Justice for Polanski, Not for Gaza

Link

Posted by realistic bird under Politics Tags: Gaza, Israeli crimes, justice, palestine, Palestinians, Polanski, Politics, US

During offensive on Gaza-Taken from Reuters

By Aijaz Zaka Syed – Dubai, source

Who doesn’t know Roman Polanski? Even those not familiar with the internationally acclaimed filmmaker’s work would recognize the fact he’s a star director who has acquired a kind of cult status and has inspired and influenced filmmakers around the world.

The Polish-French director is in trouble these days. He was arrested last week at the Zurich airport on a warrant issued by the US authorities. It seems the award-winning filmmaker, now 76, is wanted in the United States for ‘unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor’ 32 years ago.

After being indicted in 1977, Polanski – 44 at the time – confessed to having sex with the 13-year old after plying her with an endless supply of Quaaludes and Champagne. Polanski fled America after his plea bargain fell apart, raising prospects of the filmmaker ending up behind the bars for a long, long time.

He hasn’t returned to the land of Hollywood since, even when he earned himself numerous laurels and Oscars for such landmark offerings as Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, and, most recently, The Pianist.

Predictably, Polanski’s arrest and the distinct possibility of ending up behind the bars at the ripe age of 76 have sparked a fiery debate on both sides of the Atlantic.

European officials, filmmakers, artistes and media have slammed the US warrant against Polanski and Swiss action of arresting him when he arrived for the Zurich Film Festival, where he was to be feted with the Golden Icon Award for “lifetime contribution.”

The Europeans are particularly rankled by the fact that Polanski’s “judicial lynching” for what celebrity French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy calls a ‘youthful error’ has happened three decades after the crime. Polish Filmmakers Association chief Jacek Bromski summed up the continent’s mood: “Any justice system that would pursue so great a filmmaker for so long lacks equity and humanity.”

In marked contrast, the US media has universally welcomed Polanski’s arrest with a deluge of editorials and opinion pieces.

While acknowledging Polanski’s stature and contribution to Hollywood, most Americans, including many in the couldn’t-care-less Hollywood, believe the filmmaker ought to pay and atone for his crimes.

Unlike Europeans who balk at the idea of troubling a celebrated artist like Polanski over ‘sexual indiscretions’ committed long ago, Americans are insisting on justice being done, even if it was delayed all these years.

I particularly enjoyed this impassioned editorial by the redoubtable New York Times, demanding Polanski pay for ‘preying on a child’. Invoking the principle of equality before law and justice for all, the Times reprimands those defending Polanski because of his advanced years and his stature.

“Where is the injustice in bringing to justice someone who pleads guilty to statutory rape and then goes on the lam, no matter how talented he may be?” demands the eminent daily that always speaks for the US establishment.

And I agree totally, for what this humble hack’s take is worth. Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, be he a prince or pauper. And justice must be handed down to the guilty, even if it takes an eternity. This is the cardinal and universally acknowledged principle of justice.

Gathering dust of time, long years of absence or simply dodging the long arm of the law for half your life, as Polanski has managed to, does nothing to diminish the severity or seriousness of the crime. Law is law is law and it must be upheld, no matter who the guilty is or how far he or she has managed to get away from the scene of the crime.

It’s based on this principle that European governments and the US authorities have pursued Nazi war criminals all over the world over the past 62 years. Israel has regularly sent its death squads hunting Nazi war suspects across South America and elsewhere.

Everyone including the US, UK and other big powers have accepted this as a perfectly normal course of action. Law is law and the guilty must pay.

Israel’s attack on Gaza, which began last year when people around the world were celebrating Christmas and were looking forward to the New Year, killed nearly 1500 people, more than half of them women and children.

A four member UN commission, headed by Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa, spent six months investigating Israel’s terror campaign against Gaza’s besieged population. And the commission concluded that Israeli forces deliberately killed, bombed and targeted civilians, using ‘disproportionate force’.

A great deal has been said and written about the Goldstone report and all of us are familiar with his findings. In fact, the report only confirms the widely reported and analysed Israeli crimes against humanity during the December-January offensive.

Before the UN sent its fact finding mission to Gaza, months after its rape and destruction at the hands of Israeli forces, rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and world media had already chronicled and reported those atrocities and abuses.

Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC and others brought the horror of Gaza into our homes as Israeli planes bombed and showered Palestinians with the banned, lethal white phosphorus, in full view of the world as it watched in morbid fascination.

Frankly, Israel didn’t give a damn if it was caught on live TV, gassing the terrified Palestinians as they ran for their lives, literally. It never has. In fact, true to its traditions, it wanted the world, especially its powerless Arab neighbors, to see how it deals with those daring to stand up to its terror tactics.

This is why it spared no one and nothing during the New Year madness: Women and children, schools and hospitals. Why it even bombed the UN offices for providing shelter to fleeing Palestinian families.

Israel doesn’t care two hoots for the international community or the UN with its fine but toothless institutions. After all, none of them have ever confronted Israel for its endless crimes against a defenseless people whose homes, land and country it has already stolen.

The Gaza offensive wasn’t the first “disproportionate” war against the Palestinians. And it wouldn’t be the last one. Israel has always got away with murder; and we all know with whose blessings!

We in the Middle East hoped against hope this would change when Goldstone presented his findings before the UN Human Rights Council last week. This report is significant in that this is the first time a UN commission has come close to suggesting action against Israel for its war crimes. The commission has asked Israel to probe and act on Gaza war crimes within six months or face action by the International Criminal Court.

We hoped with Barack Obama in the White House, the US would pitch for justice and the rule of law, rather than blindly protect and support Israel as it always has. Those hopes crashed with the US rescuing Israel once again in the UN.

Washington forced the UN Human Rights Council to shelve the crucial vote on Goldstone’s report, once again denying justice to a people long denied justice.

Isn’t it ironic that Americans want justice (against Roman Polanski) for a sexual offence committed three decades ago but oppose justice for the thousands of Gazan families including nearly 1500 victims of Israel’s terror war? If this isn’t duplicity and double standards, what is?

- Aijaz Zaka Syed is Opinion Editor of Khaleej Times. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: aijaz@khaleejtimes.com