Letters
UN and Goldstone in Wonderland
24 September 2009
Dear Sir
In any sane court of international opinion, democracies would be rewarded for fighting terror and protecting their citizens. But in the halls of the UN, different rules apply. In their topsy turvy moral universe, Israel is the aggressor and her terrorist enemies the victims in an outright inversion of truth, justice and morality. It is no surprise then that the UN mandated Goldstone report on the Gaza war is such a grotesquely one sided document.
Right from the start its mandate was biased: ‘to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying power, Israel.’ Worse, one of report’s commissioners, Professor Christine Chinkin, had co-signed a letter to The Times months before the investigation in which she argued that ‘Israel’s actions amount to aggression…contrary to international law.’ Her prejudgment amounts to a blatant violation of the rule of impartiality, a key demand of any UN investigation. It is like stepping into court, knowing in advance that the judge and jury have found you guilty. This is the Alice in Wonderland school of justice.
While the report condemns the launching of ‘indiscriminate’ attacks into southern Israel, its primary focus is to record alleged Israeli war crimes. It claims that Israel’s actions were ‘a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population.’
Yet the IDF went out of its way to warn residents in advance about impending attacks through telephone calls and leaflet drops, something acknowledged in the report. The UN should have consulted Colonel Richard Kemp, who observed that there had been ‘no time in the history of warfare when an army (had) made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and the deaths of innocent people than the IDF’ in Gaza.
The ‘fact finding’ report presents contested claims, many from anti Israeli NGOs, as if they were fact. Gaza is repeatedly described as ‘occupied Palestinian territory’ despite Hamas being in full control of the area. One paragraph is devoted to criticising the Israeli ‘blockade’ of Gaza yet fails to recognise that the territory has two borders, one with neighbouring Egypt.
Israel is accused of using Palestinians as human shields yet the report finds ‘no evidence to suggest that Palestinian armed groups directed civilians to areas where attacks were being launched.’ Yet interviews with Palestinians were conducted in territory controlled by Gaza and the authors admit to a ‘reluctance by the persons interviewed to discuss the activities of the armed groups.’ It is hardly surprising that Palestinians kept quiet about their use as human shields!
Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are described as ‘armed groups’, not terrorists, as if to confer on them a spurious mantle of legitimacy. But there is an absolute difference between terrorist groups indiscriminately attacking innocent civilians and a sovereign nation, and UN member, defending its citizens from attack. Yet this vital distinction is repeatedly blurred by a maze of arguments about international law.
The report doubts that Israel will investigate claims of abuses ‘in an impartial, independent, prompt and effective way.’ But this is a malicious suggestion. Israel’s Supreme Court is famed the world over for its impartial jurisprudence and its ability to hold the government to account. In 2004 it ordered Israel’s government to re-route the security barrier on the grounds that it interfered with Palestinian rights. To disregard Israel’s judiciary in such a crass manner is both misguided and immoral.
But then none of this should surprise us. The Human Rights Council, which mandated the Goldstone Report, has a despicable anti Israel obsession. In its first year it passed 9 resolutions, every one condemning Israeli policy, leading Kofi Annan to condemn its ‘disproportionate focus on violations by Israel.’ Like the UN itself, the Human Rights Council is dominated by autocracies and Islamic nations which seek to delegitimise the Jewish state.
In sum, this report is a farrago of half truths and recycled propaganda that mirrors the institutionalised bigotry of the UN. It should be disowned by all civilised nations.
Yours sincerely
Jeremy Havardi
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