Israeli Group Calls for Gaza Investigation

by AP101 | March 26, 2009 at 11:01 am

90 views | 0 Recommendations | 2 comments

Israeli Group Calls for Gaza Investigation at Launch of New AP University Chapter

March 13, 2009, South Hadley, Mass.: The leading Israeli human rights group B'Tselem is calling for an impartial investigation into Israel's recent military operation in the Gaza Strip, which claimed nearly 1,300 lives and displaced about 50,000 Palestinians.

Mitchell Plitnick, Director of US Outreach for B'Tselem, made the announcement at a March 6 panel discussion at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. The event was the first to be organized by a newly-formed university chapter of The Advocacy Project (AP).

B'Tselem has petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to allow B'Tselem staff members to enter Gaza to assess the humanitarian situation. By barring human rights groups like B'Tselem, Mr Plitnick said, the Israeli authorities are undermining their own case and allowing possible violations by Hamas to go undocumented.

He insisted that opening any crossings into Gaza must take into account Israel's own legitimate security concerns, and called for a stronger and more realistic commitment to human rights in the Middle East by the United States.

"I left (the audience) with the message that we are living now in a time of change in terms of Middle East policy," Mr Plitnick said, "but change can't be effective and sustained unless Americans are advocating for a human rights policy that has real impact on the ground."

The new chapter at Mt. Holyoke represents an extension of AP's outreach efforts on behalf of community-based partners around the world, including the Middle East. AP has supported Palestinian civil society since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, and is committed to helping Palestinian and Israeli civil society make the case for a just, two-state solution.

Last week's panel also featured Willow Heske, a graduate student at Columbia University who served as a Peace Fellow at the Democracy and Workers' Rights Center (DWRC) in the West Bank in 2008. Ms Heske described how Palestinian civil society is working to hold both the Palestinian Authority and Israel accountable for human rights violations.

The Mt. Holyoke chapter was started in the fall of 2008 by Hibba Al-Adawy, who interned at the AP office in Washington last summer. So far, the chapter has about 10 active members, and Ms Al-Adawy said she is reaching out to professors about bringing AP guest speakers to classes. The chapter has already received coverage in campus news outlets.

"Even though it's a very new chapter, I think a lot of people have gotten to know Mt. Holyoke Advocacy Project," Ms Al-Adawy said.

The AP panel was part of a series of events, called "Salaam/Shalom: Paths Towards Peace and Justice in Israel and Palestine," organized by Mt. Holyoke student organizations to increase awareness about the conflict. About 50 students, as well as the Dean of the College, turned out for the AP panel and the discussion drew praise from participants and observers.

"I was very intrigued by the way B'Tselem approached the issue," wrote Emily Landau, a Mt. Holyoke student, in a Facebook message to the AP chapter. "Thank you for bringing them here. I, as well as many others, (am) very grateful."

Ms Heske agreed. "I was really impressed with the Mt. Holyoke students," she said. "Their questions... showed that they came to the event with a true sense of neutrality and they wanted to understand both sides of the conflict, and understand our best ways forward."

Learn more about AP’s Mt. Holyoke College Chapter
Read campus news coverage of the panel discussion
Watch a slideshow from the event

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

tikun

at 12:52 on March 26th, 2009

(Jerusalem) – Jerusalem-based research organization NGO Monitor today rejected Human Rights Watch's latest report on the Gaza conflict, "Rain of Fire: Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorous in Gaza," as inaccurate and distorted, revealing a readiness to manipulate "evidence" to match pre-determined ideological conclusions.

HRW's record exhibits a strong anti-Israel bias. Its reporting in 2008 reflected the portrayal of Israel as the second worst abuser of human rights in the Middle East. Even before the renewal of the military conflict on December 27, 2008, HRW focused disproportionately on Gaza: 18 out of 27 HRW statements in 2008 dealing with Israel addressed Gaza, accusing Israel of "collective punishment," "continued occupation,” and contributing to a "humanitarian crisis" – charges that are inconsistent with international law and lack supporting evidence.

HRW also has a history of inaccurate reporting. During the Second Lebanon War (2006), HRW promoted the myth of a Qana massacre, inflating the death toll to 54, although officials knew at the time that the Red Cross was only reporting 28 casualties. HRW eventually retracted its false report. Similarly, HRW's major report on the conflict, "Fatal Strikes" (August 2006), claimed the NGO "found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians" - i.e., operated from civilian areas - despite a wealth of documentary and video proof of the extensive Hezbollah activity in many of the specific villages where HRW claimed it was absent. Nine out of 21 cases described in "Fatal Strikes" were contradicted by later HRW reports - a remarkable inaccuracy rate of 43% - even before independent analysis of the evidence.

The latest report on the use of white phosphorus continues HRW's pattern, including:

Complete omission of the context of the broader conflict, including Hamas' deliberate exploitation of civilian areas to launch attacks. For example, HRW claims that there was no Hamas activity around the Al-Quds Hospital in Tel al-Hawa, yet, a Gazan ambulance driver reported that Hamas operatives "made several attempts to hijack the Al-Qud's Hospital's fleet of ambulances." In another instance, HRW alleges there was "no indication" of "Palestinian armed groups" operating in Beit Lahiya; photographic evidence shows Hamas fortifications in the town.
Reliance on Palestinian eye witnesses whose credibility or links to Hamas cannot be verified: "Palestinian de-miners showed Human Rights Watch an additional 48 shells that they said they had removed from civilian areas, although the precise location where they found these shells is unclear. It is unlikely that the de-miners collected any of these shells from open areas near the Gaza-Israel armistice line."
The main claim of "evidence of war crimes" stems from HRW's allegation that the IDF intended to "willfully-that is, deliberately or recklessly" harm civilians (despite a complete absence of evidence regarding IDF motives).
The authors include Marc Garlasco, who has a significant record of anti-Israel bias in reporting at HRW; Fares Akram, who publicly stated "I am finding it hard to distinguish between what the Israelis call terrorists and the Israeli pilots and tank crews who are invading Gaza;" and Darryl Li, whose inflammatory pseudo-legal arguments published in the pro-Palestinian propaganda journal, MERIP, describes Gaza as a "bantustan, internment camp, animal pen."
HRW extensively relies on Palestinian NGO Al Mezan, thanking them in the report. Among other claims, Al Mezan lists a child as deceased, who was subsequently interviewed by Garlasco in Gaza.
The report reflects HRW's inconsistent definition of "human shield." When reporting on Sri Lanka, HRW condemns the LTTE for "deploy[ing] their forces close to civilians, thus using them as 'human shields.'" Yet in Gaza, HRW claims that it "found no evidence of Hamas using human shields in the vicinity at the time of the attacks" despite the fact that "In some areas Palestinian fighters appear to have been present…"

judyinjerusalem

at 05:08 on March 30th, 2009

And now we have the official conclusions of the IDF inquiry, released moments ago here in Jerusalem:

March 30th, 2009

Military Police Investigation Concerning Statements Made at the Rabin Center: Based on Hearsay

The Military Advocate General, Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit, decided to close the Criminal Investigation Department of the Military Police case of the statements made by soldiers at the Rabin Military Preparation Center about Operation Cast Lead. This decision was made after the Military Police investigation found that the crucial components of their descriptions were based on hearsay and not supported by specific personal knowledge. In particular, this includes the two alleged stories that raised suspicion of acts in which uninvolved non-combatants were fired upon.

Additionally, it was found that once the claims were checked, they were not supported by the facts as determined by the investigation.

The investigation was initiated by the Military Advocate General after reviewing claims made during a conference at the Rabin Military Preparation Center in which soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead were present. The Criminal Investigation Department of the Military Police was ordered to investigate the claims made, with an emphasis on the alleged firing at uninvolved non-combatants.

The investigation concluded from the soldiers who participated in the conference that the stories told were purposely exaggerated and made extreme, in order to make a point with the participants of the conference.

For example, the story in which a soldier was claimed to have been given orders to fire at an elderly woman was clarified during the investigation. In fact, the soldier witnessed no such thing, and was only repeating a rumor he had heard. In an unrelated investigation, it was found that in a similar incident, a woman, suspected as being a suicide bomber, approached an IDF force, which opened fired towards her after repeatedly trying to stop her from advancing.

This same soldier admitted that he had not witnessed the additional disrespectful and immoral incidents he had described during the conference.

A claim made by a different soldier who had supposedly been ordered to open fire at a woman and two children was also clarified as an incident that he had not witnessed. After checking the claim, it was found that during this incident a force had opened fire in a different direction, towards two suspicious men who were unrelated to the civilians in question.

During the Military Police investigation, two additional claims arose regarding improper conduct. These claims were separate from those made at the Rabin Military Preparation Center. It was found that these incidents do not raise suspicion of unjustified opening of fire. This finding is based on a debriefing which had occurred close to the time of one of the incidents and upon further investigation conducted by the Military Police.

It must be stated that during these investigations, the participants at the Rabin Center said that they had based their claims relating to the use of phosphorous munitions on what they had heard in the media and not on their personal knowledge.

The Military Advocate General, Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit, concluded the findings of the Military Police investigation:

"It is unfortunate that none of the speakers at the conference was careful to be accurate in the depiction of his claims, and even more so that they chose to present various incidents of a severe nature, despite not personally witnessing and knowing much about them. It seems that it will be difficult to evaluate the damage done to the image and morals of the IDF and its soldiers, who had participated in Operation Cast Lead, in Israel and the world."

The IDF Spokesperson Unit wishes to stress that the Military Advocate General's conclusions refer solely to the investigations that focused on the transcripts of the Rabin Military Preparation Center conference, in addition to the two separate aforementioned claims. This investigation is additional and not a substitute for the investigations conducted on all levels of the IDF, following Operation Cast Lead."