Ma’an News reports 18 rights groups have sent a letter, collectively, to the UN General Assembly expressing “concerns about the effectiveness of the endeavors undertaken,” in order to ensure the allegations brought up in the Goldstone report are justly considered.
In November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly gave both Israeli and Palestinian officials three months to complete their own separate investigations into the alleged war crimes during last years Gaza conflict.
Previously, during the Human Rights Council’s fact finding mission headed by the South African Justice, Richard Goldstone, Israeli Defense Forces and also Hamas were accused of the said crimes during the conflict. The UN General Assembly subsequently voted 114-18 with 44 abstentions, expressing overwhelming support for the Goldstone findings, as reported by the legal news outlet, Jurist. However, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in February that the UN is as of yet undecided as to whether both nations have truly and fully complied to the UN criteria which demanded allegations of war crimes to be investigated. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has released a 46 page report, but according to Jurist, it only partially explains Israeli operations in Gaza. The report did, however, mention that two of the armies high ranking officers were disciplined for firing shells into populated areas inside the Gaza strip. Hamas has denied that it has committed any war crimes, saying that any Israeli deaths during the conflict were the results of accidents.
Ban Ki-Moon’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said during a briefing at UN headquarters that “Israeli and Palestinian responses are to be evaluated and that in all cases the processes initiated by both sides will remain ongoing and that the reasons the replies were not immediately analyzed was because the secretary general conformed to the requests of the General Assembly. According to the same release the Secretary general is leading the advocacy and planning for the rebuilding of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
