Michael de Laine

War crimes experts call for investigation into ‘gross violations’ during Israeli-Gaza conflict

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 22 March 2009

Sixteen of the world’s leading war crimes investigators and judges - backed by Amnesty International - have urged the United Nations (UN) to launch a full inquiry into alleged gross violations of the laws of war committed by both sides during the recent conflict in Gaza and southern Israel.

According to Amnesty, an open letter - entitled ‘Find the truth about Gaza war’ - was sent to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in mid-March. The letter’s signatories included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and judge Richard Goldstone, formerly Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.

A UN inquiry is currently investigating attacks which were carried out against UN facilities and personnel in Gaza during the three-week conflict.

“This UN investigation is not sufficient as a response to the grave violations that were committed during the conflict,” said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. “Hundreds of civilians were killed or injured, and it is vital that the circumstances in which they were attacked are fully investigated.

“Those responsible for war crimes or other serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses must be held to account. What is needed is a comprehensive international investigation that looks at all alleged violations of international law - by Israel, by Hamas and by other Palestinian armed groups involved in the conflict.”

The letter’s signatories - who have led investigations of crimes committed in former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Darfur, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, East Timor, Lebanon and Peru - say that they have been “shocked to the core” by events in Gaza.

They have urged world leaders “to send an unfaltering signal that the targeting of civilians during conflict is unacceptable by any party on any count.”

They want the UN to set up a commission of inquiry that is empowered to carry out a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation of all allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by all parties to the Israeli/Gazan conflict, in order to provide recommendations about appropriate prosecution of those responsible for gross violations of the law by the relevant authorities.

Professor William A Schabas, former member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said: “The international community must apply the same standard to Gaza as it does to other conflicts and investigate all abuses of the laws of war and human rights.”

At a meeting in Copenhagen on ‘Israelis and Palestinians - peoples and rights’, Miri Weingarten, of the Israeli B’Tselem peace NGO, said: “There have been unprecedented violations of human rights and international law in the Gaza conflict. Israel has used disproportionate force, while Palestinians have used ‘indiscriminate’ missiles and sent them from residential areas.

“There must be accountability – and Europeans have a role to play in ensuring such accountability because of Europe’s historical background.”

Fatmeh El-Ajou of Adalah, an NGO that works among Palestinian Arabs in Israel, who account for 20% of Israel’s population, said the Palestinian Arabs have rights but not equality and are discriminated against.

Together with Wesam Ahmad of the NGO Al-Haq (which means: The Truth), she called on the international community, including Denmark, to put pressure on Israel to end the occupation of what is generally regarded as Palestinian territory.

Ahmad admitted that the Palestinians sent ‘indiscriminate’ missiles into Israel, where they caused damage and personal injuries and deaths, thereby breaching international law.

“But,” he said, “this does not justify Israel’s disproportionate use of force. Israel is occupying Palestinian territory and has set up settlements, and is defending these in violation of international law.”

He mentioned East Jerusalem as a good example of the situation: Israel is building settlements, but Palestinians are not being granted building permits.

Marc Schade-Poulsen of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) agreed that Denmark’s human rights strategy must be applied to Israel and human rights violations in the Gaza conflict by both sides must be investigated.

In a position paper on the Israeli military attacks on the civilian police force and government buildings and institutions of Hamas in Gaza, Fatmeh El-Ajou documents that some Israeli attacks “ran counter to customary international humanitarian law”. They can be “considered international crimes, their perpetrators carry criminal accountability”.