Political NGOs Push for Another “Goldstone” Pseudo-Investigation

NGO Monitor

July 17, 2014
http://ngo-monitor.org/article.php?viewall=yes&id=4281

-Following Israel’s response to hundreds of attacks launched from Gaza, the
network of international, Palestinian, and Israeli-Arab NGOs have initiated
a campaign to replicate the discredited “Goldstone process” of political
warfare against Israel, including: ?calling for UN and international
“fact-finding missions” to investigate alleged Israeli “war crimes and
crimes against humanity”;
?lobbying for International Criminal Court (ICC) “war crimes” cases against
Israeli officials;
?promoting arms embargos against Israel.

-The NGOs leading this campaign include Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty
International, FIDH, a coalition of Palestinian NGOs (including Al-Haq, Al
Mezan, Badil, Defence for Children International- Palestine Section,
Palestinian Center for Human Rights), and of Israeli-Arab NGOs (such as the
NIF-funded Adalah and Mossawa).
-Goldstone process: The discredited and entirely unprofessional UN
fact-finding mission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, following the 2009
Gaza conflict, was largely based on “cutting and pasting” from unsourced,
unverified and highly biased NGO claims. Now, NGOs are again offering to
provide “information, assistance, materials or advice.”
-Lobbying for ICC cases: As part of the Goldstone agenda and lawfare
campaigns, NGOs have intensively lobbied the ICC Prosecutor to pursue an
investigation into alleged Israeli “war crimes,” and encouraged the
Palestinian Authority to join the ICC in order to press such claims. This is
part of a wider campaign to exploit international legal frameworks as a
weapon against Israel (lawfare).
-Arms embargo: NGOs, most notably Amnesty International, have again called
for a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel, falsely accusing Israel of
using weapons obtained from the U.S. and others for illegal attacks. This
would deprive Israel of necessary and entirely legitimate self-defense
capabilities against missiles and terror. While Amnesty formally calls for
an arms embargo of Hamas and Palestinian armed groups, they seek to prevent
Israel from enforcing it by a blockade of Gaza.
-Adalah, which signed a July 14 Israeli-Arab NGO joint statement calling for
“the UN to initiate a fact-finding mission,” cynically sent a July 10 public
letter to the Israeli Defense Minister, demanding “that the competent
authorities order an independent investigation.”
-The funders of these NGOs, including the New Israel Fund and European
governments, share moral responsibility as enablers in this NGO-led
political warfare.

Excerpts from NGO statements:

Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Press release: “Unlawful Israeli Airstrikes Kill Civilians,” July 16, 2014:
-The United Nations Human Rights Council should hold a special session to
address violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the
context of the conflict, Human Rights Watch said. The Council should mandate
the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to form a
fact-finding mission to impartially investigate, report promptly and
publicly on violations by all sides, and issue recommendations to the
parties and the UN.
-The European Union and its member countries should support convening a
special session and formation of a fact-finding mission.
-The Palestine Liberation Organization should direct President Mahmoud Abbas
to seek the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to investigate
and prosecute serious international crimes committed by all parties on
Palestinian territory.
-“The longstanding failure of either side to prosecute war crimes in Gaza
means that the only meaningful option for justice and accountability is
legal proceedings before the International Criminal Court,” Whitson said.
“How many more civilians will die as a result of unlawful Israeli attacks
before President Abbas submits Palestine to this court?”
-Governments that are providing weapons to Israel, to Hamas, or to armed
groups in the Gaza Strip should suspend transfers of any materiel that has
been documented or credibly alleged to have been used in violation of
international humanitarian law, as well as funding or support for such
material, Human Rights Watch said. The US supplies Israel with rotary and
fixed wing military aircraft, Hellfire missiles, and other munitions that
have been used in illegal airstrikes in Gaza.

Interview with Bill van Esveld, “Targeting civilians ‘is a war crime’ –
HRW,” Russia Today, July 12, 2014:
-...We’ve seen virtually no accountability for very well-documented past
cases of abuse, violations, and even war crimes, and without accountability
and with impunity, then abuses will obviously continue.
-They need to make it clear that there will be accountability for violations
and this is going to be looked into and it’s not going to be swept under the
carpet as the Goldstone Report was eventually put aside after the terrible
carnage in 2008/9. My organization has been calling for the state of
Palestine to go to the ICC for a year now, and it’s high time for them to do
that.

Amnesty International

Press release: “UN must impose arms embargo and mandate an international
investigation as civilian death toll rises,” July 11, 2014:
-Amnesty International is calling for a UN-mandated international
investigation into violations committed on all sides amidst ongoing Israeli
air strikes across the Gaza Strip and continuing volleys of indiscriminate
rocket fire from Palestinian armed groups into Israel.
-“As the violence intensifies there is an urgent need for the UN to mandate
an international independent fact-finding mission to Gaza and Israel to
investigate violations of international humanitarian law by all parties to
the conflict. This is the first crucial step towards ensuring that those who
have committed war crimes or other serious violations can be held
accountable,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North
Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
-Amnesty International is also calling on the UN to immediately impose a
comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups
with the aim of preventing further serious violations of international
humanitarian law and human rights by the parties to the conflict. Pending
such an embargo, all states must immediately suspend all transfers of
military equipment, assistance and munitions to the parties, which have
failed to properly investigate violations committed in previous conflicts or
bring those responsible to justice.

Coalition of Israeli-Arab NGOs – Arab Association for Human Rights, Adalah,
Mada al-Carmel, Women Against Violence, Kayan Feminist Organization,
Mossawa, Association for Arab Youth – Baladna, I’lam, The Galilee Society,
Arab Cultural Association, Hirakuna, AlZahraa Organization for the
Advancement of Women, Al Qaws

Statement: “Palestinian Civil Society in Israel Demands Urgent Action on
Gaza,” July 14, 2014:
-We also urge the UN to initiate a fact-finding mission to investigate
alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
-We call for an immediate end to hostilities against the Palestinian
civilian population of Gaza, and for thorough, independent and genuine
investigations to be launched into all violations of international human
rights and humanitarian law.
-We call on the international community to monitor closely the recent
escalation of attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip, and to raise concerns
of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity based on the Rome Statute
-We also urge the UN to initiate a fact-finding mission to investigate these
events. We further encourage you to keep in contact with the undersigned
Palestinian civil society organizations in Israel for information,
assistance, materials or advice on the above.

Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) – Addameer, Aldameer,
Al-Haq, Al Mezan, Badil, Defence for Children International Palestine
Section, Ensan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, Hurryyat - Centre for
Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights, Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and
Human Rights, Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies, Women’s Centre for
Legal Aid and Counselling, Palestinian Center for Human Rights

“Open Letter from Palestinian Human Rights Organizations regarding the EU’s
responsibility to stop Israel’s targeting of Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip,” July 14, 2014:
-Ensure that perpetrators of violations of international law are held to
account, including through the exercise of universal jurisdiction;
Unequivocally support Palestinian accession of the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court in order to ensure that an international forum
will be accessible to address the crimes committed during the course of
ongoing hostilities in the OPT as well as previously committed and
continuing crimes.

FIDH

Statement: “War crimes in Israel and Palestine: UNSC called to react,” July
10, 2014:
-While justice is essential to deter further the crimes and to build any
peace process, impunity has since been the rule and Occupation of Palestine
by Israel had kept developing. FIDH recalls its analysis that the current
situation falls within the jurisdiction of the ICC and its call for the ICC
to be triggered according to appropriate channels.

FIDH supports its members’ call for an extraordinary meeting of the Assembly
of State parties to the Geneva Conventions to be convened urgently by
Switzerland as the depositary of these Conventions.

Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)

Statement: July 16, 2014:

Calls upon the international community to act immediately to stop these
crimes, and renews the call to the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth
Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligation under Article 1 of the
Convention to ensure that it is respected at all times, and their
responsibilities under Article 146 to pursue perpetrators of serious
violations of the Convention, which are determined in Article 147, which
lists violations of the Convention amounting to war crimes.

Calls for establishing a UN fact-finding mission to investigate suspected
war crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the
Gaza Strip, and take necessary steps to prosecute responsible for them.

PCHR, Al-Dameer, Al Mezan (posted as press release by Badil)

Joint statement: “Human Rights Organizations Calls on the International
Community to Immediately Act to Stop and the Israeli Offensive and Protect
Palestinian Civilians,” July 9-10, 2014.
-The human rights organizations strongly condemns the escalating Israeli
offensive, and stresses that the international community's neglect of their
legal obligations towards the civilian population, including ignoring the
Advisory Opinion issued ten years ago by the International Court of Justice
concerning the Wall in the West Bank and the report of the UN Fact-Finding
Mission on Gaza Conflict (the Goldstone Report), has enhanced impunity in
committing grave breaches of the international law, which encourages Israeli
forces to commit more crimes against the Palestinian civilian population.
-…call upon the international community to immediately and effectively act
to fulfill their legal and moral obligations towards the Palestinian
civilian population through stopping the Israeli offensive on the Gaza
Strip, providing protection for civilians and activating mechanism of
accountability and prosecution of those who order or commit war crimes
against Palestinian civilians and their property in the Gaza Strip. They
further call upon President Mahmoud Abbas to immediately ratify the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court in order to prosecute suspected
Israeli war criminals and ensure they do not enjoy impunity.