War crimes

Israel’s Leaders on the Run by Gilad Atzmon

Senior officials in Israel confirmed reports on Monday that a British court issued a warrant against opposition leader Mrs. Tzipi Livni for her role in orchestrating Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last December.

British sources reported that though a British court had issued an arrest warrant for Livni over war crimes committed in Gaza, it annulled it upon discovering she was not in the U.K.

As many of us predicted for more than a while the tide is changing. Now Israeli political and military leaders are finally being chased.

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December 16, 2009 0

UK court ‘issued warrant for Livni’

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A British court reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s former foreign minister on charges relating to Israel’s 22-day war on Gaza, before apparently withdrawing it after it was found she was not in the country.

Tzipi Livni, the leader of the opposition Kadima party, had been expected to travel to London this week for an event organised by the Jewish National Fund, followed by meetings with British government officials.

Livni cancelled the visit two weeks before the event was due to take place.

Israeli media reported on Monday that Livni had called off the trip fearing that she would be arrested after a pro-Palestinian group won a warrant for her arrest.

The British foreign office issued a statement on Monday saying it was looking into the incident and its possible effect on the peace process.

“The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East and to be a strategic partner of Israel,” it said.

“To do this, Israel’s leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case.”

Israeli land, air and naval forces began bombarding the Gaza Strip last December saying that it wanted to stop rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters.

More 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the offensive, while 13 Israelis, including 10 soldiers, died over the same time period.

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December 14, 2009 0

A thorn in the world’s side

Israel in midst of freefall on global front, yet we’re preoccupied with nonsense

I’ve been invited to deliver a lecture about Israel’s economy and society at Oxford University. As it is a short lecture, and a respectable forum, I gladly accepted the offer. The invitation was extended about six months ago. Yet now, as my trip approaches, I feel concern. I’m hesitating.

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November 14, 2009 0

Sixty years of massacres

November 10, 2009 0

South Africans ‘fought in Gaza war’ – 1 Nov 09

Efforts to prosecute those who may have committed war crimes in Israel’s war on Gaza have spread beyond the Middle East.

A lawyer in South Africa has identified 75 South African nationals who he says were fighting with the Israeli army in the war earlier this year.

Feroze Boda, based in Johannesburg and working on behalf of two local pro-Palestinian organisations, says the soldiers should face court action for their involvement.

Imran Garda reports from Johannesburg.

November 2, 2009 0

Did Richard Goldstone hide more sinister crimes in Gaza? – Part 1: White Phosphorus and Flechettes

Gaza, October 28, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) – There was much praise for the UN investigations into war crimes committed in Gaza, led by Richard Goldstone. However, I feel that this report did not go far enough to investigate some other more serious allegations that were made.

There is a sense of urgency to bring this investigation forward and to put those responsible on trial but one must understand that something much more sinister did not even get a mention and has since been swept under the carpet.

Let’s take a closer look at some aspects of this report which certainly showed a distinct weakness in the team’s ability to understand what constitutes a breach of the Geneva Convention.

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November 1, 2009 0

Goldstone : my mission- and motivation

I sincerely believed that because of my own record and the terms of the mission’s mandate we would receive the cooperation of the Israeli government.
Its refusal to cooperate was a grave error. My plea for cooperation was repeated before and during the investigation and it sits, plain as day, in the appendices of the Gaza report for those who actually bother to read it.

Our mission obviously could only consider and report on what it saw, heard and read. If the government of Israel failed to bring facts and analyses to our attention, we cannot fairly be blamed for the consequences.

Those who feel that our report failed to give adequate attention to specific incidents or issues should be asking the Israeli government why it failed to argue its cause.

OF COURSE the children of Sderot and the children of Gaza have the same rights to protection under international law and that is why, notwithstanding the decision of the government of Israel, we took whatever steps were open to us to obtain information from victims and experts in southern Israel about the effects on their lives of sustained rocket and mortar attacks over a period of years.

It was on the strength of those investigations that we held those attacks to constitute serious war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

Israel and its courts have always recognized that they are bound by norms of international law that it has formally ratified or that have become binding as customary international law upon all nations.
The fact that the United Nations and too many members of the international community have unfairly singled out Israel for condemnation and failed to investigate horrible human rights violations in other countries cannot make Israel immune from the very standards it has accepted as binding upon it.

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October 22, 2009 0