Goldstone report

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The Gaza Strip

The Goldstone Report summarizes the results of an investigation into the Gaza War . It was written on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict under the leadership of the South African judge Richard Goldstone . The report was published by the Commission on September 15, 2009, which found that both Palestinian armed groups and the Israeli armed forces had violated international martial law during the Gaza war . She also suggested that crimes against humanity might have occurred and condemned violations on both sides.

Israel refused to work with the commission beforehand, as it had received a unilateral mandate from the UN Human Rights Council, which in turn had repeatedly criticized Israel in particular and ignored Palestinian misconduct in the past. Parts of the German press and the German government's human rights commissioner Günter Nooke have also criticized the Council's unilateral partisanship for the Palestinian side on several occasions in the past. The results of the Goldstone report were rejected by both the Israeli government and Hamas . The resolution that the Human Rights Council drew up on the basis of the report was also criticized by Richard Goldstone himself, since it lacks any critical statement on Hamas' behavior in the conflict.

background

Gaza war

→ Main article: Operation Cast Lead

In 2008, when there was massive shelling of Israeli villages from the Gaza Strip , which was completely sealed off from Israel and Egypt , Israel declared war on Hamas on December 27, 2008 . Before that, there had been a ceasefire since June 19, during which Hamas reduced rocket fire from Gaza to 20 kills by November 3, before Israel killed six Hamas members in an action on November 4. The Israeli armed forces justified this action with the averting of dangers which, according to their presentation, emanated from a planned further tunnel construction. Then the violence increased again. An offer from Hamas to renew the existing ceasefire was rejected by Israel. This culminated on December 18, 2008 in the official dissolution of the existing ceasefire by Hamas and the massive shelling mentioned above.

During Operation Cast Lead , the Israeli air force first bombed the Gaza Strip, before tanks moved into the Gaza Strip in a second phase, with Israel stating the goal of eliminating alleged Hamas strongholds and weakening the organization. The official fighting lasted from December 27th to January 18th of the following year. In addition to several high-ranking Hamas members, numerous Palestinian civilians were also killed.

Establishment of the Goldstone Commission

Richard Goldstone (2007), the head of the inquiry

On 3 April 2009, the UN Human Rights Council set the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict ( German  United Nations commission of inquiry into the Gaza conflict a). The line took Richard Goldstone , former judge of the South African Constitutional Court and to the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda . The commission also included Christine Chinkin , Hina Jilani and Desmond Travers . The commission's task was to investigate and record any violations of human or international law during the Gaza war .

content

The report is based on 188 interviews with eyewitnesses and the viewing of 300 reports, 1200 photos and 30 videos. It lists 36 cases that the authors believe show a pattern of action by the Israel Defense Forces . They are accused of using certain weapons and ammunition contrary to international law , deliberately attacking non-military targets and having accepted the deaths of Palestinian civilians. The investigations revealed that in certain cases human shields were used and hospitals and food factories were attacked. The armed forces are also accused of shooting civilians wearing white flags. According to the commission, the Israeli military offensive targeted Gaza residents in order to "punish" the population as a whole. Israel must pay compensation to the Palestinians who suffered loss or damage as a result of illegal actions by the Israeli military. The blockade of the Gaza Strip is also condemned as “collective punishment” designed to isolate the coastal region. Hamas, in turn, is charged with rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and civilian targets. Regarding the rocket attacks, the report accuses Israel of failing to protect its Arab citizens in the same way as its Jewish ones. According to the report, approximately 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis (ten soldiers and three civilians) died in the Israeli offensive.

Resolutions

On October 16, 2009, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the Goldstone report critical of Israel by a majority of 25 of its 47 members. Israel is condemned because of the Gaza war and the country is accused of a lack of cooperation. Richard Goldstone criticized this resolution. The five-page paper made him "sad" because it contained "only accusations against Israel". Hamas, on the other hand, is not mentioned. In an interview, Goldstone also admitted that the report had no evidential value in a court of law, despite matching witness statements. The Palestinian side, however, welcomed the vote of the Human Rights Council.

On November 15, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly approved the adoption of the Goldstone Report. 114 member states support a resolution introduced by the Arab and non-aligned states in which both Israel and the Palestinians were asked to investigate possible human rights violations during the Gaza war within 3 months. The General Assembly recommended that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon submit the Goldstone report to the UN Security Council for a vote. 18 countries, including Germany and the USA , rejected the report as "one-sided and flawed". 44 states abstained, including 15 states of the European Union and Russia , which considered it inappropriate to deal with the report in the Security Council. The German side then tried to link a Security Council decision rejecting the report with an Israeli settlement freeze in order to encourage the resumption of peace talks in the Middle East conflict , but the Security Council declined to deal with the Goldstone report.

Further development

As a result of the report, 400 investigations were carried out in Israel, which resulted in two convictions. In no case did Hamas investigate.

In an April 1, 2011 article in the Washington Post , Goldstone questioned his report in part. He explained that his report would have been different if he had already known then what he knew today ( If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document. ). The Israeli side was complicit in this, because he was not given the necessary information. Goldstone, on the one hand, withdrew the claim that the Israeli forces deliberately killed civilians and revised the statement that only a minority of the killed Palestinians were combatants. Rather, it was mainly members of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. According to Goldstone, Israel has exercised its right to self-defense.

The three co-authors of the Goldstone Report, Hina Jilani , Christine Chinkin and Desmond Travers , sharply distanced themselves from Goldstone's reassessment of the incidents. They judge that nothing has changed in the results of the report and suspected that Goldstone's reassessment was the result of political pressure.

literature

  • Abraham Melzer (Ed.): Report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the Gaza conflict , Semit edition, Neu Isenburg 2010, ISBN 978-3981318944

Web links

Commons : Goldstone Report  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ UN: Israel, Palestinians guilty of Gaza war crimes . In: Haaretz , September 15, 2009. Archived from the original on September 22, 2009 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.haaretz.com 
  2. ↑ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3402308,00.html?maca=de-rss-de-all-1119-rdf
  3. ^ Ansgar Graw: Dissatisfaction in Berlin with the Human Rights Council. In: welt.de . October 6, 2006, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  4. ↑ http://www.morgenpost.de/printarchiv/politik/article1192393/Verendung-Israels-ist-heftig-umstritten.html
  5. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de:80/ausland/meldung23290.html ( Memento from September 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Michael Borgstede: UN Human Rights Council condemns Israel again. In: welt.de . October 16, 2009, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (PDF; 6.8 MB) United Nations Human Rights Council. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  8. ↑ UN condemns 'war crimes' in Gaza . In: BBC , September 15, 2009. 
  9. ^ A b Michael Borgstede: Goldstone criticizes resolution on Goldstone report. In: welt.de . October 19, 2009, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Overview of rocket launches according to a report by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, November 30, 2008
  11. ^ Statistics of Kassam rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip. In: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. January 1, 2009, accessed January 31, 2009 .
  12. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians
  13. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7791100.stm
  14. ^ Henry Siegman: Israel's Lies . London Review of Books
  15. ↑ http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf
  16. ↑ http://de.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idDEBEE58E0F220090915
  17. ↑ Dirk Herbermann, Andrea Nüsse: Diplomatic defeat for Israel. Der Tagesspiegel , November 7, 2009, p. 5.
  18. ↑ a b UN sample: Israel, Palestinians both guilty of Gaza war crimes , Ha'aretz . September 15, 2009. 
  19. ↑ Richard Goldstone (ed.): HUMAN RIGHTS IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES. Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (PDF; 3.5 MB). GE.09-15866, p. 121, p. 365-366
  20. ↑ http://de.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idDEBEE58E0F220090915
  21. ↑ Richard Goldstone (ed.): HUMAN RIGHTS IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES. Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (PDF; 3.5 MB). GE.09-15866, p. 17
  22. ^ Spiegel Online : Human Rights Council condemns Israel for the Gaza war of October 16, 2009.
  23. ↑ Goldstone: 'If This Was a Court Of Law, There Would Have Been Nothing Proven.' , The Forward , October 7, 2009
  24. ↑ UN Human Rights Council condemns Israel , derStandard.at . October 16, 2009. 
  25. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : UN accepts the Goldstone report of November 6, 2009.
  26. ^ UN General Assembly adopts Goldstone report dated November 6, 2009.
  27. ↑ Wikileaks: Secret US Embassy Cables. National Security Advisor Heusgen on Afghanistan. Cable 09BERLIN1433 from November 12, 2009 ( Memento from December 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) ( "He suggested pressuring Netanyahu by linking favorable UNSC treatment of the Goldstone Report to Israel committing to a complete stop in settlement activity." )
  28. ↑ Haaretz Newspaper: Germany asked US to force settlement freeze on Israel, WikiLeaks cables show from December 1, 2010
  29. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/goldstonebericht114.html ( Memento from April 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) from April 3, 1011
  30. ^ Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes , Washington Post, April 1, 2011
  31. ^ Goldstone withdraws allegations against Israel by Peter Münch, Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 4, 2011
  32. ↑ Florian Markl, Alex Feuerherdt: “The largest anti-Zionist organization in the world. How the United Nations demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state. ”In: Samuel Salzborn (Ed.): Anti-Semitism since 9/11. Events, debates, controversies. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2019, p. 142 f. in Google Book Search
  33. ↑ guardian.co.uk : UN Gaza report co-authors round on Goldstone 14 April 2011