Goldstone and Gaza

I spent the day at Hebrew University at a conference about international humanitarian law (the laws of war). The line up was extraordinary: judges from the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, professors who wrote the reference books on international humanitarian law, and lawyers who have taken cases before international courts. One of the participants said it was like being at the table with the Al Pacino and Robert Deniro of international law. It was incredibly stimulating and deeply humbling to be in the presence of people who have dedicated their lives to achieving justice for victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Unsurprisingly, the elephant in the room was the recent Goldstone report into the Gaza conflict, which took place earlier this year. The report essentially found evidence that both the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and Hamas committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, during the Gaza conflict. What has since followed is a massive outcry, either in favour of or against the report's findings.

The majority of speakers at the conference where critical of Goldstone's report. They felt the report confounded human rights and humanitarian law, two separate but related bodies of law, thereby turning humanitarian law on its head. And they were shocked that a fact-finding report saw fit to conclude that war crimes had been committed, without having gone through a thorough legal and judicial investigation.

Personally, I do not like Goldstone's conclusions. I find them incredibly severe and hard to believe. Plus, to deliver it into the hands of the Human Rights Council, a body known for its bias against Israel, just felt all wrong. I think it was a mistake to conduct this investigation under the mandate of the Human Rights Council. I would have much preferred for Israel to carry out its own independent investigations. Israel has done this kind of thing in the past, so it is strange that until now Israel refuses to carry out independent investigations, insisting instead that the IDF internal investigations of its own conduct is adequate.

But, if you strip away all the problems with the report, we are still left with shocking evidence of what happened during that war; evidence that none of us should allow to be buried. According to the report, the IDF bombed the only flour mill in operation in Gaza, destroyed chicken and egg factories, razed 200 industrial sites, and bulldozed thousands of hectares of farmland, without any clear military objective. Mosques, hospitals and schools were also hit. Now, maybe all these targets were legitimate military objectives. But I would like to find out.

The allegations in the Goldstone report must be investigated further--in a thorough, independent and impartial manner. Can we really afford to dismiss all this evidence because we do not like the packaging? Can we ever afford to turn our backs on the truth because it is too hard to stomach?

38 days to go...