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What is Right about the UN Report
By Yarden Frankl
6/25/2015, 2:06 PM
While there has been a lot of angst and hand-wringing over the United Nations Human Rights Commission report on the Gaza conflict, the report now comprehensively documents every serious allegation that Israel has made about Hamas. Now these allegations can no longer be described as "Israeli claims." The Commission has compiled an amazingly detailed record of how Hamas systemically committed war crimes against Israel and even its own citizens.
Here are the most important ones:
1) Hamas fired thousands of rockets and mortars, aimed mostly at Israeli civilians.
The real problem lies in the fact that in fighting a terrorist organization embedded in a civilian population, it becomes harder and harder to draw the distinction between military and civilian targets. Still, Israel did make unprecedented efforts to reduce civilian casualties and the report should have been more reflective of those actions.
However, the extensive documentation of the crimes of Hamas is not something that should not be overlooked. When your harshest critics agrees with all the accusations you have been making about your enemy, it should carry a great deal of weight.
Here are the most important ones:
1) Hamas fired thousands of rockets and mortars, aimed mostly at Israeli civilians.
... in the vast majority of individual rocket and mortar attacks, the commission does not have information on the intended targets, but notes that Palestinian armed groups announced that they intended to attack population centres in Israel and declared responsibility for launches directed at different places in Israel....Such rockets cannot be directed at a specific military objective and therefore strikes employing these weapons constitute indiscriminate attacks in violation of the customary rule reflected in article 51(4) of Additional Protocol I.2) Hamas' claims that the their weapons lacked guidance systems and therefore could not be aimed solely at military targets was rejected.
The limitations of the military arsenals of Palestinian armed groups was advanced as a reason for their failure to attack precisely military targets. The military capacity of the parties to a conflict is irrelevant to their obligation to respect the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks.... The launching of rockets by Palestinian armed groups may therefore amount to war crimes.3) The firing of rockets are described as acts of terror against Israeli civilians.
Given the apparent absence of any possible military advantage, and statements by Palestinian armed groups that they intended to hit Israeli cities, the commission cannot exclude the possibility that the indiscriminate rocket attacks may constitute acts of violence whose primary purpose is to spread terror amongst the civilian population, in violation of the customary rule reflected in article 51(2) of Additional Protocol I and article 13(2) of Additional Protocol II.4) The cross-border tunnels represented a serious threat:
While the fear of rocket and mortar strikes from Gaza has been long-standing, 2014 was characterized by the discovery of tunnels.5) The Israeli warnings to Palestinian civilians prior to attacks were effective in many cases.
A mother described to the commission that many of the communities live in fear of the tunnels...on one occasion she was walking to the kindergarten to pick up her children when an Israeli soldier stopped her and told her to return home because members of the armed groups had come out of the tunnels close to the kindergarten. The witness said she and the other mothers ran to the kindergarten and stayed there for 2-3 hours waiting, in fear for their own and their children’s safety.
.....“All the time I was living in fear. So if my husband forgot to lock a door or window I was hysterical that someone would come in and take one of the children. Eventually we decided to move.” -- Israeli mother.
....The UN Secretary-General, briefing the Security Council following his visit to Israel and the OPT, which included a visit to a tunnel built by Palestinian armed groups, stated, “I fully understand the security threat to Israel from rockets above and tunnels below.
The commission notes that attacks on more than 200 residential buildings by air strikes resulted in no civilian casualties. This indicates that specific warnings by the IDF to inhabitants of these buildings were effective in many cases. This is further illustrated by the destruction, between 23 and 26 August 2014, of three buildings each housing several dozen apartments, which did not result in any civilian deaths. Residents of the buildings, and often their neighbours, received phone calls instructing them to evacuate and in some cases warning them to keep a safe distance from the targeted buildings. The commission considers that the issuing of warnings concerning specific air strikes, via phone calls and text messages is a good practice, through which Israel attempted to respect its obligation to give advance warnings of attacks, where feasible, so as to minimize civilian casualties.6) Hamas used their own population as human shields and used schools, hospitals, and mosques as military facilities:
Palestinian armed groups appear to have conducted military operations within or in close proximity to sites benefiting from special protection under international humanitarian law, such as hospitals, shelters and places dedicated to religion and education.... if it is confirmed that in using the aforementioned locations to conduct military operations, armed groups did so with the intent to use the presence of civilians or persons hors de combat in locations such as shelters or hospitals to prevent their military assets from being attacked, this would constitute a violation of the customary law prohibition to use human shields, reflected in article 51(7) of Additional Protocol I. Should this intent be proven, this conduct would amount to a war crime.7) Hamas prevented civilians from heeding Israeli warnings to leave an area designated for an attack:
...the commission is concerned that in the days prior to the start of the IDF ground operations, different representatives of the authorities in Gaza made several public declarations requesting Gaza residents not to heed the warnings issued by the IDF instructing residents of different neighbourhoods and towns to evacuate.8) Hamas rockets killed Palestinian civilians. Hamas tried to hide the evidence:
For instance on 16 July, Hamas spokesperson Mushir al-Masri stated, “Palestinian civilians are standing up to the enemy with their steadfastness, resilience and belief that Allah will reward them, […] Rest assured, stay put at home as you’ve always done, do not respond to rumours and this psychological war being waged by the Zionist enemy.... the declarations are a clear indication that the authorities in Gaza did not take all the necessary precautions to protect the civilian population under its control as required by international humanitarian law.
...the commission is disturbed by the reported call by the spokesperson of Hamas to the people in Gaza to adopt the practice of shielding their homes from attack by going up on their roofs. Although the call is directed to residents of Gaza, it can be seen and understood as an encouragement to Palestinian armed groups to use human shields.
...Rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups in several cases appear to have malfunctioned or were fired carelessly and fell short, in some cases in densely populated areas of Gaza, causing deaths and injuries.9) Hamas executed Palestinian civilians:
...eyewitnesses had reported seeing a rescue team go to the place just after the attack, whose members did not collect the wounded but cleared and collected the remnants of the weapons. In addition, two journalists who spoke to the commission also suggested the attacks had been caused by Palestinian rockets misfiring. One of them said that Hamas members had gone to the site immediately after the events and cleared away the debris. The other said he had been prevented by local authorities from going to the site of the attack.
...Based on its research, the commission documented summary executions of at least 21 persons, including one woman, committed between 5 and 22 August 2014 in Gaza City, allegedly for being collaborators for Israel. Five summary executions occurred on 5 August, one on 11 August, and at least 15 on 22 August. The people executed on 5 August, and at least 11 persons executed on 22 August, were taken from Al-Katiba prison where they had been held in the custody of the local authorities in Gaza and shot by firing squad. Of these 16 executions, 8 persons had trials ongoing and 2 had received prison sentences after conviction. The other 6 individuals had challenged death sentences imposed under the PLO Revolutionary Penal Code of 1979 and were waiting for the decisions on their appeals.10) Although there were far fewer Israeli than Palestinian casualties, the commission documented the extensive suffering of Israeli civilians:
...These extrajudicial executions, many of which were carried out in public, constitute a violation of both international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects the right to life and cannot be derogated from, not even “in time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed” (article 4).
...The 2014 conflict caused immense distress and disruption to Israeli civilians, particularly in the southern regions. The commission received numerous oral and written (101) testimonies and complaints addressed to the Human Rights Council (85) from Israelis who were exposed to the threat of rocket and mortar attacks and assaults from tunnels during the summer of 2014. The submissions recount the distress and anger of Israelis who point out three matters of particular concern to them: (i) the trauma caused by the constant threat of rocket attacks, infiltrations and displacement; (ii) insufficient time to carry out effective emergency procedures during attacks; and (iii) the adverse impact of the conflict on local businesses and the overall economy.11) Thousands of Israeli civilians were forced to flee their homes because of the conflict:
...Many Israelis experienced what they describe as indelible suffering caused by the constant threat of attacks by Palestinian armed groups. The stress and trauma had serious effects on their well-being, particularly for persons who live in the south in areas near Gaza.
The events during the hostilities pushed entire communities in southern Israel to seek refuge in other parts of the country, and members of these communities were deeply affected by their experience of displacement. OCHA reports that 70 per cent of the 40,000 residents of the Gaza rim left their homes during Operation Protective Edge. A witness said that up to ten communities living along the Green Line were displaced. The population of a kibbutz of 500 dwindled to 15 during the hostilities according to a resident who spoke to the commission. Another witness said that no more than 55 people out of a population of 300 were left in a kibbutz at the end of August 2014. Children, particularly those who live in areas neighbouring Gaza, suffered worse mental health effects than adults as a result of the displacement.12) The conflict had a serious economic impact on Israel:
According to the Bank of Israel, Operation Protective Edge caused a contraction of output in the tourism and manufacturing sectors of about 903 040 000 USD (3.5 billion NIS), which represents 0.3 per cent of Israel’s GDP. This, the Bank of Israel says, is comparable to the loss incurred during the 2006 Lebanon war. The Israeli authorities report that as of 28 January 2015, 4550 claims for compensation for direct damages, including to schools and houses, had been filed with the tax authority. The tax authority estimates that total compensation for direct damages will reach approximately USD 25 million (100 million NIS). Indirect damage is estimated at 440 000 000 USD (1.7 billion NIS)...Some southern Israeli communities bore more significant economic costs of the conflict than others; these costs were sometimes devastating for businesses that were obliged to invest in expensive security equipment and in psychological counselling for their workers.Much has been written about the Commission's treatment of Israel. The Commission raised the question of war crimes against Israel in cases where the military objective of attacking residential buildings or the rationale of using certain weapons and tactics that led to the loss of civilian life -- was not known. Israel felt that based on the UNHCR's record, the report would be biased and so decided not to cooperate. However understandable that decision was, it did leave the Commission without all the facts.
The real problem lies in the fact that in fighting a terrorist organization embedded in a civilian population, it becomes harder and harder to draw the distinction between military and civilian targets. Still, Israel did make unprecedented efforts to reduce civilian casualties and the report should have been more reflective of those actions.
However, the extensive documentation of the crimes of Hamas is not something that should not be overlooked. When your harshest critics agrees with all the accusations you have been making about your enemy, it should carry a great deal of weight.
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