Whither After the Goldstone Report?

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By Karin Friedemann

The debate over the Goldstone Report is a huge distraction from the real problem: the Report’s inadequacy and the futility of bringing the case to the International Criminal Court. The Report itself, written by a Zionist Jew, is extremely flawed and biased in favor of Israel. Richard Goldstone’s daughter Nicole told Israeli Army Radio (in Hebrew) that her father, as head of the UN Fact Finding Commission on the Gaza Conflict, had actually softened accusations against Israel. Goldstone’s Report creates a fictional equality of power and obligation between Hamas and the State of Israel. In addition, it incorrectly tries to fit both within the same legal framework, as Goldstone misapplies the Geneva Conventions to Hamas.

The Geneva Conventions apply to Israel because Israel is a state and a signatory while post-WW2 Nuremberg Law provides the appropriate legal framework for resistance movements like Hamas. The Nuremberg indictment of the Nationalist Socialist Government concerning German conquests and the Sudetenland, which was annexed to the Reich under international agreement, charges (International Military Tribunal, vol. 1, p. 63):

“In certain occupied territories purportedly annexed to Germany the defendants methodically and pursuant to plan endeavored to assimilate these territories politically, culturally, socially, and economically into the German Reich. They endeavored to obliterate the former national character of these territories. In pursuance of their plans, the defendants forcibly deported inhabitants who were predominantly non-German and replaced them by thousands of German colonists.”

If State of Israel replaces Germany, Zionist State replaces German Reich, and Jewish replaces German, the Nuremberg accusation precisely describes Zionist goals from the start of the Zionist movement until the present day. Until Israel negotiates an agreement with the resistance, all Jewish colonists today just like German colonists back then are legitimate targets for the resistance anywhere throughout the occupied lands of Historical Palestine.

The Palestinian-Jewish conflict has existed since before I was born. The UN essentially caused the conflict and has not solved it. Current UN actions show no evidence of bringing any improvement. Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get different results. Maybe we should try something else besides asking for UN help.

Furthermore, why waste time with the ICC? Even if it ruled against Israel, the ICC does not possess the power to enforce its decisions. One can only conclude that the Arabs are so traumatized by perpetual injustice that they confuse ineffective posturing with effective legal tactics.

Few Americans would ever argue that Jewish and Arab Americans should receive unequal treatment under US law. Yet the Department of Justice is unconstitutionally selectively targeting and prosecuting individuals and organizations. Jews file terror victim lawsuits against Palestinian organizations; for example a US judge ordered the PLO to pay $116 million to a Jewish American family; but no one files lawsuits on behalf of non-Jewish American citizens, who like Rachel Corrie and Suraideh Gharbieh have been victims of IDF terrorism.

In the American legal and political process, Jews seem privileged over non-Jews, thanks to efforts of the Israel Lobby, which is actively engaged in Conspiracy Against Rights (US Code Title18, 241). Yet no one in government or media discusses the situation. Obama administration Zionists want to bury the Goldstone Report because it provides specific evidence under US law that the IDF is a terrorist organization (e.g., paragraph 798):

“With regard to the shooting of Muhammad Hekmat Abu Halima and Matar Abu Halima, the Mission notes that the Israeli soldiers had ordered the tractor on which they were transporting the wounded to stop and had ordered the two cousins (aged 16 and 17) to come down. They had complied with those instructions and were standing next to the tractor, when the Israeli soldiers standing on the roof of a nearby house opened fire on them.”

US anti-terrorism law is clear with regard to aiding and abetting, material aid, and conspiracy to aid terrorism. Practically all Israel advocates should be arrested forthwith, and their assets should also be seized. Such is the current US practice whenever Jewish Zionist groups or individuals accuse Arab or Muslim organizations of terrorist ties under flimsy, ridiculous or counterfactual evidence.

Because Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey is clearly not applying US law to American Jews in the same way that he applies it to American Arabs and Muslims, he is preventing enforcement of US law in time of war and should face immediate charges for Seditious Conspiracy (US Code Title 18, 2384).

Criminal complaints should be filed with US law enforcement officials in order to bring charges against all Zionists violating US law or subverting the US government. If some number of Arab or Muslim American lawyers started to work on the project, US-based legal processes could start within a matter of weeks.

Rights groups: UN General Assembly must adopt Goldstone recommendations

Press release, various undersigned, 3 November 2009

On 4 November 2009, the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (Goldstone Report) is scheduled to be tabled before the Plenary of the UN General Assembly in New York. Following the Report's endorsement at the Human Rights Council on 21 October 2009, it now falls to the General Assembly to ensure that the Report is endorsed and its recommendations acted upon. The General Assembly must promote and support the primacy of international law in the necessity of ensuring justice and accountability for the war crimes and possible crimes against humanity that characterized Israel's assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009.

The Palestinian human rights community fully endorse the Report and urge the General Assembly to adopt each of its recommendations. We are calling for the GA to:

a) fully endorse the Report of the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict;

b) urge the Security Council to endorse the Report, and to expeditiously pursue all accountability mechanisms presented therein; and report to the GA on the progress in this matter;

c) demand that credible internal domestic investigations and prosecutions be carried out by the parties to the conflict in accordance with international standards of impartiality, independence, promptness and effectiveness;

d) remain fully appraised of the matter until appropriate action is taken at the domestic or international level in order to ensure justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators;

e) establish an escrow fund for the purpose of compensating the victims of violations of international law committed during Operation Cast Lead;

f) request Switzerland to convene a conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to ensure its respect;

g) promote an urgent discussion on the use of munitions such as white phosphorous (as mentioned in the Report), and a moratorium on their use by Israel.

It is no less crucial that over the coming weeks and months, given the statements from several of the Permanent Member States of the Security Council that they will oppose consideration of the Report in that forum, that the issue be pursued by all appropriate international mechanisms and UN Bodies. Should the Security Council fail to ensure accountability as demanded in the Report, and by the victims, the GA should prepare for further action. The focus of the General Assembly and of the Security Council must at all times be on ensuring accountability for the crimes documented in the Goldstone Report.

The Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization, as the representatives of the Palestinian people, must also strive to ensure full implementation of the Report. Palestinian advocacy and activism at the General Assembly is crucial in ensuring that lessons are learned from recent experiences which saw international legal obligations sidelined in favor of political expediency.

The international community of States, along with civil society, and the general public must stand firm and united in upholding the conviction that both State and non-state actors must respect international human rights and humanitarian law; that there is no peace and security without justice; and that accountability for violations of international law is fundamental.

Undersigned organizations: Adalah - Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Addameer, Al Dameer Association for Human Rights, Al-Haq - Law in the Service of Man, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Defence for Children International-Palestine Section, Ensan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, Jerusalem Legal Aid Center, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies, Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counselling