The first Israeli inquiry into Gaza war crimes was concluded after just a few days and completely exonerated the military of wrongdoing.
It was a whitewash so glaring, conducted so quickly and with such an obvious and predetermined agenda, that it cast an even more negative light on the country. It also squandered an opportunity to deal with these serious allegations before they got out of control.
The government has been fighting rearguard actions on the front of public opinion ever since. A new committee formed on Tuesday is meant to deal with international legal actions after the UN Human Rights Council condemned Israeli war crimes committed during their attack on Gaza. They threatened to bring the matter before the International Criminal Court. Such risks were acknowledged as early as January when Israeli army officers were issued travel warnings about possible prosecution in European courts.
The real threat to Israel’s security isn’t formal charges but its deepening isolation. There is admittedly a history of anti-Israeli bias in some international institutions; the UN council’s omission of Hamas’s rocket attacks on civilians is an example, but the Goldstone report upon which it was based was an even-handed assessment of 22 days of hell for the residents trapped in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published soldiers’ accounts of abuses in Gaza, including the killing of women and children, that led to the first Israeli investigation. The Israeli government’s denunciation of the Goldstone report’s findings continues to shirk responsibility for the harms inflicted on innocent Palestinians. By setting up a commission to block these basic issues from being brought to light, instead of conducting its own credible investigation into the war, Israel is abdicating the question of justice to the international community.
Earlier this week the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a revision of the international rules of war to contend with emerging threats of terrorism. After months of denials, Mr Netanyahu’s statements are a tacit admission that violations did indeed occur. But it is not up to Israel to set international standards. And if it fails to abide by them, it further weakens its position in the community of nations that is so vital for its security.
Through his stalling tactics, by calling for peace while deepening divisions, by reaching out to the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas while building settlements that further undermine him, Mr Netanyahu has been playing a wily double game that has achieved some of his short-term goals. But he is also adding to the ledger of debts that will have to be paid before peace can be reached – a peace that is just as essential for Israel as it is for the Palestinians’ welfare. Keeping the skeletons in the closet not only does injustice to the victims of the Gaza war, but will haunt Israel until it puts them to rest.
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