U.N. report condemns Israel

Outrage swept through the Palestinian communities worldwide following Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas’ decision Oct. 8 not to pursue the Goldstone Report, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes when it waged war on Gaza in January. Abbas made this decision at the urging of Hillary Clinton. (aljazeera.net)

Criticism of Abbas has come from virtually every Palestinian political group and civil organization, including Abbas’ own group, Fatah, for caving in to U.S. and Israeli pressure and “acting against Palestinian national interests.” On Oct. 6, some 500 people demonstrated in Ramallah to demand an explanation from Abbas for postponing the report. (Palestine Monitor, Oct.6) Lawyers in Gaza held a sit-in protest against delaying the report.

Adding fuel to the flames of Palestinian anger, in Jerusalem on Sept. 27 Israeli forces used stun grenades against Palestinian youth trying to stop a group of right-wing Jewish extremists from entering the Haram al-Sharif compound, site of the al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques. Right-wingers aided by the Israeli government have long been trying to take over these important Palestinian and Moslem sites.

Findings of the Goldstone Report

The Goldstone Report is the findings of a United Nations fact-finding mission into the Gaza war. The report cites attacks on “the only remaining flour producing factory, the destruction of a large part of Gaza egg production, the bulldozing of huge tracts of agricultural land, and the bombing of some two hundred industrial facilities.” It found that Israeli attacks on Gaza’s civilian infrastructure “amounted to reprisals and collective punishment and constitute war crimes.”

The report also condemns the Israeli army’s use of white phosphorous and other anti-personnel weapons for causing “unacceptable and unnecessary human suffering as well as environmental damage—not only in Gaza but probably also in southern Israel.”

The report recommends that the matter be referred to the  U.N. Security Council for further investigation, and if no action is taken, then be referred to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

The Goldstone Report also accuses “Palestinian armed groups” of committing “crimes” by firing missiles into Israel and hitting civilians. Certainly the defensive actions taken by the people of Gaza with home-made missiles are not the same as a murderous assault by one of the most heavily armed governments in the world. The Palestinian community, however, feels that the most important thing about the U.N. report was that it targeted Israel.

According to the Palestine Monitor, the report “has been a source of great encouragement for Palestinians. Never before has an official report been so scathing of Israeli policy, raising the prospect of international sanctions and criminal prosecutions.” It was widely expected that the report would be put before the Security Council.

But Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, under pressure from the U.S. and Israel, decided to defer Security Council consideration of the report, which delays adopting the report until at least March 2010, giving Israel and its imperialist backers in the U.S. and Europe time to bury the findings.

Widespread condemnation of delay

“We were shocked,” was the reaction of Khaled Meshaal, the political chief of Hamas. He called Abbas’ action “a shame.” Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas legislator, said the postponement “represents a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and confirms the extent of the collaboration between Abbas and his aides with the Zionist enemy, against the Palestinian people.”

A member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine told the Monitor, “This decision only serves the interest of the U.S. and Israel.”

Omar Barghouti, founder of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) Movement, said, “This collusion undermines the great efforts by human rights organizations and many activists to bring justice to the Palestinian victims of Israel’s latest massacre in Gaza.”

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the postponement as “a grave mistake, which shows weakness of leadership and the need for a unified decision making body.”

The Islamic Jihad called postponing the report “against Palestinian interests” and underlined “the Palestinian Authority’s defeatism, lack of will and inability to shoulder responsibility towards the suffering of our people.”

The Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called the postponement “a crime against our martyrs, wounded and victims of our people” and condemned “the entire political approach by the Palestinian Authority that is the source of this betrayal—adaptation and conciliation to American and Israeli dictates.”

The PFLP also said the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama “while he presides over two wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, threatens a new war against Iran, and continues to unreservedly support the occupation, subjugation and aggression against the Palestinian people, is a slap in the face to the people of the world struggling to throw off the chains of U.S. imperialism.” Obama, this group said, “represents the same policies and interests as former U.S. President George W. Bush.”

Demonstrations around the Arab world have protested Abbas’ action and supported al-Aqsa. Actions will also be held in the U.S. in solidarity with al-Aqsa and demanding an end to Zionist terror against Moslem religious sites in Jerusalem.

These protests will also demand that the Goldstone Report not be suppressed, that Israeli war criminals be punished, that war crimes against the people of Gaza be stopped, and that sanctions be imposed upon Israel.