UN War Crimes Panel for Israel Hamas

Conflict in Gaza

On August 11th, 2014, in an Al Jazeera report (citing Reuters), the United Nations has chosen a three person commission that will look into war crimes committed during the most recent Israel Hamas conflict in Gaza. In terms of the panel, it is said that

“William Schabas, a Canadian professor of international law, will head the panel whose other members are Doudou Diene, a Senegalese veteran UN human rights expert and Amal Alamuddin, a British-Lebanese lawyer.” However, as Al Jazeera pointed out, “Alamuddin later denied she would participate in the inquiry” due to already having a heavy work load.

The commission will examine accusations of war crimes by both Israeli soldiers as well as Hamas. According to the United Nations, they will look at “all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law … in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014.”

This is welcoming news, as it will hopefully be a level of accountability for all of thousands of innocent lives lost because of this fighting. Often in international relations, more militarily powerful states have attempted caused great amount of damage to citizens during conflict. Yet, with the increased importance of international courts, as well as war and criminal tribunals, state leaders and military actors can now be held accountable for their actions.

However, despite the importance of commissions and inquiries as it relates to human rights and accountability for war crimes committed, not everyone is happy with this news. According to the Al Jazeera report, Israeli officials called this a “kangaroo court”, as it has taken issue with the Human Rights Council, which it has seen as focusing heavily on them in the past (Al Jazeera). And of course, it is fair to criticize the Human Rights Council, as well as question who is selected.

Yet despite what Israeli leaders are saying, there is a clear need to investigate what took place during Israel’s invasion in Gaza, and it does need to take place in an international court of some sorts. Lives can never be brought back. Thousands of innocent people, including so many children, were taken because of these horrific actions. Those who were responsible for such actions must face international law. There must be a clear message in the international system that no war crimes, regardless of where the crime is taking place, or who is the one carrying out that attacks, can ever be tolerated. Let us hope that commissions like this, and hopefully future ones addressing war crimes and crimes against humanity in places such as Iraq and Syria will shed light on gross human rights abuses taking place in the international system. The formation of this commission is a crucial step for human rights, even though it of course can not bring back the thousands of those killed during this conflict.

Update to UN Crimes Panel for Israel Hamas Conflict in Gaza Article

According a more recent report on August 12th, 2014, (after the above article post was written), Israeli leaders expressed outraged at who was selected for this panel. Namely, they have taken issue with William Schabas, the head member of the panel. Yigal Palmor, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, was quoted as saying that

“This commission’s anti-Israeli conclusions have already been written, all it needs is a signature…” Schabas responded to these concerns by saying:

“I’ve frequently lectured in Israel, at universities in Israel. I’m a member of the editorial board of the Israeli law review. I wouldn’t do those things if I was anti-Israel…”.

He went on to say that:

“As far as I’m concerned they’re not written at all, that’s the whole point of an investigation…Many of the questions we have to examine will deal with very precise matters on which the generalities about the conflict don’t provide any insight.” “When we look at specific incidents in which…civilians were killed during the conflict, there are issues about targeting, about proportionality, each one of these has to be examined specifically.”

*I also updated the section on Schabas following criticism of him regarding issues in Syria as well as a conference that he attended in Iran. I will continue to update this story as events unfold. As an article in Haaretz points out, the HRC is not made up of states that epitomize human rights, and this is one criticism levied at the United Nations. Schabas continues to say that he is not biased against Israel, and is still on the war crimes panel.