Israel rejects call for Gaza Inquiry

This was a main recommendation of a recent UN fact-finding mission which said an independent inquiry should investigate serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law including possible war crime during the Israeli military campaign. Following quotes from a NYTimes article my remarks are after NOTE.

"" Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the internal military investigations into the Israeli army's conduct in Gaza already under way were "a thousand times more serious" than the investigation just completed by the United Nations mission led by Richard Goldstone.

Mr. Goldstone, an internationally respected South African jurist, was once the lead war crimes prosecutor for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. ""

NOTE: As usual Israel lambastes the UN claiming that their military are much more professional and serious investigators. The seems a rather novel idea that the military investigating itself is superior to an independent global body headed by an eminent jurist.

""The report, which was released on Tuesday, recommends that if no appropriate independent inquiry gets under way in Israel within six months, the United Nations Security Council should refer the situation to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. It made a similar recommendation for Palestinian authorities, calling for an inquiry into evidence of war crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups firing rockets into Israel. The Palestinians have not commented on that aspect of the report yet. """"

The publication of the report elicited a furious reaction in Israel, where it was immediately rejected as one-sided and biased. """""

NOTE: The report is one-sided and biased even though it makes the same recommendations re Palestinian authorities as Israeli.

""Amid the furor, some in Israel concurred with the panel's call for further investigation. A group of nine Israeli human rights organizations said in a joint statement that they had recently written to Israel's attorney general to demand that he establish an independent body to investigate the military's activities in Gaza, but he rejected their request.

Boaz Okon, a legal affairs commentator in the popular daily Yediot Aharonot, suggested that it might be advisable for Israel to form an independent commission of inquiry into the army's actions during the Gaza war. "Moral reasons require an examination of these severe allegations," he wrote in Wednesday's newspaper.

"In addition, there are utilitarian reasons. Even if decision-makers in Israel believe that no war crimes were committed, the findings of an independent commission of inquiry could serve as defense in international law, and prevent the prosecution of soldiers and commanders abroad."""

NOTE: As the final quotesshow even some Israeli human rights organisations agree with the UN recommendation but no doubt the Israeli government will simply snub its nose at the UN as is its wont. There are many UN resolutions that Israel simply ignores.