Opinion | Editorials
Israelis are getting away with war crimes
The latest non-binding UN resolution has given Tel Aviv another 5 months of grace
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 March 1, 2010
It is wrong that no one has yet been held accountable for war crimes committed during the brutal fighting in Gaza in January 2009. During the three-week war that left more than 1,400 Palestinians and 11 Israelis dead, there were well-documented cases of Israel firing white-phosphorus shells and using vastly excessive force. For their part, the Israelis accused Hamas of targeting unarmed civilians with random shelling, for which the Palestinians need to hold their own enquiry.
The alleged war crimes were the subject of a UN commission of inquiry by South African judge Richard Goldstone, which reported in November 2009. Goldstone asked both Israel and Palestine to hold independent enquiries and report back to the UN in three months. That deadline has just passed with no action taken.
The matter could have gone to the UN Security Council, to pass the matter on to the International Criminal Court. Instead, a new UN non-binding resolution with Palestinian support has been passed giving both Israel and Palestine five more months in which to come up with their independent enquiries. This resolution should have been tougher, and it should have been binding on member states.
Israel is frightened that the enquiry will find that the Israeli armed forces used banned weapons, such as white phosphorus. The whole world saw TV footage of its distinctive shells, and Israel is worried that the Goldstone process could end up with a prosecution in the International Criminal Court, where both the serving officers and those responsible for their actions would be tried for crimes against humanity.
The Palestinians need to bring Israel to book for its crimes, but in their desire to build a broad consensus in the UN, the new resolution has allowed another five months to slide past. The victims in Gaza need justice to be served.
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