Israels Mark Regev: UN war crimes

inquiry a kangaroo court

(A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to hurl stones toward Israeli troops during
clashes, at a protest against Israeli offensive in Gaza, at Qalandia checkpoint near
the West Bank city of Ramallah July 24, 2014. Credit: Reuters)

Friday 19 Jun 2015

With its report expected in the next few days, Israel has repeated its claim
that the United Nations inquiry investigating whether war crimes may have
been committed in Gaza last summer is a kangaroo court.
The Israeli government has refused to cooperate with the inquiry and
denied its investigators access to Gaza.
In a telephone interview, the Israeli prime ministers chief spokesman, Mark
Regev, dismissed the UN Human Rights Council, which set up the inquiry,
as institutionally biased, saying its treatment of Israel has been a
travesty.
We fully expect another unbalanced report from this institutionally biased
UN body, which treats Israel unfairly, Mark Regev told Channel 4 News.
Its a kangaroo court, yet its report will have the credibility of the United
Nations behind it, he said. Israel has been singled out. Its important we
make our case.

Israeli soldiers mourn next to the grave of Israeli soldier Daniel Kedmi
during his funeral in Tel Aviv July 29, 2014. (Credit: Reuters.)
The remit of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Conflict in
Gaza is to investigate alleged violations of the laws of war by both sides. A
source close to the inquiry told Channel 4 News that it will cover a wide
range of incidents, including the allegedly deliberate targeting of hospitals,
schools and children by Israel.
The UN says more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed in the 50-day
conflict, most of them civilians although Israel contests this. Of the 73

Israelis who were killed, 66 were soldiers.

Mark Regevs comments are the latest salvo in what has become an
increasingly heated and bellicose government public relations offensive
as officials brace themselves for the UN reports release. Israeli newspapers
are reporting the widespread belief that the UN Inquiry will accuse the Israel
Defence Force of war crimes.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has led the charge, releasing its own
report into the conflict earlier this week. The 277-page tome claims
that Operation Protective Edge as the IDF called it was both legal and
moral. The government has also launched an attack on the foreign media,
mocking what it casts as the gullibility of journalists covering the conflict in
Gaza.
The Israeli report concluded that civilian deaths in Gaza were unfortunate
yet lawful incidental effects of legitimate military action. It found that of
the 2,125 fatalities in Gaza, just 761 were civilians fewer than half the
number cited by the UN.

An explosion during an Israeli strike in the northern Gaza Strip is pictured

from the Israeli border with Gaza, early morning July 26, 2014, before a
cease-fire takes effect. (Credit: Reuters)
Bill Van Esveld, of Human Rights Watch in Israel and Palestine, described
the Israeli report as a pre-emptive strike and said Israel should stop
boycotting and trying to undermine the credibility of UN human rights
mechanisms.
The report either blames Hamas abuses or discusses protocols, safeguards
and legal compliance procedures there is nothing useful about any of the

cases involving alleged violations of the laws of war by the Israeli side.
Thus far, he said, Israel has failed to investigate itself and its poor record
for accountability gives little cause for optimism.
A leading Israeli Human Rights Group, BTselem, says the Israeli militarys
own investigations into alleged military misconduct in last years Gaza
conflict have been a whitewash. BTselem pointedly refused to cooperate
with the Israeli military advocate generals investigations into exceptional
incidents in last years Gaza conflict. In the past, the group has provided
evidence to military inquiries.
The Israeli authorities are incapable of investigating, or unwilling to
investigate alleged violations of international law, Sarit Michaeli, BTselem
spokesperson, told Channel 4 News. We are extremely critical of the
process. Israel cannot shirk its responsibilities for harm to Palestinians in
Gaza. It basically just blames everything on Hamas.

Object 1

Both Israeli and international human rights groups have been highly critical

of Hamas, which is among the armed Palestinian groups which the UN

commission is also investigating over alleged war crimes. Amnesty
International last month published a report which accused Hamas of
waging a brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful
killings against alleged collaborators.
But the most recent ruling last week by the Military Advocate General last
week has caused widespread consternation, drawing gasps of disbelief
from Palestinians in Gaza and from journalists who witnessed the attack in
question. The incident involved the killing of four children playing on the
beach in Gaza City on 16 July 2014.
The military investigation exonerated the Israeli Defence Force
commanders involved. They were found to have exercised professional
discretion. The ruling stated that the attack process in question accorded
with Israeli domestic law and international law requirements. The
judgement said it would not have been possible for the operational entities
involved to have identified these figures, via aerial surveillance, as
children.

Object 2

The military advocate general

currently has more than 20 possible criminal investigations pending, but

there have been only three indictments over the Gaza war all for the
relatively minor crime of theft. After Operation Cast Lead, the last major

conflict in Gaza in 2009, four soldiers were found guilty of wrongdoing. The
longest jail sentence handed down was for seven and a half months, for the
theft of a Palestinians credit card.
Mark Regev, the prime ministers spokesman, defended the legal process,
insisting that the military advocate general is independent of the IDF
command structure and is under the aegis of the civilian advocate general
of Israel. The decision to close any case can be appealed, he said. We
have a system of checks and balances, but for Palestinian groups, whatever
we do will never be enough.
An organisation for Israeli combat veterans, called Breaking the Silence,
released a report in May in which soldiers who had served in the IDF in Gaza
last summer described permissive rules of engagement. Around 60
soldiers testified anonymously. One said There were no rules of
engagement. Others spoke of randomly firing artillery to avenge fallen
comrades and shooting at civilians out of boredom.
The high death toll wasnt because of these so-called exceptional cases,
said BTselems Sarit Michaeli. It was because of policy and the decisions
made by the commanders of the security forces and the cabinet. The
highest echelons.

An Israeli army officer gives explanations to journalists during an army

organised tour in a tunnel said to be used by Palestinian militants for crossborder attacks, July 25, 2014. (Credit: Reuters)
While Israel refused to cooperate with the UN inquiry, citing the Human
Rights Councils obsessive hostility towards Israel, a pro-Israeli lobby
group, UN Watch, last week published what it claimed was a copy of a key
submission made to the UN commission of inquiry by what it called the
High-Level International Military Group.

The group included an array of top brass from around the world, including
former chairman of the Nato Military Committee and 10 other former chiefs
of staff. One was Col Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in
Afghanistan.
The generals praised Israels scrupulous adherence to the laws of war and
reportedly concluded that Israel not only met a reasonable international
standard of observance of the laws of armed conflict, but in many cases
significantly exceeded that standard. The military group did not visit Gaza
and their visit to Israel was sponsored by the Friends of Israel Initiative,
according to the final line in the UN Watch press release.
The publication of the UN inquiry is expected to coincide with a visit to
Israel by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. She has
opened a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes carried out by
Israel, following the Palestinian Authoritys accession to the ICC earlier this
year . ICC investigators are scheduled to arrive in Israel next week.
The findings of the UN independent commission of inquiry could be passed
to ICC investigators and used as potential evidence. If the UN investigation
concludes that war crimes were indeed committed by either side experts
say it could open the way to universal jurisdiction cases, making it harder
for those accused of command responsibility to travel.
Follow Jonathan Miller on Twitter: @millerC4

A Palestinian firefighter reacts as he tries to put out a fire at Gazas main

power plant, which witnesses said was hit in Israeli shelling, in the central
Gaza Strip July 29, 2014. (Credit: Reuters)
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