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  UN expected to call for Gaza war investigations by Israel and Palestine |
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 | Reported by guardian.co.uk
on Wednesday, 4 November 2009
(2 weeks ago) |
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General assembly set to back resolution endorsing Goldstone report on alleged war crimesThe UN general assembly is expected to approve a resolution this week calling on Israel and the Palestinians to carry out independent investigations into serious allegations of war crimes committed during the Gaza conflict last January.A debate on a highly critical UN report, written by the South African judge Richard Goldstone, begins today, with a vote on a resolution likely .
Negotiations are continuing on the resolution and several European countries are trying to change the wording."We're listening to all comments, but the draft resolution as it stands, the thrust of it, is asking for investigation, and there is unanimity on that call," said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer at the UN.
"We'll take it from there."A resolution from the general assembly would not be legally binding, but would be easier to reach than one before the security council, where it is likely to be opposed by the US and China.Israel did not co-operate with Goldstone's investigation and has campaigned vigorously against his report, which it says is unfairly biased and not sufficiently critical of Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has insisted he will not let any of his soldiers face war crimes charges.Goldstone said Israel's three-week war in Gaza was a "deliberately disproportionate attack" and that its troops committed grave breaches of the Geneva conventions with "individual criminal responsibility", suggesting soldiers could face prosecution.
His report also said Palestinian rocket attacks into Israel, largely by Hamas, were war crimes and crimes against humanity because they targeted Israeli civilians.Goldstone has called on Israel and the Palestinians to start their own investigations into the violations detailed in his report within six months, but this has yet to happen.
If there were no inquiries, he said, the case should pass to the prosecutor of the international criminal court, although it seems likely a US veto at the security council would intervene first to stop that happening.Last month his report was endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council, which commissioned his work.
The US opposed the council's resolution, while Britain and France did not vote.In Israel the human rights group B'Tselem criticised Israeli military investigations into the war so far.
The group said it believed that 21 investigations by the military police had begun, but no charges had been brought.
Only one soldier has gone on trial over the conduct of the war, for stealing a credit card.B'Tselem said it believed the military was investigating cases in which Israeli soldiers were accused of firing at Palestinians who waved white flags, and where they were accused of firing flechettes, deadly sharp metal darts loaded into shells, and one case in which a white phosphorous shell was fired into a family house killing six people.None of the investigations looked at policy-making and focused instead on "the lowest echelons only"."Those responsible for policy will not be held accountable for their actions," said B'Tselem, calling for an investigation that was independent of the military.
Around 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the war.The Goldstone debate comes at a time of deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians over peace talks.
The two sides have not met for negotiations since December.
Although the US had called on Israel to halt all construction in its settlements, Netanyahu has refused.
He has offered instead a limited freeze in which work would continue on 3,000 homes and on public buildings as well as on all settlements in east Jerusalem.The Palestinians say they will only resume peace talks if a full construction freeze is announced, in line with the US road map, drawn up six years ago.
They were angered when at the weekend Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, praised Israel's offer of a partial freeze as "unprecedented".
Today Clinton sought to placate Arab states by saying that the US did not accept Israeli settlements were legitimate and wanted their construction halted "forever".Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, said the Middle East faced a "critical moment" and accused Israel of placing a "major obstacle" in the way of peace talks.
At a news conference in Ramallah he produced figures showing even with the partial Israeli settlement freeze, projections for construction in 2010 and 2011 were higher than in 2008 and 2009.He said given the failure to agree a two-state solution, which would see Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side, "maybe Palestinians should refocus their attention to the one-state solution where Muslims, Jews and Christians can live as equals." But he added: "I am not walking away … I want to resume negotiations from where we left them in December 2008."
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