My first response was that this slick two-minute youtube
video is mere propaganda. It's as if the police created a
video justifying why it killed a youth and used excessive force in Ferguson. How credible would that
be?
But perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe the allegations in this video have
some truth to them.
If Israel really believes that Hamas uses its citizens as
human shields and has therefore committed war crimes, it would support an impartial investigation
that would prove its allegations. And who is more qualified to do a credible
investigation than the UN?
Well, maybe that’s the problem. Israel believes that that the UN is biased.
Instead, Israel wants to investigate itself, much like the police in our
country when accused of brutality. Can the police police themselves? Can a
country at war credibly investigate war crimes that it has allegedly committed?
Ask the blacks in Ferguson, or New York, or virtually any other city in the US if they trust the police to investigate themselves...
Is Israel unbiased? Would the world accept the results of
its self-investigation?
In comments made to
Governor Cuomo, Netanyahu made clear that the world is divided between the evil
doers (Hamas, Isis, the Muslim extremists) and the righteous (Israel and the
US).
“This is the kind of moral divide that is evident
today in the world, and on one side you have Israel and the United States
representing democracies committing to human rights, committing to a real
future for our people; and on the other side, you have the likes of ISIS and
Hamas, Islamist tyrannies that have no inhibition and pursue their grisly
creeds and their grisly deeds.”
For Netanyahu, there is no “moral equivalency” between the two sides. It is hard to
imagine how Israel can do a fair and impartial investigation with this
attitude.
Netanyahu also claims that
UN doesn't condemn Hamas’ rocket attacks and is therefore biased, but this is
untrue. The UN chief rights investigator Navi Pillay has stated publicly that
Hamas and Israel have both committed acts that may be war crimes:
"There seems to be a strong
possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could
amount to war crimes," Pillay told an emergency session on Israel's Gaza
offensive at the UN Human Rights Council, citing attacks that have killed
Palestinian civilians, including children.
She
said Israelis also had a right to live without constant fear of rocket attacks.
"Once
again, the principles of distinction and precaution are clearly not being
observed during such indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by Hamas and
other armed Palestinian groups," she said.
Pillay has made it clear that the
actions of both sides need to be investigated.
Just as we sometimes need a
civilian review board to hold police accountable when there have been
allegations of police brutality, nations need to be held accountable by an
international tribunal when war crimes have allegedly been committed.
I’ll say more about the alleged use of human shields in a
later blog.
Sources:
·
Netanyahu indicates Israel won't cooperate with UN probe
| The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-legitimizes-islamic-state-esque-groups-says-netanyahu/#ixzz3Bbgwb3nl
No comments:
Post a Comment