For how long with impunity?

Slowly, but surely, more and more evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza is beginning to surface.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch - which has previously censored Israel for its use of white phosphorus shells over civilian areas, as well as Hamas’ indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza - issued a new report on the killing of civilians in Gaza after they had surrendered to Israeli forces.

The US-based human rights group investigated nine so-called “white flag” killings in which 11 civilians were killed, mostly women and children, and many were wounded. Israel, said the group, must investigate these killings and put an end to the “culture of impunity” that prevails in the Israeli military.

Indeed.

The only problem is that Israel has already proven it cannot be trusted to perform a thorough investigation of its own soldiers’ misconduct. And as the evidence begins to mount, it is becoming incontrovertible that the Israeli army is guilty of the most brutal war crimes.

It is therefore the duty of the international community to act. The “culture of impunity” is not confined to the practices of the Israeli army, it is the guiding policy of the state of Israel in almost all its dealings with the Palestinians and its neighbours.

Look no further than Israel’s provocative and anti-peace settlement building. In spite of international consensus that such settlement building must end, Israel continues with impunity.

Then there is the wall that Israel is building up and down the occupied territory, also illegal under international law. That illegal construction not only continues, it is blamed on the Palestinians.

Israel has acted with impunity ever since it decided not to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their lands and, instead, confiscated those lands. It continued to act with impunity once it occupied the rest of historical Palestine, an occupation that is indisputably illegal yet one that Israel continues to defend, indeed to negotiate over.

It has been 61 long years of impunity for Israel. The actions of Israeli soldiers are no more than a symptom of the disease. It is the politics of the country that needs to be changed.

The international community has to begin to censure Israel for all its impunity. The war crimes in Gaza and the continued settlement building would be a start. Then, maybe, change might be seen in the region.