Gaza: A dark comedy At first the Goldstone Report seemed a breakthrough. Now most hopes for justice have been dissipated

Curtis Doebbler*

When Israel attacked Gaza just over a year ago, the Israeli government undoubtedly believed it could get away with murder with little damage to its reputation. The way that this would happen, however, was probably not envisioned. Neither the Israeli generals who ordered the attacks on civilians, civilian infrastructure, and whatever else was within sight, nor their most unyielding defenders, could have foreseen the dark comedy into which they had stepped. While they might have assumed they could enjoy immunity, they probably did not expect that this immunity would come as much from Palestinian actions as from their own. The Israeli government, their supporters, much of the wider international community, and even the Palestinian authorities themselves, have all contributed to the surreal compliancy with which the ongoing man-made disaster in Gaza has been handled. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is the most recent leading actor in this farce, who responded to a demand by the UN General Assembly that he report on progress being made in investigating war crimes in Gaza by essentially saying he wasn't sure any progress was being made. Ban cited the commitments of the single state involved as well as those of actors the UN does not yet recognise as states as indicating that they would undertake proper investigations of the allegations made in the Goldstone Report. At the same time, he appeared to ignore his obligation to recommend what could be done. Instead, he presented a report that is aimless, lacks authority, and seems in need of an investigation itself. The confusion unfortunately is not confined to one isolated UN official. Everyone else in the picture seems to have contributed to making this tragedy a veritable charade in which jesters dance while the people of Gaza continue to suffer. Expectedly, the Israeli authorities shunned the UN's authority. Belatedly they appeared to react to the UN General Assembly with a meagre suggestion that maybe two soldiers would be disciplined for the dozens of alleged war crimes that had been documented in the Goldstone Report. Even this derisory response must have elicited a smile of relief on the faces of observers, but the optimism was short lived as within hours even this minimal gesture was proven to be mere dramatic feigning that the Israeli government quickly denied or retracted, depending on whether it was genuine in the first place. No soldier had been or would be disciplined, the Israeli government confirmed. Of course, no Israeli could be found to have committed war crimes despite the overwhelming evidence, because that would dent the alleged legitimacy of more than 60 years of foreign and oppressive occupation of the Palestinian people carried out in the name of ancient texts. Also as one might expect, the US government joined in to ensure that the black comedy did not become a political standard setter for ensuring the rule of international law. Apparently not even having read the Goldstone Report, the US was quick to condemn it. The US Congress went further by adopting a joint resolution to confirm the government's irrational fear of the rule of international law when it comes to Israel. For his part, US President Barack Obama continues to virtually avoid the issue. This might be attributable to his chief of staff, who served in the Israeli forces responsible for the occupation of Palestine, Rahm Emmanuel, and who does not want to spoil America's special relationship with Israel. As long as Israel's inhumane actions towards Palestinians continue, the US can keep giving Israel billions of dollars of assistance that Israel dutifully feeds back into the US economy by buying weapons from the US. Some more benign governments, such as the Norwegians who have the experience and expertise to know better, play along with this dark plot by covering up their own shadowy actions with such slight approaches to the Palestinians that the US-Israel pact is not really disturbed by any real attempts at securing justice for the Palestinians. More surprising is the role that the Palestinians themselves play. One would think that the Palestinians' own representatives would defend the most fundamental rights of the Palestinian people with all the vigour and strength they can muster. This assumption was quickly dispelled when the tragedy in Gaza was brought before the UN Human Rights Council last year. When it came to decide on how to handle the Goldstone Report, the Palestinian ambassador in Geneva moved to delay consideration of the matter. This action was only reversed when Palestinian and international civil society objected with unprecedented rigour. The uproar of civil society caused the decision to be reversed, at least as far as the public could know. What really happened is still unravelling. The Palestinians' own investigation into how its Geneva representatives could have tried to delay consideration of the dire situation in Gaza was inconclusive. This report had -- like the secretary-general's statement mentioned earlier -- a comedic air of confusion around it. It said there was a problem and discussed what we knew about the problem, but refused to point a finger at any senior Palestinian official. Eventually, Mahmoud Abbas stepped forward to take the blame, but the basis for his doing so is not entirely clear. Abbas was not even in Geneva at the time. To many observers it was curious that an off- stage actor was claiming credit for the crescendo of a plot of sinister suspense. Perhaps Abbas's shouldering the blame was the only way to keep the show going. In most real life diplomacy such blunders are not tolerated, and diplomats who commit them are quickly banished to posts where they cannot cause such damage. After the fiasco in Geneva, in New York, at the UN headquarters, the Palestinian ambassador set about trying to calm the waters while at the same time telling the irate voices of civil society that they should stay off the UN stage. A handful of Palestinian civil society actors who dared venture to New York for the UN General Assembly's consideration of the Goldstone Report in late 2009 were told that their efforts were not needed. They dutifully obeyed and went home, never to return. Perhaps they had decided that granting the ambassador's demand -- in contrast to the acting in all urgency to stop the suffering in Gaza -- was the patriotic thing to do. The few members of civil society who persisted in their vocal efforts to ensure justice for the Palestinians in Gaza -- who continue to be slaughtered and subjected to inhumane conditions -- were snubbed by the ambassador and the Permanent Mission that refused to take their calls or meet with them. Civil society was effectively relegated to making after-the-fact statements about what should have been done, but had little or no influence over what was to be done. As a result, civil society, including Palestinian civil society, has been all but excluded from efforts within the UN to ensure that action is taken to stop the carnage and suffering in Gaza. The only voices still calling for urgent action seem to be those of the people who are suffering. The people of Gaza and their leaders continue to urge action. But rather than attacking the irrefutable justice of their cries, the Israeli, American, European and even West Bank Palestinian strategy has been to ignore them and when possible to silence them. While maintaining their own relatively humble requests for action, the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank instead continuously emphasise their right to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people. Indeed, the UN and most states recognise the Fatah- backed Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The reality is, however, that the PLO today rules not by the mandate of the people of Palestine, but by presidential decree. This situation is even more incredible when one understands that even the president's own term of office has expired months ago according to the laws of Palestine. Such a confused political situation makes for one of the darkest moments in recent political history. Not only on centre stage, but also in the wings there are plenty of actors contributing to this monumental work in which the pursuit of justice has been made farcical. The infamous Alan Dershowitz, known more for his irrational defence of Israel than for his academic achievements as an American professor, leads a chorus of observers who bemoan any criticism of Israel. According to Dershowitz, it is Judge Richard Goldstone who should be on trial for having tried to apply the rule of law. Judge Goldstone and his three colleagues have tried to defend their mere articulation of observed and evaluated facts, but the governments at whose leisure they served have made it clear that they must not usurp their authority. This authority, these governments claim, stopped with the presentation of their report. As a consequence, Goldstone and colleagues unyielding defence of the extraordinarily comprehensive and articulated report remains ineffective, instead of being the centrepiece of an effort to ensure justice for Gaza. It is increasingly appearing that the intention is to allow the situation in Gaza to linger as yet another long-term unresolved problem on the UN's agenda. Any such scenario plays into the hands of Israel, which apparently views the length of its oppressive occupation of the Palestinian people as legitimising the situation that rises from its illegal actions. Meanwhile, whatever narrow political advantages the Fatah-led PLO might accrue by allowing their own people to continue to be treated inhumanely, it is doubtful that the Palestinian people will not punish them at the polls. Too many ordinary Palestinians know suffering at the hands of Israelis to allow their own people's suffering in Gaza to be so easily -- and perhaps intentionally -- forgotten. And while the larger international community might avoid the wrath of increasingly impotent American threats, we should not dismiss the damage this does to the rule of international law, to the principles of respect and cooperation that are fundamental to the UN, and to international justice. Our reaction to Gaza is not only a test of the international community's commitment to law, fairness and justice, but it is also a test of our humanity. A world that sends billions of dollars, relief workers, and even soldiers to assist the people of Haiti, can not reconcile its ignoring the man-made suffering of millions of Palestinians. Many observers were fooled by the overwhelming consensus in favour of investigating the shocking crimes committed in Gaza that many of us witnessed first hand on television screens. Many of us thought that finally Israel's impunity would be lifted. It would be remiss to excuse my own optimism from criticism. I indeed believed that the demands of the Palestinian people would be taken seriously in the aftermath of such a tragedy as Gaza. My hope even increased with the presentation of allegations of international crimes in one of the most thorough reports ever presented to the UN. At least, I thought, the representatives of the Palestinian people -- whether from civil society or the authorities -- would finally say, "Enough is enough." But as the UN dithers while people keep dying in Gaza, it appears those of us who believed that things would change were fools for believing that justice could triumph over narrow political agendas. Even as people are suffering and dying we still seem unable to muster the courage and conviction of our principles to act. Yet unless we are able to do so this dark comedy in which we find ourselves may continue indefinitely. * The writer is an international human rights lawyer and professor of law at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine.