Annonce

Réduire
Aucune annonce.

Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes

Réduire
Cette discussion est fermée.
X
X
 
  • Filtre
  • Heure
  • Afficher
Tout nettoyer
nouveaux messages

  • Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes

    By Richard Goldstone
    We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.

    The final report by the U.N. committee of independent experts — chaired by former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis — that followed up on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report has found that “Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza” while “the de facto authorities (i.e., Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.”
    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.

    For example, the most serious attack the Goldstone Report focused on was the killing of some 29 members of the al-Simouni family in their home. The shelling of the home was apparently the consequence of an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image, and an Israeli officer is under investigation for having ordered the attack. While the length of this investigation is frustrating, it appears that an appropriate process is underway, and I am confident that if the officer is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly. The purpose of these investigations, as I have always said, is to ensure accountability for improper actions, not to second-guess, with the benefit of hindsight, commanders making difficult battlefield decisions.

    While I welcome Israel’s investigations into allegations, I share the concerns reflected in the McGowan Davis report that few of Israel’s inquiries have been concluded and believe that the proceedings should have been held in a public forum. Although the Israeli evidence that has emerged since publication of our report doesn’t negate the tragic loss of civilian life, I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.
    srael’s lack of cooperation with our investigation meant that we were not able to corroborate how many Gazans killed were civilians and how many were combatants. The Israeli military’s numbers have turned out to be similar to those recently furnished by Hamas (although Hamas may have reason to inflate the number of its combatants).

    As I indicated from the very beginning, I would have welcomed Israel’s cooperation. The purpose of the Goldstone Report was never to prove a foregone conclusion against Israel. I insisted on changing the original mandate adopted by the Human Rights Council, which was skewed against Israel. I have always been clear that Israel, like any other sovereign nation, has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within. Something that has not been recognized often enough is the fact that our report marked the first time illegal acts of terrorism from Hamas were being investigated and condemned by the United Nations. I had hoped that our inquiry into all aspects of the Gaza conflict would begin a new era of evenhandedness at the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted.

    Some have charged that the process we followed did not live up to judicial standards. To be clear: Our mission was in no way a judicial or even quasi-judicial proceeding. We did not investigate criminal conduct on the part of any individual in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank. We made our recommendations based on the record before us, which unfortunately did not include any evidence provided by the Israeli government. Indeed, our main recommendation was for each party to investigate, transparently and in good faith, the incidents referred to in our report. McGowan Davis has found that Israel has done this to a significant degree; Hamas has done nothing.

    Some have suggested that it was absurd to expect Hamas, an organization that has a policy to destroy the state of Israel, to investigate what we said were serious war crimes. It was my hope, even if unrealistic, that Hamas would do so, especially if Israel conducted its own investigations. At minimum I hoped that in the face of a clear finding that its members were committing serious war crimes, Hamas would curtail its attacks. Sadly, that has not been the case. Hundreds more rockets and mortar rounds have been directed at civilian targets in southern Israel. That comparatively few Israelis have been killed by the unlawful rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in no way minimizes the criminality. The U.N. Human Rights Council should condemn these heinous acts in the strongest terms.

    In the end, asking Hamas to investigate may have been a mistaken enterprise. So, too, the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds.
    I continue to believe in the cause of establishing and applying international law to protracted and deadly conflicts. Our report has led to numerous “lessons learned” and policy changes, including the adoption of new Israel Defense Forces procedures for protecting civilians in cases of urban warfare and limiting the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas. The Palestinian Authority established an independent inquiry into our allegations of human rights abuses — assassinations, torture and illegal detentions — perpetrated by Fatah in the West Bank, especially against members of Hamas. Most of those allegations were confirmed by this inquiry. Regrettably, there has been no effort by Hamas in Gaza to investigate the allegations of its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

    Simply put, the laws of armed conflict apply no less to non-state actors such as Hamas than they do to national armies. Ensuring that non-state actors respect these principles, and are investigated when they fail to do so, is one of the most significant challenges facing the law of armed conflict. Only if all parties to armed conflicts are held to these standards will we be able to protect civilians who, through no choice of their own, are caught up in war.

    The writer, a retired justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former chief prosecutor of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, chaired the U.N. fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.

  • #2
    L'injustice aura une fin ,tôt ou tard inchaallah

    La reconsidération du rapport ,ne me surprend pas.

    Commentaire


    • #3
      C'est le juge qui a pondu le rapport qui le reconsidere. Et a juste titre puisque la cours supreme israelienne a lance une commission d'enquete sur la mort de civils a Gaza alors que de son cote, le Hamas n'a pas fait la meme chose pour les tirs de roquettes sur Sderot ou Beer Sheva au contraire, c'est pour lui une source de fierte. Et il dit, a juste titre que le conseil de l'ONU des droits de l'homme n'a pas grande legitimite parce que la Libye par exemple y figure, ainsi que d'autre pays diriges par des presidents a vie.

      Commentaire


      • #4



        La pression est trop forte, mais 1 400 Palestiens qui ont perdu la vie sous les feux des soldats sionistes, qui ont perdu 13 des leurs, l'équilibre des forces est vite fait.
        Il y a des gens si intelligents que lorsqu'ils font les imbéciles, ils réussissent mieux que quiconque. - Maurice Donnay

        Commentaire


        • #5
          Et alors? Faut aussi voir comment est-on arrive a ce desequilibre des forces, par la guerre des six jours et la guerre de Kippur, des guerres ou les arabes etaient beaucoup plus nombreux et plus armes.

          Commentaire


          • #6
            C'est le juge qui a pondu le rapport qui le reconsidere. Et a juste titre puisque la cours supreme israelienne a lance une commission d'enquete sur la mort de civils a Gaza alors que de son cote, le Hamas n'a pas fait la meme chose pour les tirs de roquettes sur Sderot ou Beer Sheva au contraire, c'est pour lui une source de fierte. Et il dit, a juste titre que le conseil de l'ONU des droits de l'homme n'a pas grande legitimite parce que la Libye par exemple y figure, ainsi que d'autre pays diriges par des presidents a vie.
            J'ai parlé en général.Le cas de gaza est minime ,ils viendront d'autres sauvagerie qui seront bien sure cachés et camouflés.Mais là les régimes arabes tombent ,les peuples se reveillent ,le capitalisme est entrain de perdre de légitimité et les loobyes qui n'ont ni fois ni lois sont de plus en plus critiqués.

            J'espère qu'il y aura le jour où on assistera à la chute,le jour où a justice regnera.

            Ina allah ma3a sabirine.

            Commentaire


            • #7
              Si tu veux revenir à 67 et 73, il y a beaucoup à dire et très long à raconter, car la Palestine ne sera jamais libérée par les Arabes, je peux te le certifier avec certitude, mais par des gens qui aimeront mourir en martyr autant que les sionistes y tiennent à la vie de ce bas monde.
              Il y a des gens si intelligents que lorsqu'ils font les imbéciles, ils réussissent mieux que quiconque. - Maurice Donnay

              Commentaire


              • #8
                Revenons au rapport Goldstone, si le mec qui l'a pondu le desavoue, alors il n'a plus de legitimite. La verite est enfin reconnue au grand jour.

                Commentaire


                • #9
                  Revenons au rapport Goldstone, si le mec qui l'a pondu le desavoue, alors il n'a plus de legitimite. La verite est enfin reconnue au grand jour.
                  Parce que celui qui l'a nommé n'est pas lui aussi légitime ,wach bin AANIS ?

                  Commentaire


                  • #10
                    L'ONU n'est pas legitime? Ca veut dire que les dizaines de resolutions qui condamnent Israel ne le sont pas non plus.

                    Commentaire


                    • #11
                      L'ONU n'est pas legitime? Ca veut dire que les dizaines de resolutions qui condamnent Israel ne le sont pas non plus.
                      l'ONU ?

                      il y a condamner et avoir des bombes sur la tête par une coalition.Tout cela va tomber c'est une question de temps

                      Commentaire


                      • #12
                        Ben, quand tu voudras, ça y est tu lâches le morceau des guerres des 6 jours et de kippur, quant au rapport de Goldstone, l'erreur est humaine, l'agresseur c'est le hamas, qui a perdu 13 de ses combattants et en a assassiné 1 400 pauvres sionistes civils désarmés, donc c'est clair qu'ils devront être traduit devant le TPI.
                        Il y a des gens si intelligents que lorsqu'ils font les imbéciles, ils réussissent mieux que quiconque. - Maurice Donnay

                        Commentaire


                        • #13
                          Attends, parce qu'il y eut plus de morts chez les palestiniens, c'est eux qui auraient raison? Dans ce cas, les israeliens devraient commettre des suicides collectifs. Juste une precision, les israeliens investissent massivement dans la defense civile, chaque maison pratiquement dispose d'un abri anti bombardement. Le Hamas lui, prefere investir le peu d'argent palestinien dans les Katiouchas, Grad, Qassam et Kornet. C'est ce qu'on appelle le sens des priorites, infliger quelques egratinures a quelques civils israeliens vaut mieux que la defense des civils palestiniens.

                          Commentaire


                          • #14
                            '
                            ONU n'est pas legitime
                            c'est vrai tout comme l etat terroriste d israel
                            "En ces temps d'imposture universelle, dire la vérité est un acte révolutionnaire" (G. Orwell)

                            Commentaire


                            • #15
                              Et qu'est-ce qu'un etat legitime?

                              Commentaire

                              Chargement...
                              X