Israeli Prime Minister attacks UN Report on Gaza; Goldstone defends report

After a United Nations fact-finding mission released a report this week condemning Israel's wanton attacks on civilians during its invasion of Gaza in January, the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned the report as a "kangaroo court", despite the fact that his government refused to participate in any aspect of the UN investigation.

Palestinian baby killed during Israel's invasion of Gaza (photo picasaweb)

Israel's closest ally, the United States, echoed the sentiments of the Israeli Prime Minister. The US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, stated that the US had "very serious concerns" about the objectivity of the UN Report.

A report issued last week by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem stated that 773 of the 1,387 Palestinians killed during the Gaza war were civilians, based on their invastigations on the ground in Gaza. The Israeli military claimed that 709 combatants, 295 civilians and 162 people whose status it was unable to clarify were killed, but presented no evidence to support these numbers. During the same time period, 13 Israelis (10 soldiers and 3 civilians) were killed by Palestinian resistance fighters.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke on Israeli TV channel 13 after the UN Report was released this week, telling interviewers that the Israeli military should not be singled out, because other nation's militaries around the world also conduct similar actions.

"If they accused [Israeli military] officers, [Israeli military] commanders, [Israeli military] soldiers, [Israeli military] pilots and even leaders, they will accuse you too. What, NATO isn't fighting in various places? What, Russia isn't fighting in various places?"

The author of the report, Richard Goldstone, wrote an editorial in the New York Times defending his team's investigation, saying that he only accepted the post because his mission included the investigation of possible human rights violations by both Israel and Hamas. Unfortunately, he said, Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation, so a proper accounting of Hamas violations was not possible.

Goldstone, who played a major role in the investigation of apartheid practices in South Africa during the 1980s, called on international players to intervene in the situation, saying that neither Israel nor Hamas have a good record of investigating their own troops or fighters for possible violations of the rules of war.

In his editorial, he wrote, "Our fact-finding team found that in many cases Israel could have done much more to spare civilians without sacrificing its stated and legitimate military aims. It should have refrained from attacking clearly civilian buildings, and from actions that might have resulted in a military advantage but at the cost of too many civilian lives. In these cases, Israel must investigate, and Hamas is obliged to do the same. They must examine what happened and appropriately punish any soldier or commander found to have violated the law."