Region | Palestinian Territories
Mighty lobby undermining findings
Occupied Jerusalem: With the help of the powerful pro-Israel lobby, the Israeli government has succeeded, so far, in undercutting action on the Goldstone report which accuses Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during the recent war in Gaza.
- Wafa Amr, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 October 28, 2009
- Image Credit: Reuters
- A Palestinian boy stands next to his family's house, destroyed during Israel's offensive in Gaza. Israel is under pressure from its Western allies to carry out its own inquiry into the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided instead to appoint a small task force to review the report.
Israel is under pressure from its Western allies to carry out its own inquiry into the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided instead to appoint a small task force to review the report and draft recommendations on Israel's future course of action regarding the report and its findings.
South African jurist Richard Goldstone investigated the conduct of the Israeli forces during their winter war on Gaza. His report urged the Human Rights Council member states to endorse the report and called for the implementation of the report which could bring war criminals to trial.
Israel fought a fierce battle to delegitimise the report, and through intensive lobbying, succeeded in delaying further action on the report until March.
Israeli officials at all levels, along with the influential, organised, pro-Israel lobby, mainly in the United States, political action groups and international allies worked intensively to undermine the Goldstone report.
Israel was deeply concerned about the consequences the report could have on its future military action in the Palestinian Territories and the possibility of legal action against its soldiers and officials worldwide.
"Israeli officials, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu down, view the report as part of an effort to delegitimise Israel and strip away its ability to defend itself," Aluf Benn, diplomatic editor of the Israeli daily Haaretz newspaper explained.
Enormous pressure
Israel used every means possible to undermine the reliability of the report and to block any action by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Palestinian officials said President Mahmoud Abbas came under enormous pressure from the United States, Europe, China, Russia and other nations who were either friendly to Israel or who feared similar action would be taken against them in areas of conflict.
They said Abbas was pressed by Washington and the Europeans to avoid blocking peace efforts with Israel by agreeing to defer further action of the Goldstone report until March.
Ebrahim Khreisheh, the PLO's ambassador to the UN in Geneva said the pressure mounted when other smaller states which usually voted in favour of the Palestinians, either abstained or declined to attend during the vote.
"The Americans lobbied strongly alongside Israel. The US representatives were calling every mission at the UN to press them to defer the vote until March. We fought a fierce battle and the pressure was mounting. The lobbying on the part of Israel was evident," Khreisheh told Gulf News.
"The Israeli government pressured Abbas to forgo his appeal to the UNHRC, both directly and through Washington and other friendly governments. It appealed to European governments to halt their funding for Breaking the Silence, an Israeli antiwar group that published soldiers' accounts from Gaza. It was also helped by NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based organisation aimed at undermining the credibility of Israel-bashers like Human Rights Watch — whose reports were part of the Goldstone findings," Benn told Gulf News.
"Israel is also lobbying to change the rules of war and adapt them to the present-day reality of terrorists hiding behind civilians. If Goldstone is carried to the Security Council, Israel will ask Obama to veto it," he said.
Khreisheh said several key states, led by the United States, were expected to veto further action on the report by the UN Security Council.
"We're stuck there, but we also succeeded in passing the vote in the UNHCR to bring the report to a vote in March," he said.
A Western diplomatic source told Gulf News that some Western states argued that demonising Israel at this point would block efforts to relaunch deadlocked peace talks with Israel, but the fact was that Israel had a "first-class" lobbying system in the United States that helped even get Congressmen not involved in pro-Israel issues to side in favour of Israeli interests.
"AIPAC and other right-wing Israeli lobby groups are very influential and powerful, and have the money. J-Street however, has proven there is more than one view and has a reasonable voice. It is raising money to sway Congressmen to their side," the diplomatic source said.
Wafa Amr is a journalist based in Ramallah.
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