Israeli, Palestinian Investigative Responses to Goldstone Released

Following the visit to Gaza of a sixteen-person committee created by the UN Human Rights Council, the United Nations released the results of Palestinian and Israeli investigations into Israel’s 2008-2009 military attack on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead.

The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) following Operation Cast Lead, was meant to serve as an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in Israel’s attack on Gaza.

South African Judge Richard Goldstone led the commission, which produced a 575-page document known the Goldstone Report. The report accused both the Israeli military and Hamas forces of committing war crimes during Israel’s December 2008- January 2009 invasion.

The Israeli government rejected the report and refused to cooperate with the UN Commission.

The United Nations General Assembly then gave Israeli and Palestinian leadership a total of 8 months to conduct their own "independent, credible investigations" into the findings of the Goldstone report and then produce their own analysis.

The UN Human Rights Council’s 3-day visit to Gaza last week was meant to evaluate the judicial actions undertaken by Hamas and Israeli authorities in the wake of the Goldstone report.

The Israeli military submitted its report on July 21, according to the Israeli news daily Ynet, and said it has made "numerous changes to its operational procedures and policies in order to further enhance the protection of civilians from the hazards of battle and the protection of private property during military operations."

“The report said Israel has launched more than 150 investigations in allegations of misconduct or violations of international law during the Gaza conflict. It said the military has opened 47 criminal investigations and initiated criminal prosecutions of four soldiers in separate incidents,” reported Ynet.

The Independent Investigation Commission established by the Palestinian Authority submitted the Palestinian report, which included no input from Hamas.

The PA report noted that "the numbers and the facts speak for themselves" and spoke harshly against Israel’s disregard for international law and its attempt to justify "its indiscriminate, disproportionate and collective punishment measures against the Palestinian people, as if no limitations applied to Israel."

The report also stated that since that since Hamas’ take-over of Gaza in 2007, "legal institutions are being undermined and this has resulted in a high number of violations of international human rights law, negatively impacting the situation of human rights in Gaza."

The international organization Human Rights Watch called on governments and the UN to maintain pressure on Israel and Hamas to conduct thorough and impartial investigations, and to provide justice to the victims of abuses, according to Ynet.

"Israeli investigations still fall far short of being thorough and impartial, while Hamas appears to have done nothing at all to investigate alleged violations," said Iain Levine, HRW’s program director, in a statement. "We regret that the secretary-general merely passed on the reports he received from Israel and the Palestinian side instead of making the failings of these investigations clear."

The Goldstone report recommended that if Israel and Hamas do not conduct credible investigations, then it would transfer its findings to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.