<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Goldstone’s Backtrack: Some points to&nbsp;remember]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p class="headline_meta">by <span class="author vcard fn">Tom Pessah</span> on <abbr class="published" title="2011-04-02">April 2, 2011 | Mondoweiss<br />
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<p>Justice Goldstone, author of the famous report on the 2009 attack on Gaza, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html">published an op-ed today</a> in which he seemed to be retracting some of his claims. He wrote  that &#8220;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&#8221;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html" target="_blank"><br />
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<p>This claim was immediately picked up by Israel&#8217;s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who sees it as making it &#8220;<a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4051053,00.html">clear that IDF is a moral army</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>It is important to respond to these claims for several reasons:  because they are false and misleading, and because they serve to  buttress many Israelis&#8217; self-image of being morally superior to  Palestinians, since all Israeli violence towards civilians is supposedly  accidental. Portraying such attacks as accidental is also linked to  seeing them as inevitable, and therefore justified &#8211; which means they  can happen again.</p>
<p><span id="more-40036"> </span>Mondoweiss’ Adam Horowitz has <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2011/04/goldstone-op-ed-praises-israeli-investigation-of-gaza-war-crimes-but-un-committee-paints-a-different-picture.html">already responded</a> to this, but here are some more points to keep in mind in regard to the 2009 Israeli war crimes in Gaza.</p>
<p>1. They were very well documented by a variety of sources. <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/03/25/israel-white-phosphorus-use-evidence-war-crimes">Human Rights Watch wrote</a> that &#8220;First, the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus in  populated areas until the last days of the operation reveals a pattern  or policy of conduct rather than incidental or accidental usage. Second,  the IDF was well aware of the effects of white phosphorus and the  dangers it poses to civilians. Third, the IDF failed to use safer  available alternatives for smokescreens.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8151336.stm">Breaking the Silence testimonies</a> show that &#8220;Fire power was insane. We went in and the booms were just  mad. The minute we got to our starting line, we simply began to fire at  suspect places. You see a house, a window, shoot at the window. You  don&#8217;t see a terrorist there? Fire at the window. In urban warfare,  anyone is your enemy. No innocents.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and others, <a href="http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=2863%3Awar-crimes-against-children-pchr-investigation-into-palestinian-children-killed-by-israeli-forces-in-the-gaza-strip-27-dec-2008-18-jan-2009&amp;catid=47%3Aspecial-reports&amp;Itemid=191">collected many testimonies</a> of attacks on civilians. For example:</p>
<blockquote><p>The al-Helu family had been told to evacuate their house in Zaytoun,  eastern Gaza, but while they were attempting to flee, Israeli soldiers  opened fire on them. Farah was shot in the stomach and bled to death two  hours later</p></blockquote>
<p>2. As Adam <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2011/04/goldstone-op-ed-praises-israeli-investigation-of-gaza-war-crimes-but-un-committee-paints-a-different-picture.html#more-40004">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The U.N. committee of independent experts (led by former New York  judge Mary McGowan Davis) which was charged with following the Israeli  and Palestinian investigations following the Goldstone report [&#8230;]  point to Israel&#8217;s unwillingness, and in fact inability, to investigate  the policies of the Israeli military as the greatest fault of the  Israeli investigation to this point&#8230; The experts&#8217; report also  addresses the structural reason the Israeli investigation has failed to  look into military policy. Evidently the Israeli office responsible for  investigating the question of crimes committed in Gaza is the same  office that would be responsible for providing legal counsel to the  Israeli military&#8217;s Chief of Staff and other military authorities. So  basically, office that would accusing the military of committing crimes  is the same one that would be defending them from the same charges.</p></blockquote>
<p>As a result, few officers have been charged in relation to crimes  committed.  An internal IDF investigation found two officers responsible  for dropping phosphorus bombs on civilians, and all they got was <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7010851.ece">a little reprimand in their personal files</a>.</p>
<p>On the other hand, an <a href="http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=201148">anti-war activist was given three months in jail</a> for riding his bicycle too slowly at a protest.</p>
<p>3. The claim that there was no policy behind this stems from a poor  understanding of civilian-military relations in Israel. The details of  policy are often not set by the government, but they give army officers  leeway to set these policies, and then don&#8217;t take any significant steps  to punish them for causing human rights violations. For example, the  1982 invasion of Lebanon was supposed to end, according to the  government&#8217;s decision, 40 kilometers north of the border. The army  initiated a full invasion, and no one was ever reprimanded for this  discrepancy. In 2000, some government ministers wanted to limit the use  of force against Palestinian protestors at the beginning of the second  Intifada, while the army shot an estimated million bullets (as can be  seen in the excellent Israeli documentary &#8220;a Million Bullets in  October,&#8221; available on Youtube). In 2006 the Chief of Staff asked the  government for permission to attack Lebanese infrastructure and was  refused (see Shelah&#8217;s and Limor&#8217;s book on that war)- but  infrastructure was attacked nonetheless. And so it was in Gaza: as I  mentioned an internal IDF investigation found <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7010851.ece">two officers responsible for dropping phosphorus bombs on civilians</a>, and all they got was a little reprimand in their personal files.</p>
<p>The background for such actions was ongoing incitement to attack civilians &#8211;  Deputy Defense secretary Vilnai&#8217;s threat to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/29/israelandthepalestinians1">bring a &#8220;Shoah&#8221; on Gaza</a> or the <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/israeli-army-rabbi-gave-out-hate-leaflet-to-troops-entering-gaza-14159082.html">hate leaflets distributed to soldiers</a> entering the Strip &#8211; and many more examples.</p>
<p>4. It is true that the army is taking criticism of its actions more  seriously than after the attack on Lebanon in 2006. This can only be  explained as a direct result of international pressure, which hopefully  could prevent some loss of civilian life in the future. In other words,  instead of praising the army&#8217;s liberality, Goldstone should be praising  the international community of activists for successfully putting  pressure on the army to investigate its own actions..</p>
<p>5. Don&#8217;t, don&#8217;t, don&#8217;t, don&#8217;t believe the hype. <a href="http://youtu.be/9vQaVIoEjOM">Don&#8217;t believe the hype</a>.</p>
<p><em>Tom Pessah is a graduate sociology student at UC Berkeley.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2011/04/goldstone%e2%80%99s-backtrack-some-points-to-remember.html">Source</a></p>
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<h3>Related</h3>
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