Rights groups cry whitewash over army's Gaza probe
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- Written by KARIN LAUB, AP foreign KARIN LAUB, AP foreign
- Published: 22 April 2009 22 April 2009
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Rights groups cry whitewash over army's Gaza probe
* AP foreign, Wednesday April 22 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8468351
KARIN LAUB
Associated Press Writer= JERUSALEM (AP) Human rights activists, some charging whitewash, demanded an independent war crimes probe after Israel's military on Wednesday cleared itself of wrongdoing over civilian deaths in the Gaza war.
Army commanders acknowledged "rare mishaps" during the three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers, including an airstrike that killed a family of 21. However, they said Israel did not violate international humanitarian law and that Hamas is to blame for civilian deaths, because it used Gazans as human shields.
At least 1,100 people in Gaza were killed, according to counts by both sides. The military insisted that a majority of the war dead were militants, while the Palestinians said most were civilians.
Israel launched the offensive Dec. 27 to halt years of rocket fire on Israeli border towns. It unleashed unprecedented force in the small seaside strip, including more than 2,000 bombing raids and barrages of artillery and mortar shells, against Palestinian militants, who operated inside residential areas.
Human rights groups say there is grave suspicion that both Israel and Hamas carelessly put civilians in harm's way Hamas by using them as cover and Israel by using disproportionate force in densely populated Gaza. Since the war ended Jan. 18, calls have been mounting for a war crimes probe of both sides.
A U.N. agency has appointed a widely respected former war crimes prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, to lead an investigation. Israeli officials say it's very unlikely Israel will cooperate, alleging the U.N. agency is biased. Hamas, Gaza's sole ruler since a violent takeover in 2007, said it would work with the investigator.
If Israel has nothing to hide, it should cooperate with Goldstone, a coalition of Israeli human rights groups and the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. They also questioned the military's ability to investigate itself.
The military's findings "seem to be a cover-up for serious violations of international law," Human Rights Watch said, calling the findings an "insult to civilians" killed in the war.
The Israeli military assigned five colonels to lead separate investigations into its most controversial actions, including attacks on and near U.N. and international facilities, shooting at medical workers and facilities, as well as the use of white phosphorous shells, a chemical agent that can cause horrific burns.
The military said Israeli forces operated in line with international law throughout the fighting.
It said the killing of civilians was unintentional either a result of combat in crowded areas, with Hamas using civilians as human shields, or in rare cases because of human error.
In one such case, an airstrike killed 21 members of the Daya family in Gaza City on Jan. 5, including 12 children, according to a Palestinian list of the war dead. The Israeli military said the target was a weapons factory next door.
The military said what it described as unfortunate incidents, such as the shelling of the U.N. headquarters in Gaza City, were a result of urban combat, "particularly of the type that Hamas forced on the (Israeli) military, by choosing to fight from within the civilian population."
It said U.N. facilities were not struck intentionally.
The military alleged Hamas militants often took cover in ambulances or hospitals.
Investigators noted that Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, spent the war at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. Haniyeh did not appear in public during the war, and remained in hiding for weeks after the fighting ended, apparently fearing assassination.
Israel has promised legal and financial support for officers facing trial. In Norway, a group of lawyers filed a war crimes complaint against 10 Israelis on Wednesday, including the former prime minister.
Since the Gaza war, the political deadlock in the region has only hardened, as Hamas has tightened its grip on Gaza, and a hawkish government was elected in Israel.
The U.N.'s Mideast envoy, Robert Serry, said Wednesday that the international community wants a Palestinian state established alongside Israel.
"The problem is that the parties seem to be less ready and in a position to do what it takes to make peace," he said during a tour of Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
Serry inspected the ruins of a Palestinian home demolished hours earlier by Israel, and said witnessing the distress of the now homeless family was "pretty shocking." Israel said it was built without a permit.
He expressed concern about a rising number of demolitions in Palestinian neighborhoods and urged Israel to halt the practice.
Palestinians say Israeli authorities in Jerusalem rarely grant building permits. Israel says it's enforcing the law equally in Jerusalem, whose war-won eastern sector is claimed by the Palestinians as a capital.
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Associated Press reporter Aron Heller contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Most Palestinians and Israelis willing to accept two-state solution, poll finds
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- Written by David Pallister, guardian.co.uk David Pallister, guardian.co.uk
- Published: 22 April 2009 22 April 2009
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Survey indicates around three in four would find outcome at least
'tolerable'
A majority of both Palestinians and Israelis are willing to accept a
two-state solution, according to a poll from the international
grassroots movement One Voice.
Based on public opinion research methods used in Northern Ireland, 500
interviews were completed in Israel and 600 in the West Bank and Gaza
immediately following the Gaza war and the Israeli elections.
Each side was asked which problems they thought were "very significant"
and what the solutions might be.
The results indicate that 74% of Palestinians and 78% of Israelis are
willing to accept a two-state solution on an option range from
"tolerable" to "essential", while 59% of Palestinians and 66% of
Israelis find a single bi-national state "unacceptable".
The poll comes as it emerged Barack Obama is to invite Israeli,
Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to the White House within the next two
months in a fresh push for Middle East peace. Obama, speaking at the
White House yesterday, said there was a need to try to rise above the
cynicism about prospects for peace.
The results of today's poll imply that mainstream Israeli and
Palestinian populations have yet to acknowledge the significant
priorities and fears on the other side.
The top item for Palestinians is the establishment of an independent
sovereign state at 97%, followed by the rights of refugees at 95% and
agreement on the future of Jerusalem at 94%.
For Israelis the top item is security at 77%, followed by an agreement
on the future of Jerusalem at 68% and rights to natural resources at 62%.
An analysis of the poll by One Voice says: "It is absolutely essential
that the issues at the top of these two lists get dealt with in any
peace agreement or it is unlikely that that agreement will last. This
means Palestinians need to be aware of and address the 'Security of
Israel' problem that comes in 12th on the Palestinian list, and that
Israelis need to be aware of and address the cluster of issues at the
top of the Palestinian list."
The poll also revealed significant divisions about the issues of
settlements and refugees, on which there was no single proposed solution
which met with majority approval on both sides. Ninety-eight per cent of
Palestinians think that all the settlers should leave the occupied
territories with the settlements abolished – an option that 53% of
Israelis find unacceptable.
More than 90% of Palestinians want refugees to be given the right to
return with compensation, while 77% of Israelis say that is unacceptable.
On Jerusalem, the sides are poles apart. The most attractive option for
Palestinians – 95% – is for all of Jerusalem to remain in Palestine, and
for Israelis it is for all of Jerusalem to remain in Israel at 56%.
The report says that "as these two options are mutually exclusive
proposals to internationalise or divide the city also need to be
considered".
One Voice concludes that, at a minimum, the results suggest that "the
continued insistence of both sides on a negotiated and mutually
acceptable resolution could offer significant legitimacy to political
leaders looking to push for negotiations toward a two-state agreement".
Barack Obama begins push for Middle East peace
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- Written by Ewen MacAskill in Washington Ewen MacAskill in Washington
- Published: 21 April 2009 21 April 2009
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Barack Obama begins push for Middle East peace
• Invitations issued to key regional leaders
• Effort comes against backdrop of Gaza war
Barack Obama is to invite Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to the White House within the next two months in a fresh push for Middle East peace.
Obama, speaking at the White House yesterday, said there was a need to try to rise above the cynicism about prospects for peace. The decision appeared to mark the end of a debate within the Obama administration between those who argued in favour of devoting time and energy to trying to resolve the conflict and those who argued it was a blind alley.
Meeting King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House yesterday, Obama said he hoped "gestures of good faith" would be made "on all sides" in the coming months. He did not say what these gestures, intended as confidence-building measures, would amount to.
The three leaders are being invited for separate talks rather than round-table negotiations. The aim is to complete all three visits before Obama goes to France for the D-Day anniversary on 6 June.
The chances of a deal in the short term appear slim and Obama yesterday acknowledged that circumstances in Israel and the Palestinian territories were not conducive to peace. "Unfortunately, right now what we've seen not just in Israel, but within the Palestinian territories, among the Arab states, worldwide, is a profound cynicism about the possibility of any progress being made whatsoever," he said.
"What we want to do is to step back from the abyss, to say, as hard as it is, as difficult as it may be, the prospect of peace still exists, but it's going to require some hard choices."
His push comes against a background of the devastation of Gaza by Israeli forces last year and continued infighting among Palestinian factions. The hardline Israeli coalition that emerged from the February elections includes as foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who opposes swapping land for peace.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said the meetings were likely to take place before the president goes to France. "With each of them the president will discuss ways the United States can strengthen and deepen our partnerships with them, as well as the steps all parties must take to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and the Arab states," Gibbs told a news conference
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has been pencilled in for a visit to the White House in the middle of next month. Netanyahu, since becoming prime minister, has refused to acknowledge the right of the Palestinians to a state of their own, as his predecessor had. But Obama yesterday stated firmly his commitment to the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is to make a separate visit, as is the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. Egypt has been acting as a go-between between Abbas, who controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls Gaza.
The White House meetings could amount to the start of the biggest US push for peace since a half-hearted one by George Bush, who held a conference at Annapolis, Maryland, in 2007 and Bill Clinton's belated effort at the Camp David summit in 2000 and Taba in Egypt in 2001.The US has failed to achieve any major peace agreement in the Middle East since Jimmy Carter brokered the Israeli-Egyptian treaty in 1979.
Obama appears to have come round to the view of advisers that the US will effectively have to impose much of any deal on Israel and the Palestinians rather than wait for one to emerge from the two sides. He said yesterday: "I agree that we can't talk forever, that at some point steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground. And that will be something that we will expect to take place in the coming months.
"My hope would be that over the next several months, that you start seeing gestures of good faith on all sides. I don't want to get into the details of what those gestures might be, but I think that the parties in the region probably have a pretty good recognition of what intermediate steps could be taken as confidence-building measures."
In a symbolic move intended to show that he seeks to be more of an honest broker than Clinton or Bush, Obama, on his first day in office, phoned Abbas before he phoned Ehud Olmert, then Israeli prime minister. He was also demonstrating that he was prepared to become involved from day one rather than, as his predecessors had done, leaving the issue to the tail end of his presidency.
Obama: Bush aides may be prosecuted over torture
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- Written by Ewen MacAskill in Washington Ewen MacAskill in Washington
- Published: 21 April 2009 21 April 2009
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• Decision to prosecute rests with attorney general, Obama says
• Obama lifts opposition to separate congressional inquiry
• No prosecution of CIA agents expected
Senior members of the Bush administration who approved the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation measures could face prosecution, Barack Obama said today, in a surprise about-turn by the president.
He said his attorney general, Eric Holder, was conducting an investigation and the final decision rested with him.
Obama cited four Bush administration memos he released last week detailing CIA interrogation measures, saying they "reflected, in my view, us losing our moral bearings".
The revelation of possible prosecutions amounts to a turnaround by Obama, who had been resisting a prolonged and divisive partisan row that could distract from his heavy domestic and foreign agenda.
He also lifted his opposition to a separate congressional inquiry today.
The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said the president would like to see the inquiry modelled on the 9/11 commission.
Obama reiterated that there would be no prosecutions of CIA agents who carried out the interrogation of suspected al-Qaida members at Guantánamo and secret prisons around the world.
But for the first time he opened up the possibility that those in the Bush administration who gave the go-ahead for the use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques could be prosecuted.
"For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it's appropriate for them to be prosecuted," Obama said. "With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that."
He did not name any individuals. Those in the frame could be George Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, or, lower down the chain, justice department lawyers.
The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said only three days ago that the administration did not favour prosecutions of those who had devised the policy, and Gibbs echoed that on Monday.
Obama's about-turn may reflect the sense of outrage, at least among US liberals, over further details of CIA interrogations that have emerged during the last few days, including the use of waterboarding against one detainee 183 times. Or it could be purely political, a retaliation for sniping against him by Cheney.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday night, Cheney said he was disturbed by the release of the previously classified memos. He called for the declassification of other memos that he said would illustrate the value of intelligence gained from the interrogations.
"I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country," he said.
Earlier this year, momentum had been building among Democrats in Congress for a commission to look into Guantánamo and the CIA's secret sites. But that began to fizzle out when the Obama White House indicated it was opposed to the idea.
Obama again today indicated he remained opposed to politicisation of the issue, saying it might hamper national security operations.
But, in a switch, he said: "If and when there needs to be a further accounting of what took place during this period, I think for Congress to examine ways that it can be done in a bipartisan fashion ... that would probably be a more sensible approach to take.
"I'm not suggesting that that should be done, but ... I think it's very important for the American people to feel as if this is not being dealt with to provide one side or another political advantage, but rather is being done to learn some lessons so that we move forward in an effective way."
Prominent in any inquiry will be the authors of the four memos setting out the legal basis for the interrogation methods, Jay Bybee, assistant attorney general under Bush, and Steven Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general.
It is not just Cheney who has been sniping at Obama over Guantánamo and interrogation.
Marc Thiessen, a former Pentagon and White House official, criticised the president for releasing the memos. "President Obama's decision to release these documents is one of the most dangerous and irresponsible acts ever by an American president during a time of war - and Americans may die as a result."
Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists
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- Written by NEIL A. LEWIS and MARK MAZZETTI NEIL A. LEWIS and MARK MAZZETTI
- Published: 21 April 2009 21 April 2009
- Hits: 4150 4150
The lawmaker, Representative Jane Harman of California, became the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee after the 2002 election and had ambitions to be its chairwoman when the party gained control of the House in 2006. One official who has seen transcripts of several wiretapped calls said she appeared to agree to intercede in exchange for help in persuading party leaders to give her the powerful post.