Posted on January 30, 2010 by realistic bird
Al Manar
30/01/2010 Israel on Friday submitted to the United Nations its first official response to the Goldstone Report, which accused Tel Aviv of committing war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, the Ynet Website said.
According to Yedioth Aharonoth’s Website,the response did not address the international demand to appoint an independent commission of inquiry into the Gaza operation.
Israel stressed that the document was not a direct response to the report, which Jerusalem refuses to acknowledge, but an answer to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s inquiry on Israel’s conduct during the operation.
In the document, Israel compared between its ‘handling of terrorism’ operated from within a population and other Western militaries forced to deal with similar situations.
The document included updated on Israeli army investigations and emphasized that Israel views legal proceedings and doing justice as highly important.
The document is a response to the UN secretary-general, who gave the involved parties in September three months to provide their responses to the Goldstone Report. Ban is expected to present his stand on the matter next Friday.
Israel will decide whether to appoint an independent commission of inquiry in accordance with the international community’s demand.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak and army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi object to such a committee. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is in favor of appointing such a committee in order to minimize additional damage, including fear that the matter would be handed over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and PM Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to decide on the matter.
The human rights council had urged the UN General Assembly to debate the Goldstone report and then refer the alleged crimes to the International Criminal Court at The Hague. That proposal has been not been acted upon so far. Instead, the General Assembly asked for its own report based on submissions from both sides – following another recommendation from the 547-page Goldstone report that both Israel and Hamas conduct their own investigations.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority also submitted its first response to the Goldstone Report to the UN. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative at the UN, told reporters he had presented to the organization’s secretariat a letter from Palestinian President Salam Fayyad.
He said the letter was accompanied by documents, including a presidential order on the establishment of a commission of inquiry including five judges and external experts.
Mansour noted that the documents include “an initial report” prepared by the committee, but did not elaborate on its content. Asked about Hamas’ response to the report, he clarified that the documents handed over to the UN were the Palestinian government’s official response. Mansour stated that the PA intended to investigate alleged Hamas war crimes.
The Goldstone report charged both Israel and Hamas with war crimes, as well as acts that amounted to crimes against humanity. The UN report found that the conflict was dominated by Israel’s military superiority, had killed 1,400 Palestinians and caused widespread damage to properties in Gaza.
Hamas has rejected claims that it committed war crimes, saying Thursday that it had not deliberately targeted Israeli civilians with the rocket fire from Gaza.
Compared to more than 1400 Palestinians killed in the Gaza offensive, most of which were civilians, the use of internationally banned phosphorus shells in populated areas, and the execution of civilians after ordering them out of their
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River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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