Israel boosts efforts to veto war crimes charges

[CEZAYIRLI]

Israel boosts efforts to veto war crimes charges

Public opinion in democratic world is key — Netanyahu

gulfnews.com

Israel boosts efforts to veto war crimes charges​

Public opinion in democratic world is key — Netanyahu

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Published: October 22, 2009 00:00By Layelle Saad GCC, Middle East Editor

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Dubai: Israel has been taking no chances to ensure it will not be held accountable for alleged war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.

Facing growing pressure internationally to independently investigate war crime allegations, the Israeli cabinet decided instead to channel all of its efforts into forming a special lobbying team to ensure the US veto any legislation in the UN Security Council which endangers Israelis facing legal action for war crimes.

"Our struggle is to delegitimise the continuing attempt to delegitimise the state of Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the meeting, according to his office.

"The most important sphere we need to work in is the sphere of public opinion in the democratic world."
"This is proof that Israel's misbehaviour is catching up with them," Murhaf Jouejati, Political Science Professor at George Washington University told Gulf News in an interview.

The UN report into alleged war crimes, overseen by respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone, has created uproar in Israel.

Officials say the Human Rights Council, which includes many Arab and Muslim countries, is hopelessly biased against Israel. In a recent New York Times article published by former Human Rights Watch chairman and founder, Richard Bernstein, he calls into question the organization's credibility.

"This article does not emerge in a vacuum, its surely falls into the public relations context," Jouejati said.
But Goldstone's credentials as a former war crimes prosecutor in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, his Jewish faith and his close ties to Israel have made it hard for Israel to ignore his findings.

Goldstone has personally urged Israel to hold an independent investigation, but Israel has been resistant.
A dissenting voice within the Israeli government yesterday urged the government to launch its own inquiry.
"A country that investigates itself puts up a roadblock to coming under [legal] assault," Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor was quoted as saying in an interview in the Haaretz newspaper.

"A commission of inquiry or examination, which I hope will be named, must examine the claims of the Goldstone report."
Jouejati believes Israel has backed itself into a corner by refusing to independently investigate the incident because the report does not question Israel's right to defend itself.

Phosphorous bomb
"What is questioned, in fact, is its right to throw white phosphorous bombs on civilians," Jouejati said.
However, the US showed no signs of abandoning Israel during this public relations crisis. US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told Israeli President Shimon Peres that Washington would stand by Israel as "a loyal friend".
The US is sure to veto any legislation that comes through the UN Security Council which threatens to prosecute Israelis over Gaza war crimes.

Bernstein slams group
In a shocking article published by the New York Times, founder and chairman of 20 years of Human Rights Watch, Robert Bernstein, launched a scathing attack on his own organisation, which has repeatedly criticised Israel for human rights violations against Palestinians and the Lebanese.

In the article Bernstein questions his own organisation's ability to be objective when it comes to monitoring human rights violations in the Middle East, and goes to great lengths to speak highly about Israel's "free and democratic" society.
"Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organisations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields," Bernstein says in his article.

A security officer (left) scuffles with a Palestinian man during the visit of Middle East envoy Tony Blair at the Ebrahimi mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday.Image Credit: Reuters