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FOR Endorses Gaza Freedom March Interfaith Peace Walk
Fellowship of Reconciliation USA Position on Gaza Freedom March December 31, 2009, includes encouragement to understand the UN Fact Finding Mission now known as the Goldstone Report linked below.
The key to peace in the Middle East is restoration of international law and the recognition of the right of both Palestinians and Israeli Jews to live in peace and security side by side.
United Nations reports in recent weeks detail the long term, continuing, and current dimensions of extreme economic and social distress experienced by the Palestinian residents in Gaza. (See the release appended below.) These conditions are most immediately exacerbated by a siege imposed on Gaza and sustained by the State of Israel in violation of international law. The siege is sustained by the complicit support of the immediate neighbor of Gaza and Israel, Egypt, and by the implicit support of the world, quite particularly the United States of America.
UN reports also report that studies of the attacks on Gaza in January of this year, and the violence perpetrated from Gaza on Israeli communities, rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Such reports only confirm what media, eye witness reports and descriptions by residents of Gaza, Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, and the Middle East more generally, already tell us. The continued use of violence deepens, beyond all reason, the cost to civilians (both Palestinians in the occupied territories and in neighboring countries, and Israelis) of unresolved political conflict.
As we approach the one year anniversary of the most recent massive incursions into Gaza and tightening of the siege of Gaza, a global coalition of organizations and individuals from all faith traditions and dozens of nations, have agreed to join in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and Israel in sympathy with the cause, for a Freedom March on December 31, 2009.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation USA has endorsed the March and is working in particular on an interfaith peace walk which will be one element of participation in the March. FOR invites those wishing to join in this part of the Gaza Freedom March to reply to this communication at for@forusa.org and to register at the Gaza Freedom March web site: www.gazafreedommarch.org .
FOR members, chapters and affiliates are also encouraged to organize local events, gatherings, vigils, walks to be held on the same day as the Gaza Freedom March.
We understand that this march takes place in a larger context of many competing and conflicting claims about the history and the present conditions in the search for peace and reconciliation in Israel and Palestine. Members are encouraged to explore these claims and make their own judgment on the issues. We rise to this moment to stand in solidarity with and speak specifically to peoples suffering under the current siege of Gaza.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/9750/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2055 , http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?id=5081
United Nations Fact Finding Mission
on the Gaza Conflict
PRESS RELEASE
15 September 2009
UN Fact Finding Mission finds strong evidence of war crimes and crimes
against humanity committed during the Gaza conflict; calls for end to
impunity
NEW YORK / GENEVA - The UN Fact-Finding Mission led by Justice Richard
Goldstone on Tuesday released its long-awaited report on the Gaza
conflict, in which it concluded there is evidence indicating serious
violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were
committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed
actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.
The report also concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed
groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against
humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into
Southern Israel.
The four members of the Mission* were appointed by the President of the
Human Rights Council in April with a mandate to "To investigate all
violations of international human rights law and international
humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the
context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during
the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before,
during or after."
In compiling the 574- page report, which contains detailed analysis of
36 specific incidents in Gaza, as well as a number of others in the West
Bank and Israel, the Mission conducted 188 individual interviews,
reviewed more 10,000 pages of documentation, and viewed some 1,200
photographs, including satellite imagery, as well as 30 videos. The
mission heard 38 testimonies during two separate public hearings held in
Gaza and Geneva, which were webcast in their entirety. The decision to
hear participants from Israel and the West Bank in Geneva rather than in
situ was taken after Israel denied the Mission access to both locations.
Israel also failed to respond to a comprehensive list of questions posed
to it by the Mission. Palestinian authorities in both Gaza and the West
Bank cooperated with the Mission.
The Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault
on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment
and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and
deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the Israeli military operation,
code-named "Operation Cast Lead," houses, factories, wells, schools,
hospitals, police stations and other public buildings were destroyed.
Families are still
living amid the rubble of their former homes long after the attacks
ended, as reconstruction has been impossible due to the continuing
blockade. More than 1,400 people were killed during the military
operation.
Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been suffered by
the population of Gaza. The Report notes signs of profound depression,
insomnia and effects such as bed-wetting among children. The effects on
children who witnessed killings and violence, who had thought they were
facing death, and who lost family members would be long lasting, the
Mission found, noting in its Report that some 30 per cent of children
screened at UNRWA schools suffered mental health problems.
The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at
the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and
continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a
deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian
population. The destruction of food supply installations, water
sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the
result of a deliberate and systematic policy which has made the daily
process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian
population.
The Report states that Israeli acts that deprive Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water,
that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter
their own country, that limit their rights to access a court of law and
an effective remedy, could lead a competent court to find that the crime
of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been committed.
The report underlines that in most of the incidents investigated by it,
and described in the report, loss of life and destruction caused by
Israeli forces during the military operation was a result of disrespect
for the fundamental principle of "distinction" in international
humanitarian law that requires military forces to distinguish between
military targets and civilians and civilian objects at all times. The
report states that "Taking into account the ability to plan, the means
to execute plans with the most developed technology available, and
statements by the Israeli military that almost no errors occurred, the
Mission finds that the incidents and patterns of events considered in
the report are the result of deliberate planning and policy decisions."
For example, Chapter XI of the report describes a number of specific
incidents in which Israeli forces launched "direct attacks against
civilians with lethal outcome." These are, it says, cases in which the
facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack
and concludes they amount to war crimes. The incidents described
include:
* Attacks in the Samouni neighbourhood, in Zeitoun, south of Gaza
City, including the shelling of a house where soldiers had forced
Palestinian civilians to assemble;
* Seven incidents concerning "the shooting of civilians while
they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving
white flags and, in some of the cases, following an injunction from the
Israeli forces to do so;"
* The targeting of a mosque at prayer time, resulting in the
death of 15 people.
A number of other incidents the Report concludes may constitute war
crimes include a direct and intentional attack on the Al Quds Hospital
and an adjacent ambulance depot in Gaza City.
The Report also covers violations arising from Israeli treatment of
Palestinians in the West Bank, including excessive force against
Palestinian demonstrators, sometimes resulting in deaths, increased
closures, restriction of movement and house demolitions. The detention
of Palestinian Legislative Council members, the Report says, effectively
paralyzed political life in the OPT.
The Mission found that through activities such as the interrogation of
political activists and repression of criticism of its military actions,
the Israeli Government contributed significantly to a political climate
in which dissent was not tolerated.
The Fact-Finding Mission also found that the repeated acts of firing
rockets and mortars into Southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups
"constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity," by
failing to distinguish between military targets and the civilian
population. "The launching of rockets and mortars which cannot be aimed
with sufficient precisions at military targets breaches the fundamental
principle of distinction," the report says. "Where there is no intended
military target and the rockets and mortars are launched into civilian
areas, they constitute a deliberate attack against the civilian
population."
The Mission concludes that the rocket and mortars attacks "have caused
terror in the affected communities of southern Israel," as well as "loss
of life and physical and mental injury to civilians and damage to
private houses, religious buildings and property, thereby eroding the
economic and cultural life of the affected communities and severely
affecting the economic and social rights of the population."
The Mission urges the Palestinian armed groups holding the Israeli
soldier Gilad Shalit to release him on humanitarian grounds, and,
pending his release, give him the full rights accorded to a prisoner of
war under the Geneva Conventions including visits from the International
Committee of the Red Cross. The Report also notes serious human rights
violations, including arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial executions of
Palestinians, by the authorities in Gaza and by the Palestinian
Authority in the West Bank.
The prolonged situation of impunity has created a justice crisis in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action, the Report says.
The Mission found the Government of Israel had not carried out any
credible investigations into alleged violations. It recommended that the
UN Security Council require Israel to report to it, within six months,
on investigations and prosecutions it should carry out with regard to
the violations identified in its Report. The Mission further recommends
that the Security Council set up a body of independent experts to report
to it on the progress of the Israeli investigations and prosecutions. If
the experts' reports do not indicate within six months that good faith,
independent proceedings are taking place, the Security Council should
refer the situation in Gaza to the ICC Prosecutor. The Mission
recommends that the same independent expert body also report to the
Security Council on proceedings undertaken by the relevant Gaza
authorities with regard to crimes committed by the Palestinian side. As
in the case of Israel, if within six months there are no good faith
independent proceedings conforming to international standards in place,
the Council should refer the situation to the ICC Prosecutor.
* The members of the Fact Finding Mission are:
Justice Richard Goldstone, Head of Mission; former judge of the
Constitutional Court of South Africa; former Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the
London School of Economics and Political Science; member of the
high-level fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun (2008).
Ms. Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; former
Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of
human rights defenders; member of the International Commission of
Inquiry on Darfur (2004).
Colonel Desmond Travers, former Officer in Ireland's Defence Forces;
member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International
Criminal Investigations.
The full report can be found on the web page of the Fact Finding
Mission:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/FactFind
ingMission.htm
For further media information: contact Doune Porter, Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Tel: 1-917-367-3292 or
+41-79-477-2576. Email: dporter@ohchr.org
.
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