A copy of a summary of the United Nations Report about Israel’s attacks on UN facilities during its three-week offensive in Gaza earlier this year has been posted online finally. It found the IDF attacks”involved varying degrees of negligence or recklessness.” The Israeli military did not take adequate steps to ensure the safety of UN staff or civilians cowering for their lives in seven cases where UN facilities were hit.

Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon refused to release the full 184-page version, probably because Israel would appear even more villainous. That could jeopardize, perhaps, the UNHRC’s Goldstone inquiry set to commence next week, since and angry Israel may not cooperate. But, I can only speculate. If they released the full version, maybe I wouldn’t need to. And I can only speculate about that, as well. Either way, I doubt Israel gets even a slap on the wrist.

Israel protested the findings that Israel is responsible for its military fire on UN facilities in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead. It marched out a parade of excuses. Most mysterious was its assertion that an IDF internal review found it guilty of all charges. Like anyone takes those seriously. I investigated myself last week and found I was the perfect human being. Big deal.

In two of the attacks, including the January 6 shelling of an UNRWA school grounds, Israel claimed Hamas fighters were firing from the grounds or booby-trapping them, claims the inquiry found to be false. Of the nine incidents the report focused on, Israel was found responsible for seven; Hamas for one. The last was undetermined. Since Israel had no right to attack in the first place (there is no self-defense right for occupying powers), I’ll just chalk that one over to them.

Among the recommendations are calls for accountability, including reparations to UN workers, the UN itself and civilians harmed in the attacks. It also sought full investigations on the attacks against the UN sites as part of a general inquiry in breaches of international humanitarian law. Ki-Moon was in a tough place, so he chose the middle. He ruled that out a further investigation. But out of fear for angering UN staff, aka potential future Israeli targets, he did say he would seek payments from Israel on a “case-by-case” basis. Good luck. If I had a nickel for each dollar Israel refuses to pay, I’d be rich.

Israel rejected the report as “unbalanced, biased and oblivious to the facts… It completely ignored the facts presented to the UN committee, which has clearly sided with Hamas – a murderous terror group – and is therefore misleading the international public.”

Right. The Israeli Foreign Ministry thinks that because the report left out the rocket attacks that it is biased, as if the rockets have anything to do with the scope of the report — damages inflicted on UN facilities, operations and staff. Also, it recommended an impartial investigation into international law breaches “by the IDF and by Hamas and other Palestinian militants,” thereby exposing the empitness of that claim.

The truth is biased against Israel. Does that make it anti-Semitic?

Related posts:

1. From around the world: An Argentinean declaration against the attacks on the Gaza Strip
2. Israel Risks the Talibanization of Gaza: the Long-View on Israel and Palestine
3. IDF Soldiers Leave their Shit in Gaza Fridges… Literally.
4. Reuters: Israeli Forces Enter Gaza
5. Finkelstein: Israel at War With International Community