<?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[Amnesty International:Israeli campaign to avoid accountability for Gaza war crimes must be&nbsp;rejected]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://jfjfp.com/?p=22587&amp;utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=amnesty-internationalisraeli-campaign-to-avoid-accountability-for-gaza-war-crimes-must-be-rejected"><img src='https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/amnesty_logo_gul.png' alt='' /></a><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL</strong> <strong>PUBLIC STATEMENT</strong></p>
<p>Index: MDE 15/023/2011, 5 April 2011</p>
<p><strong>Israeli campaign to avoid accountability for Gaza war crimes must be rejected </strong></p>
<p>Recent Israeli government calls for the UN to retract the 2009 report  of its Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict are a cynical attempt  to avoid accountability for war crimes and deny both Palestinian and  Israeli victims of the 2008-2009 conflict the justice and reparations  they deserve, Amnesty International said today.</p>
<p>Statements by leading Israeli politicians that Israel’s conduct in  the 22-day conflict in Gaza and southern Israel has been vindicated,  following the publication of a <em>Washington Post</em> opinion piece by  Justice Richard Goldstone on 1 April 2011, are based on a deliberate  misinterpretation of Justice Goldstone’s comments. The international  community must firmly reject these attempts to escape accountability and  act decisively for international justice, as it has done on Libya,  Sudan and other situations where war crimes and possible crimes against  humanity have been committed.</p>
<p>The UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, composed of Justice  Goldstone and three other eminent international jurists, examined  violations of international humanitarian and international human rights  law committed by all sides during the 2008-2009 conflict. Its September  2009 report echoed the findings documented by Amnesty International,  other human rights organizations and independent observers, and called  on the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to conduct credible,  independent investigations into alleged war crimes and possible crimes  against humanity within six months or face potential UN Security Council  referral to the International Criminal Court.</p>
<p>The report’s recommendations concerning potential international  justice mechanisms remain unimplemented more than 18 months later,  despite the fact that the Israeli authorities and Hamas de facto  administration have both failed to conduct investigations that are  prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, and effective, as required by  the UN General Assembly.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor  Lieberman, Defence Minister Ehud Barak, and other senior Israeli  politicians have seized on Justice Goldstone’s new statement that the  Israeli military did not intentionally target civilians during the  conflict and has conducted some investigations to call for the entire  Fact-Finding Mission’s report to be retracted – or, as Prime Minister  Netanyahu put it, “tossed into history’s trash can”. The US State  Department has supported this position, with a spokesperson saying that  the US government did not see any evidence that the Israeli government  had committed any war crimes during the conflict.</p>
<p>As a spokesperson for the Human Rights Council has today made clear,  comments made in an opinion piece do not provide a sufficient legal  basis for overturning a UN report that has been discussed and endorsed  by both the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. Nor are the  self-serving calls of Israeli political leaders, some of whom were  members of the Israeli war cabinet which made the policy decisions  during Operation “Cast Lead”, the 22-day conflict in which some 1,400  Palestinians, including some 300 children, were killed by Israeli  forces. Aborting the process towards an international justice solution  would also preclude any possibility of justice or reparations for  Israeli victims of the conflict, who suffered from hundreds of  indiscriminate rockets and mortars launched into southern Israel by  Hamas’ military wing and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.</p>
<p>Amnesty International has monitored and critiqued the Israeli  military investigations into its actions during Operation “Cast Lead”,  and has condemned both the continuing failure of the  Hamas authorities  to investigate alleged violations committed by Palestinian armed groups  during the conflict and the ongoing firing of indiscriminate rockets  into southern Israel.</p>
<p>In consequence of the failure of both the Israeli and Palestinian  sides to conduct proper independent investigations and ensure  accountability and justice for the victims, Amnesty International has  called on a range of international actors to now bring international  justice mechanisms to bear in order to meet these objectives and end  impunity.</p>
<p>In particular, Amnesty International has called on the General Assembly to consider the Fact-Finding Mission’s report at its 66<sup>th</sup> session starting in September 2011, and submit the report to the UN  Security Council with a recommendation that the latter body consider  referring the situation to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal  Court (ICC). This recommendation was also included in a resolution  passed by the Human Rights Council on 25 March 2011.</p>
<p>Amnesty International also urged the ICC Prosecutor to seek a legal  determination from the Pre-Trial Chamber on whether an investigation  could be launched on the basis of a 2009 declaration by the Palestinian  Authority accepting the Court’s jurisdiction over crimes committed on  the Palestinian territories. Finally, we have consistently called for  national authorities of other states to exercise universal jurisdiction  over war crimes committed during the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict, just as we  urge states to exercise universal jurisdiction over war crimes in other  conflicts where the domestic authorities are unwilling or unable to  act.</p>
<p><strong>Background</strong></p>
<p>In a personal op-ed, Justice Goldstone contrasted the investigations  conducted by the Israeli military into alleged violations by Israeli  forces with the Hamas de facto administration’s failure to investigate  alleged violations by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza. He also  commented that the Israeli military investigations indicate that  civilians in Gaza “were not intentionally targeted as a matter of  policy” by Israeli forces. The op-ed is available at: <a class="broken_link" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/0">http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/0</a></p>
<p>While Justice Goldstone’s comments question one of the Fact-Finding  Mission’s conclusions – that certain Israeli attacks during Operation  “Cast Lead” intentionally targeted civilians – the op-ed in no way  constitutes a retraction of the entire Fact-Finding Mission report. The  other three members of the UN Fact-Finding Mission have not issued  similar public comments questioning any of the report’s conclusions.</p>
<p>The Fact-Finding Mission report examined 11 incidents in which  Israeli forces launched direct attacks against civilians that resulted  in civilian deaths, and found that in these incidents, “the conduct of  the Israeli armed forces constitutes grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva  Convention in respect of wilful killings and wilfully causing great  suffering to protected persons and, as such, give[s] rise to individual  criminal responsibility.” Justice Goldstone’s op-ed mentions only one of  these incidents, an Israeli attack on 5 January 2009 which killed 21  members of the al-Sammouni family, which is the subject of an ongoing  Israeli military investigation. Assessing whether specific Israeli  attacks on civilians during the conflict were deliberate is extremely  difficult because the Israeli military has not released the evidence  that would allow independent parties to evaluate its conclusions.  Amnesty International has not argued that the Israel Defense Forces  (IDF) targeted Palestinian civilians “as a matter of policy”, but rather  that IDF rules of engagement and actions during the conflict failed to  take sufficient precautions to minimize civilian casualties. Justice  Goldstone’s recent comments do not dispute this assessment.</p>
<p>Amnesty International, the Fact-Finding Mission, and other human  rights organizations documented many other serious violations by Israeli  forces, including war crimes, during the conflict. These include  indiscriminate attacks and the use of weapons such as white phosphorus  and flechettes in civilian areas; wanton destruction of civilian  property and infrastructure; attacks on UN facilities, medical  facilities and personnel; and the use of Palestinian civilians as “human  shields”. While the Israeli authorities have investigated some of these  incidents, all the investigations have been conducted by the Israeli  military, and overseen by the Military Advocate General Corps, the same  body which was responsible for providing legal advice to the IDF during  Operation “Cast Lead”.</p>
<p>As noted in the recent report of the UN Committee of Independent  Experts appointed to monitor and assess the investigations, Israel has  failed to investigate the actions of “those who designed, planned,  ordered and oversaw Operation Cast Lead”, the Israeli military  investigations have lacked transparency, and more than one third of the  incidents highlighted by the Fact-Finding Mission are still “unresolved  or unclear”. To date, only four Israeli soldiers have been indicted on  criminal charges relating to Operation “Cast Lead”, and only one has  served prison time for credit card theft.</p>
<p>Amnesty International’s own assessment of the Israeli investigations  concurred with the Committee of Independent Experts’ report. More than  two years after the conflict, there is no way for objective, impartial  observers to view Israel’s investigations as adequate, independent, or  effective in bringing perpetrators of alleged violations to justice.</p>
<p>The Committee of Independent Experts’ report, released on 18 March 2011, is available at: <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/16session/A.HRC.16.24_AUV.pdf">http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/16session/A.HRC.16.24_AUV.pdf</a></p>
<p>Amnesty International’s latest assessment of the Israeli and  Palestinian investigations into the Gaza Conflict, released on 18 March  2011, is available at:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/018/2011/en">http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/018/2011/en</a><br />
<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Issues of impunity and the denial of rights in the Israel oPt context will be explored further at two upcoming </strong><strong>AIUK events</strong></p>
<p><strong>Deliberate Discrimination, Deliberate Deprivation</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?ID=1794">http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?ID=1794</a><br />
<strong>Tue 12 April 2011 at 7pm</strong></p>
<p><strong>War Child</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?ID=1772">http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?ID=1772</a><br />
<strong>Thu 14 April 2011 at 7pm </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://jfjfp.com/?p=22587&amp;utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=amnesty-internationalisraeli-campaign-to-avoid-accountability-for-gaza-war-crimes-must-be-rejected">Source Jews For Justice For Palestine&nbsp;</p>
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