No cooperation

By Khaled Amayreh

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UN official Richard Goldstone (left) and Hamas representative Ghazi Hamad meet as the UN begins an official investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes

ISRAEL this week said it was refusing to cooperate with a UN war crimes investigator who would look into war crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip during the brutal Israeli army offensive against the coastal enclave five months ago, reports Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem.

The UN mission, headed by Richard Goldstone, arrived in Gaza earlier this week through the Rafah border crossing after the Israeli authorities refused to allow the UN team to travel into Gaza from Israeli territory.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor accused the investigating mission of "being prejudicial to the Palestinians".

However, it is widely believed that the real motive behind the Israeli decision stems mainly from fears that the mission would hold Israel responsible for committing war crimes or crimes against humanity during the December-January onslaught which lasted for 22 days.

More than 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 300 children, were killed in sustained Israeli bombing of Gaza neighbourhoods. Israel also used internationally-prohibited weapons, including depleted uranium and white phosphorous against civilians.

The decision by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon to dispatch the investigating team drew angry reaction from Israeli officials.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who met with Ban in New York, on Sunday, slammed the decision, denying war-crime accusations by the Palestinian and numerous human rights organisations.

Reiterating the usual Israeli rhetoric about the Israeli army being "the most moral army in the world," Barak said the UN should have investigated Palestinian attacks on Israel, not the Israeli response to such attacks.

Meanwhile, Hamas officials in Gaza have welcomed the investigating committee. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said the Islamic movement would fully cooperate with the mission and present irrefutable evidence documenting the recent war on Gaza.

Barhoum said he hoped the investigation would lead to the prosecution and indictment of Israeli war criminals by an international world tribunal such as the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

"I consider that the Israeli rejection of dealing with such committees proves that the Israelis did commit crimes of war in Gaza and that they want to hide the truth."