Soccer Dad

Verdict first - investigation afterwards

With the UN scheduled to release a report on alleged war crimes committed by Israel in its war against Hamas earlier this year, it might be useful to look at a previous example of such an inquiry. In his report on Operation Defensive Shield, released August 1, 2002, then Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan wrote this:

Many of the reports of human rights groups contain accounts of wounded civilians waiting days to reach medical assistance, and being refused medical treatment by IDF soldiers. In some cases, people died as a result of these delays. In addition to those wounded in the fighting, there were civilian inhabitants of the camp and the city who endured medication shortages and delays in medical treatment for pre-existing conditions. For example, it was reported on 4 April that there were 28 kidney patients in Jenin who could not reach the hospital for dialysis treatment.

But these reports may not have been accurate. A viewer of The Road to Jenin by Pierre Rechov writes:

While the casual viewer may suspect that hospital manager Dr. Mustafa Abo Gali isnt being entirely forthright, the extent of his deception becomes apparent in Rehovs Road to Jenin, in which Abo Gali is also interviewed. In that film, the hospital director shows the alleged damage as a result of 11 shellsa tiny hole or scratch on the outside of a building. Moreover, Rehov provides aerial images of the hospital on the last day of the incursionsurrounding trees, the roof and floors are all intact.

Also, in Road to Jenin, Abo Gali claims that the Israeli army prevented all ambulances from reaching the hospital, insisting: "They didnt want people to get medical treatment." Again, the images show otherwise: Ambulances unload casualties by the hospital doors and IDF soldiers are seeing assisting children and the elderly to reach treatment. Dr. David Zangen, the armys chief medical officer in Jenin during the incursion, and Bakris leading critic, describes how the soldiers even treated Palestinian fighters, including members of Hamas. Finally, in Road, Abo Gali recounts that the 500 hospital occupants"wounded, sick, our team, mothers and children . . . we had no food left." Then Rehov cuts to a scene of an Israeli authorizing Abo Gali in person to receive anything hed like for the hospital, all except weapons.

Or to put matters succinctly as an eyewitness, Dr. David Zangen did:

"I was incensed by Larsen's remarks. He must not be allowed to continue with these lies", stated Dr. Zangen to Maariv. "I was there during the fighting, and I saw close up what was happening. I know that the IDF did everything it could to prevent civilian casualties. It is clear to everyone that if the IDF had resorted to aerial bombardment or heavy artillery, we would have completed [our mission] in the refugee camp within half a day, without suffering any casualties on our side. We did not adopt that policy, and we took risks in the fighting, in an attempt to rescue those innocent civilians that were caught up in the battles. Anyone who says that Israel carried out a massacre is lying and inciting the Arabs. Instead of acting to bring about reconciliation and peace, Larsen is creating hatred."

It's safe to assume that, like Kofi Annan's report, the conclusion of Justice Richard Goldstone's report is predetermined. When one considers things like a commission member who has already decided that Israel has no right of self-defense, that the commission is accepting phony numbers as testimony and that a (former) UN appointee assumes that serving in the IDF is tantamount to committing a war crime it's reasonable to conclude that regarding Israel, the UN is dedicated to obtaining a conviction not the truth.