[News] Another breach in Israel's wall of impunity

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Another breach in Israel's wall of impunity

Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 21 October 2009

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10843.shtml

The Goldstone report into war crimes during Israel's massacres in 
Gaza last winter finally managed to cross its first major procedural 
hurdle as the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva (HRC) 
passed a resolution endorsing it on 16 October. The resolution called 
on "all concerned parties including United Nations bodies" to 
implement the report's recommendations -- which include trying 
Israeli leaders in international courts if Israel fails to do so -- 
and forwarding the report to the General Assembly for further action.

The US dismissed the resolution as being biased because it only 
criticized Israel -- and not Palestinian armed groups which are also 
accused in the Goldstone report of committing war crimes by firing 
rockets at Israel that killed three Israeli civilians. The US also 
did not like the fact that the HRC resolution included issues 
unrelated to Gaza, namely, Israel's aggressive expansion of 
settlements in occupied Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, the 
construction of the West Bank wall, interference with holy sites, and 
attempts to change the demographic character of Jerusalem.

But this focus was entirely appropriate because Hamas, unlike Israel, 
cooperated fully with the Goldstone report's preparation, and Hamas 
even said it would conduct investigations of Palestinian actions as 
the report demands. One may be skeptical of how credible those 
investigations would be, but Israel has not even gone that far. 
Hence, the resolution correctly condemned "the non-cooperation by the 
occupying power, Israel, with the independent international 
fact-finding mission," led by Goldstone.

The resolution was fully balanced in the sense that it placed matters 
back in their proper context: Israel is the "occupying power" and 
Palestinians are an occupied people. They are not equals.

Although Israel refused to cooperate with the report's authors it is 
nevertheless alarmed by the report which documents in detail evidence 
of its flagrant war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel's 
efforts to malign the reputation of Judge Richard Goldstone -- a 
jurist of impeccable international judicial credentials, and a Jewish 
Zionist South African -- failed to bury the report.

Since its creation, Israel has managed to evade all its obligations 
under international law and for most of its six decades it has 
enjoyed American protection that has allowed Israel to act as an 
outlaw with total impunity.

The Goldstone report saga is no exception. In early October, 
intensive American and Israeli pressure and threats against Mahmoud 
Abbas and his Ramallah Palestinian Authority (PA) succeeded in 
getting the latter to pull support from an HRC draft resolution 
endorsing the report. This would effectively have buried it. But a 
sustained uproar among Palestinian public opinion at what was seen as 
a clear betrayal by Abbas, forced a change of course.

For Palestinians, long accustomed to the PA's duplicitous dealings 
with Israel, the Goldstone affair was too much. How could Abbas -- 
who is supposed to be defending Palestinians -- extend a lifeline to 
the perpetrators of the Gaza massacre and offer them an escape from 
accountability? Neither Abbas nor his international and Israeli 
backers were able to ignore the growing popular rebellion against the 
PA, as well as the growing calls for Abbas' removal and even trial 
for betraying his own people.

After weeks of confused and contradictory justifications, Abbas 
ordered his Geneva representative to reinstate the resolution, 
leading to the passage of the HRC resolution last week.

Abbas' decision to return to Geneva and demand a special session of 
the HRC was met with some understanding by those who pushed him into 
this mess. Both the Israelis and the Americans seem to have realized 
that his half-hearted return to Geneva was solely meant for damage 
repair. Abbas' desperate effort to save his political life was also 
in the interest of his manipulators who are not yet done with him and his role.

While they permitted Abbas' tactical retreat, the Israelis and 
Americans directed their pressure this time towards other members of 
the HRC in the hope that they withhold their votes. Some did submit 
to this pressure to appease the US and Israel, but the resolution in 
favor of the report still passed by 25 votes to six, with 11 abstentions.

The United States led the opposing vote in line with its standard 
policy of protecting Israel from international censure. By doing this 
and by mobilizing others to vote the same way, Washington is in 
effect encouraging and rewarding Israeli aggression and crimes and 
destroying any chance of regaining any credibility in the region. The 
brief moment of hope generated by the election of President Barack 
Obama has been irretrievably lost as it is clear that the US 
superpower is still apparently being led by a small rogue state 
rather than using its power and authority to stop Israel from 
massacring Arabs in Palestine and elsewhere, stealing their land, 
occupying their territory, escalating the regional race for weapons 
of mass destruction, and threatening its neighbors near and far.

Israel has long fooled much of the world, claiming to be the only 
progressive Western-style democracy surrounded by savage, aggressive 
Arabs and terrorist Palestinians who want to destroy it. A blend of 
Western hypocrisy, fear, hidden racist tendencies, ignorance and 
appeasement have for too long shielded Israel from paying the price 
for its actions.

The HRC resolution's condemnation of Israel's restrictions on 
Palestinians "on the basis of national origin, religion, sex, age or 
any other discriminatory ground" as a "grave violation of the 
Palestinian People's civil, political, economic, social and cultural 
rights," is a welcome international recognition of the racist nature 
of Israel's policies.

It may be too early to hope that the Goldstone report will result 
directly in Israeli leaders facing trial in international courts; 
there are still too many opportunities for Israel and its backers to 
block such action. But Goldstone marks another major breach in the 
wall of Israeli impunity that is slowly but surely crumbling. It is a 
matter of time before Israel faces the consequences of its crimes and 
all who support peace and justice should welcome and work for that 
with renewed vigor.

Hasan Abu Nimah is the former permanent representative of Jordan at 
the United Nations. This essay first appeared in The Jordan Times and 
is republished with the author's permission.



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