Israel Rejects U.N. Report On Gaza Conflict
A Palestinian family clears rubble near their destroyed house in Israel's January offensive. - A Palestinian family clears rubble near their house that was destroyed in Israel's offensive in Gaza. Israel on Wednesday rejected U.N. calls for an independent inquiry into its conduct in last winter's Gaza conflict. (Khalil Hamra / AP)
Israel on Wednesday rejected U.N. calls to open an independent inquiry into its conduct during an offensive in the Gaza Strip in December and January.
A U.N. investigation released Tuesday found both Israel and Palestinian militants violated international law during the conflict. The report faulted Israel for targeting civilian government buildings, hospitals, a mosque and farms in Gaza. It also faulted Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas, which controls Gaza, for rocket attacks against civilians in Israel.
The report calls for an independent investigation, adding that if one is not carried out, the matter should be referred to the International Criminal Court.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said his country would take action to protect its troops from prosecution abroad. He said Israeli diplomats would lobby U.N. Security Council members against further action.
"Every time a democracy will want to take measures to defend itself from terror, it will have to take into consideration a wide international legal campaign against its leaders and officials, based on the propaganda of the terrorists," Palmor said.
Israel's Own Investigation
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev tells Robert Siegel that the Israeli military is conducting its own investigation into the conflict, adding that the inquiry, like all conducted by the military, is open to review by civilian courts.
"Our own internal investigations are much more serious than what is being produced by this report," Regev says.
South African Judge Richard Goldstone, who heads the U.N. report, dismisses the Israeli investigation.
"The Israeli investigations have been done behind closed doors in secret by the military," he tells Siegel. "That's hardly an investigation by any acceptable standard."
Israel launched the three-week offensive in December to quash militants in Gaza who had bombarded southern Israel with rocket and mortar fire. More than 1,000 Palestinians, including civilians, were killed. Thirteen Israelis, including four civilians, were also killed.
Avoiding Civilian Casualties
Israel maintains that it made immense efforts to avoid civilian casualties during the conflict. It distributed leaflets in civilian areas and made phone calls to areas that were about to be attacked.
Goldstone, a former South African judge who prosecuted war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, says though those measures were taken, actions by the Israeli Defense Forces also caused panic.
"There were telephone calls on two occasions warning of a bombing that never happened," Goldstone tells Siegel. "People evacuated, nothing happened. They went back days later, there was a second warning; nothing happened, and they went back.
"And after the third warning, in fact, the factory was pretty badly smashed up."
Israel has refused to cooperate with the investigation.
"We made a decision upfront not to cooperate with the Goldstone group precisely because the mandate given was so one-sided," Regev says.
Goldstone is Jewish and has close ties to Israel. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post newspaper, his daughter Nicole described Goldstone as a Zionist who loves Israel.
"I know better than anyone else that he thought however hard it was to accept it, he was doing the best thing for everyone, including Israel," she told the newspaper. "He is honest, tells things how he sees them and wants to uncover the truth."
Goldstone tells Siegel that he had seen the interview.
"What she says is correct," he says.
Regev, however, was not as impressed.
"If he had said ... 'I refuse to have anything to do with this sort of kangaroo court,' I would have more respect for him," he says.
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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block. Israel rejected a United Nations call today for an independent inquiry into the country's handling of last year's military action in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. report stated that both Israelis and Palestinians committed war crimes and possibly crime against humanity. And although the report has criticism of both sides in the conflict, it comes down especially hard on Israel.
SIEGEL: Justice Richard Goldstone is head of the United Nations' fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict, which wrote that report. He is a South African jurist, who prosecuted war crimes committed in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. He was in New York this morning, where he said the report doesn't pinpoint who in the Israeli military establishment should be blamed.
Justice RICHARD GOLDSTONE (Chief Prosecutor, United Nations): We looked at the incidents and we found some of them to constitute war crimes and some of them serious war crimes, but it wasn't our brief to have a look at who was responsible at what level. That's a matter really that would be more appropriate for a prosecutor to have a look at and an investigation at that level. Ours was fact-finding and not in anyway prosecutorial.
SIEGEL: The report found that Israeli forces had targeted Palestinian civilian government buildings, a hospital, a mosque, used human shields in one case. I want to put to you something that the Israeli ambassador to Washington said yesterday. He said immense efforts were taken to avoid civilian casualties, including leafleting civilian areas, making hundreds of thousands of phone calls, sending MSS messages to areas that were about to be attacked to civilians, sort of sacrificing the element of surprise, risking our own soldiers' lives in order to minimize those civilian casualties. Do the Israelis in fact do that and was it adequate?
Justice GOLDSTONE: Right. Well, you know, the humanitarian law is clear. One has to make the crucial distinction between civilians and combatants, and civilian objects and military objects. The Israeli defense force certainly sent many telephone messages and they dropped leaflets. We deal with that fully in the report. Some of them helped Palestinian civilians escape harm. This caused confusion. There were telephone calls on two occasions warning of a bombing which never happened. People evacuated, nothing happened. They went back days later. There was a second warning, nothing happened, and they went back. And after the third warning, in fact the factory was pretty badly smashed up.
SIEGEL: Now, you found also that the Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli towns did constitute a deliberate attack on a civilian population.
Justice GOLDSTONE: Absolutely.
SIEGEL: Do you hold the Hamas authorities in Gaza responsible for those rocket attacks?
Justice GOLDSTONE: Well, they are responsible on two levels. Firstly, there were some attacks made by their own military wing, the so-called Qasam Brigade. Others were centers, as we understand the position by other all groups who operate from Gaza. But the present Palestinian Authority, the de-facto authority in Gaza is made up principally of Hamas and they have an obligation to ensure that war crimes are not committed from their territory.
SIEGEL: Can you explain the process here, the U.N. process? You're calling for criminal investigations I gather, both in Israel and in Gaza.
Justice GOLDSTONE: Correct.
SIEGEL: And how soon should those investigations take place and what are the consequences of them?
Justice GOLDSTONE: Well, we recommended that the Security Council should in fact require such investigations to take place. We've called for an independent monitoring committee to be set-up by the Security Council to report and we've asked for that report to be made within six months. If no such investigations, or satisfactory investigations, are taking place after a six-month period, then our recommendation is that the matter should be referred to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
SIEGEL: Now, the Israelis say they've already investigated and their investigations have…
Justice GOLDSTONE: Yeah, well I heard that and we've certainly taken that fully into account and dealt with it in our report. The Israeli investigations have been done behind closed doors in secret by the military. That's hardly an investigation by any acceptable standards.
SIEGEL: And lastly, I wouldn't raise this, but for the fact that a story on the Jerusalem Post this morning and - it's interview with your daughter in Canada, who says my father loves Israel, is a Zionist, wouldn't have done this if he didn't think it was good for Israel.
Justice GOLDSTONE: Yes. When I read that this morning, I was surprised. Apparently, they called her in the middle of the night, at four o'clock this morning, but what she says is correct.
SIEGEL: Well, Justice Goldstone, thank you very much.
Justice GOLDSTONE: Thank you very much.
SIEGEL: That's Justice Richard Goldstone, head of the U.N. fact-finding mission on Gaza. He spoke to us from New York. I also interviewed Israeli spokesman Mark Regev this morning. He disputes much of what Justice Goldstone said including the statement that Israel's own investigation of the Gaza conflict was less than open and transparent.
Mr. MARK REGEV (Israeli Spokesman): That comment just shows the shoddy nature of this investigation, which I'd remind you that very serious people refuse to have anything to do with it. The first person they approached to be head of this so-called fact-finding team was Mary Robinson, the former Irish President and head of the U.N. Human Rights Agency. She said she couldn't be part of it and I think it's a pity that Goldstone didn't follow her lead.
SIEGEL: The U.N. group finds that in several instances, the Israeli defense force did not take reasonable measures to prevent the unacceptable laws of civilian lives - for example, striking a mosque that Israel said was used to store arms, but doing so during the hour of evening prayers, rather than at the middle of the night, or striking at a U.N. school that civilians were using as a shelter. Have all of those instances been investigated by the Israeli courts?
Mr. REGEV: I believe so, by both the military justice system and our own internal investigations and then they can go on to the civilian courts if people want to suggest that the military hasn't done its own investigations correctly. But let me state here clearly, there were countless examples during that unfortunate conflict in Gaza where Hamas used mosques and schools and even U.N. facilities as military installations. That was part, unfortunately, of the reality we were dealing with. But here lies the fundamental methodological problem of the report. Mr. Goldstone and his team go in to Gaza. They hold public hearings. Now, how does one do a public hearing in an area which is under the rule of an authoritarian, brutal regime like the Hamas regime?
SIEGEL: But the fact-finding groups report does fault Hamas for criminal attacks in the form of rocket attacks on Israeli towns. And some of the instances of Israeli crimes that it alleges don't require coerce testimony, that is at what hour did - was the mosque struck? Were there explosions after the Israeli strike, which suggested there were explosives being stored there? If there's an Israeli answer to those, why didn't the Israelis take part and give the answer?
Mr. REGEV: We made a decision upfront not to cooperate with the Goldstone group, precisely because the mandate given was so one-sided.
SIEGEL: Of course, Justice Goldstone says that he himself has addressed that point in the past and yet, as the Jerusalem Post reports this morning, having called up Justice Goldstone's daughter in Canada to interview her. Justice Goldstone, who's off to Toronto to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, is, by his and his daughter's account, a Zionist, somebody who is a great lover of Israel and wouldn't do this if he felt it weren't in pursuit of the truth.
Mr. REGEV: I don't want to make this personal. But if he would've followed the lead of Mary Robinson and said, I refuse to have anything to do with this sort of kangaroo court, I would have more respect for him.
SIEGEL: Mark Regev, thank you very much for talking with us.
Mr. REGEV: My pleasure.
SIEGEL: That's Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev in Jerusalem. We were unable to reach Hamas today for a comment on the U.N. Gaza report. Hamas has said that firing rockets into Israel is self defense, not a war crime. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
