An independent fact-finding Committee, established by the League of Arab States to investigate and report on alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law arising out of the December 2008 Israel offensive in Gaza, issued its report finding “that there is sufficient evidence to substantiate prosecutions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report also finds that the Israeli political leadership is responsible for such crimes.”
The Committee members are international academics and legal practitioners, including judges. According to the a press release, the Committee “base(d) its findings on a visit to Gaza, during which it interviewed victims and witnesses of the conflict and visited sites of destruction, and on official publications of the Israeli government and NGO's operating in the Territory.” The report notes that the evidence obtained during the visit “showed convincingly that the IDF had failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets in killing over 1,400 Palestinians (of which at least 850 were civilians, including 300 children and 110 women) and wounding over 5,000, and in destroying over 3,000 homes, damaging a further 11,000 and destroying or damaging hospitals, mosques, schools, factories, businesses, UN properties and government buildings.”
In its report, the Committee noted the investigation instituted by Israel and “rejected the conclusions of this investigation on the grounds that it was not an independent investigation, that it failed to consider most of the allegations made against the IDF and that it had not had regard to Palestinian sources.” The Committee also considered the issue whether IDF had committed acts of genocide, but found that “while IDF actions met some of the requirements for the crime of genocide, Israel lacked the necessary special intention to destroy in whole or in part a national or ethnical group as required by the Genocide Convention because its operation had been motivated by an intention to collectively punish the people of Gaza in order to compel the population to reject Hamas or subdue the population into a state of submission.”
The Committee issued a number of recommendations to the League, including, among others, that the United Nations Security Council refer the situation in Gaza to the International Criminal Court and that the United Nations General Assembly “ask for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Operation Cast Lead.”
Commentaires
United Nations publications, Palestinian official documents and the testimony of witnesses to the conflict. On three occasions, the Committee wrote to the Government of Israel requesting its co-operation. Such letters were faxed to the Government in Israel and later delivered to the Israeli embassies in the Netherlands and Norway. The Committee received no response to its requests for co-operation, which compelled it to rely on official websites, publications and the media for information about the Israeli perspective. The Committee regrets the decision of the Government of Israel to withhold co-operation."