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10 April 2011 By Khaled Amayreh In an op-ed published in
The
Washington Post last week the author
of the Goldstone Report on Israel's all-out aggression
on the
Gaza Strip more than two years
ago, argued that if he had known then what he knows
now, he would have changed his mind about some of the
conclusions contained in the report, particularly
those parts accusing Israel of committing
war crimes
against Palestinian civilians during the 22-day
onslaught. As many as 1,400 Palestinians,
mostly innocent civilians, including some 333
children, were killed during the war with thousands
others injured, some critically. Thousands of
buildings, including residential homes, mosques and
government facilities, were destroyed in sustained
Israeli bombing of the mainly unprotected coastal
enclave. "His scandalous vindication of
Israel is unethical, affronting and unacceptable. But
above all, I am worried that it might encourage and
embolden Israel to murder many more Palestinians,"
said Ghassan Khatib, head of the Government Press
Office in
Ramallah. "From now on, Israel
will understand that whatever crimes its army may
commit against innocent civilians, it will never be
incriminated." Israeli leaders have jumped out
of their skins in celebrating Goldstone's article,
which they viewed as a clarion exoneration of the
Israeli army
of any wrongdoing. The fact that many hundreds of
Palestinian civilians were murdered knowingly, if not
intentionally, has been conspicuously absent from
Israeli officials' comments.
Israeli President Shimon Peres,
the Noble Peace laureate infamous for his role in the
killing of more than 100 Lebanese civilians in
Qana
in 1996, even felt able to urge Goldstone to apologise
to Israel for "besmirching the IDF's image". Treating the Washington Post
article as a priceless propaganda gift,
Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu seemed elated.
"Everything we said proved to be true," claimed the
Israeli premier in a confident tone. "Israel didn't
intentionally target civilians and it has credible
investigatory bodies."
Defence Minister Ehud
Barak, also widely believed to
have innocent blood on his hands, went as far as
invoking the discredited mantra that the Israeli
occupation army was "the most moral army in the
world". "We always said the army... acted according to
international law," he added. Goldstone's scandalous about-turn
was not all that surprising. According to Illan Pappe,
professor of political science at
Haifa
University, it came after more than a year and a half
of a sustained campaign of intimidation and character
assassination against the South African judge. This sustained campaign by Jewish
circles, especially in South Africa, included virtual
excommunication from Jewish communities, vilification
and demonisation in synagogues around the world and an
organised letter writing campaign castigating the
international judge for "betraying your people in
order to appease Gentiles". Hence, his exoneration of Israel,
despite the blood spilt in
Gaza,
was received with satisfaction in Israel. And
Goldstone himself, who was viewed by Israel only last
week with contempt has suddenly become a most glowing
example of reason and prudence for no other reason
than giving credence to the Israeli narrative of its
blitzkrieg on the
Gaza Strip
in 2008/09. It is quite easy to refute
Goldstone's opinionated conclusions. His backtracking
is based on an
Israeli army
"investigation" into its own crimes. Goldstone took
that investigation at face value, overlooking the
obvious fact that the accused must not be allowed to
investigate itself. Besides, Israel is known for
notoriously lying about its behaviour. Goldstone also took for granted
the Israeli claim that Israel didn't kill civilians
intentionally. To be sure, mistakes happen in war.
However, when victims are as numerous as was the case
in Gaza, it is obvious that "mistakes" constituted
policy. In the final analysis, killing knowingly is
killing deliberately, and even intent becomes
irrelevant when the number of victims is as high as in
the Gaza Strip. With hundreds of children and
other civilians killed and thousands maimed by white
phosphorus and other ammunitions used by Israel, and
the Dresden-like destruction of property all over the
Gaza Strip, Israel can't be given the
benefit of the doubt.
Indeed, the magnitude of death and havoc inflicted by
Israel makes it imperative upon the conscience of
humanity to treat Israel at the very least as guilty
until proven innocent. There is no doubt that Israeli
leaders and apologists will continue to dote upon the
Goldstone Report's metamorphosis, as
Shimon Peres
has been doing in New York. There is also
little doubt that
Peres's words, however mendacious, will fall on the
ears of US officials, such as Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, like music. No wonder Peres told Clinton that
her name represented true friendship, even under
difficult circumstances. (end) |
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