ShareThisBased on an official UN report that studied the Israeli shooting at UN institutions during “Operation Cast Lead” and stated that the Israeli military violated international law during the operation, Israeli human rights organizations say “the report just furthers the need for Israel to appoint an independent and objective investigative body to carry out an internal investigation into suspicions of violations of international law during ‘Operation Cast Lead. We can just look to the attempts to stop the investigation being held in Spain into the assassination of Salah Shehadeh in 2002 which killed 14 civilians,” the statement further says. “These attempts have failed, most likely, because of Israel’s refusal to carry out an independent internal investigation into these events.”
Based on data collected by Israeli human rights organizations, there are heavy suspicions that the open fire regulations and the choice of targets for attack were illegal and caused the deaths of many Palestinian civilians and massive destruction in Gaza. “We must not delude ourselves into thinking that without an investigation, testimonies and reports will just disappear,” say the organizations, adding that the defense establishment and the Government of Israel claim that there were no serious deficiencies in military action during ‘Operation Cast Lead.’ “If this is true, it is unclear why Israel opposes an extra-military investigation. Still, since international investigations are likely to continue, it is in Israel’s best interest to cooperate with the most credible international bodies, such as the UN fact-finding mission led by justice Richard Goldstone, who has the explicit goal of examining suspicions of violations of international law both by Hamas and by Israel.”
Israeli human rights organizations calling for external investigation: Association for Civil Rights in Israel, B’Tselem, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, Yesh Din, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Bimkom and Hamoked
