The victim always honours the truth while the perpetrator evades it. Israel refuses to accept, discuss or even refute conclusions reached by any investigation into its actions. Instead, it begins to curse, incite and prevent UN delegations from entering the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, we bless any serious investigation regarding what has happened and is happening in Gaza, despite the fact that we do not need a UN report to confirm to us that Israel committed war crimes against our people. We support the report despite the fact that it is not an indictment against Israel nor is it the result of legal procedures; it is a report presented by the UN Human Rights Council.
However, such reports can form the basis for filing a complaint and requesting an investigation by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Israel’s disregard for the UN report is reason enough for international circles to disregard its own reports. Those who disregard international reports and label them as “blood-stained reports” prove their inability to deal objectively with a report of this kind, even if they are the source of the report.
We are not concerned with Israel’s reactions; we are concerned with our reaction and being dealt with as a victim with a document that forms the basis for the prosecution for the child-killers who “do not forget to give them candy”.
The Palestinian response should be that we welcome the report and any serious and independent investigation into the war crimes that were committed. We also accept the report’s recommendation to go to the ICC to prosecute the war criminals, as well as the UN recommendation to demand that Israel sign the Rome Statute, especially since the Palestinian Authority signed this document recently.
As for the group of people in Israel who want to “console themselves” by balancing between the offender and the victim, they claim that the report is more balanced than the Goldstone Report and alleges that Israel and “Palestinian armed groups” are war criminals. However, reading the report shows this to be false, for the following reasons.
It alludes to the fact that the Israeli government is responsible for the situation that led to it committing war crimes and indicates that what happened is within the context of the siege and one cannot understand and evaluate what occurred in Gaza in isolation from the blockade imposed by Israel, which is equivalent to the “collective punishment” of the Palestinians. The report also stressed Israel’s continued refusal to cooperate with the Human Rights Council, including refusing to issue permits to its delegations to enter Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. The UN also noted that Egypt has not allowed its delegations to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. This forced the HRC to accept 280 direct interviews, 500 written testimonies and review official Israeli government websites. As for the Palestinian Authority, the report notes that it cooperated with the council.
The report addresses the magnitude of the crime in a manner that suits the magnitude of the destruction and death-toll. It attributes the lion’s share of the crimes to Israel, representing each crime in numbers. It stated that there were 2,251 Palestinians killed, of which 551 were children; 11,231 were wounded, including 3,436 children; 430 children will have permanent disabilities. In addition, the attack left 1,500 children orphaned, eliminated whole families and destroyed entire neighbourhoods. Moreover, 142 Palestinian families lost at least three members. The report concluded that “the high incidence of loss of human life and injury in Gaza is heart-breaking.”
As for the destruction and demolition of Gaza’s infrastructure, the report pointed out that 18,000 homes were demolished in Gaza and that the electricity lines, water supplies and wastewater network have all sustained damage. In addition to this, 73 medical centres and dozens of ambulances were destroyed, and half a million Palestinians, that’s 28 per cent of the Gaza population, have now become refugees. The report also mentioned Israel’s destruction of UN shelters and UN institutions, including medical centres and ambulances. It noted that Israel launched 6,000 strikes, the majority of which hit residential areas.
In addition, the report pointed out that 73 Israelis were killed and 1,600 were wounded, including 270 children. The Palestinians fired 4,881 rockets and 1, 753 mortars from Gaza.
While the report used expressions such as “psychological trauma”, “fear”, “panic”, “sense of safety”, “breaking daily routine” and “living under persistent threat” to describe the situation in Israel, it used expressions such as “complete destruction”, “heart-breaking incidence of loss of human life and injury”, “security crisis” and “the systematic recurrence of human rights violations” to describe the situation in Gaza.
The HRC not only blames Israel for the magnitude and size of the destruction, but also for deliberate murder. For example, Israel deliberately bombed buildings during mealtimes in Ramadan, or at night while everyone was asleep. Israel bombed inhabited buildings even though it believed that there were civilians inside; it has no excuses for its war crimes. Israel’s claim that it gave residents advance warning to evacuate their homes was responded to by the UN, which pointed out that 44 per cent of Gaza consists of confined spaces and therefore there is no nearby “safe” area to flee to.
The report stressed that Israel did not do all that it could have done to ensure that it did not kill civilians and that its “ignorance” regarding its operations killing civilians could have been dispelled a few days into the raids. However, the raids continued in the same manner, which indicated that there was a “set pattern of raids”, thus suggesting that Israel aimed to kill as many Palestinians as possible. It added that reconstruction is not a substitute or in place of the complete and immediate lifting of the siege imposed on Gaza.
The UN report presents an opportunity to hold Israel accountable internationally and an opportunity for the Palestinian popular and official parties to insist that Israel should sign the Rome Statute. We must take this report to the ICC and be determined to do so for the sake of the persevering struggles of our people and for the sake of Gaza’s heroic steadfastness.
Translated from Arab48, 27 June, 2015.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.