to stop rocketfire targeting Israeli civilians. Most have been investigated and dismissed, but, last week, IDF investigators moved forward in charging two soldiers with the horrific act of using a 9-year-old boy as a human shield.
The two soldiers, staff sargeants from the prestigious Givati brigade, had the boy open sacks they thought might be booby-trapped with explosives. (The bags, thankfully, turned out to be harmless.)
Haaretz reported that the soldiers, “who breached the army’s rule against using civilians as human shields during war, will be tried for violating their authority and for inappropriate conduct. An Israeli military official said the soldiers could face up to three years in jail.”
Two other Givati soldiers have already been charged with using a credit card they found during the siege.
Yediot Aharonot reports:
More than 30 probes have been launched against soldiers since the Gaza offensive ended in the beginning of 2009. Half of the cases have been closed by the military prosecution, while the other half are nearing their termination and await a decision on whether indictments will be filed.
A special team led by Lieutenant-Colonel Gil Maoz, who heads the military police’s southern district, is conducting investigations into claims regarding unlawful fire, injuring and endangering of innocent civilians, and disobeying orders.
Dozens of officers and soldiers have been summoned to give testimony or receive warning at the military police’s headquarters in recent months, some of them already having been discharged from the IDF.
A military official said the testimonies had revealed other infractions, some committed by commanders. “In places where the incident exceeds the boundaries of reason we will file indictments,” he said.
“But we can clearly…
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 1:27 PM | Stand For Israel
Palestinian Win at the U.N. Friday
The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution Friday supporting more investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel in last year’s Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza strip. The resolution solidifies the U.N. acceptance of accusations made against Israel by the Goldstone Report last year.
The biased resolution, known as the “Arab resolution,” which was drafted by Palestinians and consponsored by more than 20 Islamic countries, essentially mandates an ongoing further “independent” investigation into Israel’s operation in Gaza. However, the last independent investigation–last year’s Goldstone Report–has been criticized by Israel and her allies as biased. The report has also been questioned by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Prior to the U.N. vote this week, more than 90 members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter to Clinton which expressed concern that the Goldstone Report was being used “as a tool to delegitimize Israel and sabotage the peace process.”
The report, written by Judge Richard Goldstone, a former chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals, condemned Israel for the use of “disproportionate force” and committing “numerous serious violations of international law.” It included some criticism of the Palestinian role in the conflict, which the draft adopted by the U.N. Human Rights Council in October did not include, choosing to focus on blaming Israel instead.
In September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly addressed the allegations made by the Goldstone Report when he addressed the U.N. General Assembly, calling it a “perversion of truth.
“Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy’s civilian population from harm’s way,” he said, defending Israel’s actions in Gaza. “We dropped countless flyers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave.”
Netanyahu eloquently presented the evidence of Israel’s innocence before the U.N. body, but it seems the U.N. body was not listening. The resolution calls for yet another report within five months.
98 nations voted in favor of the resolution, seven against, 31 abstained, and 56 nations did not participate. U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff voted against the resolution, the Washington Post reported…
Comments (0) »Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 11:28 AM | Alicia M. Cohn
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