NGOs discredit Israel in int’l news without evidence
Israeli NGOs question the IDF investigation in the international media, but without evidence.
Israeli military rejects Gaza abuse claims, CNN, March 30, 2009
The conclusion follows a military police investigation into claims made at a conference that the army had intentionally killed civilians and damaged property during Israel’s incursion into Gaza in December and January. Israeli military advocate general Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit concluded “the stories told were purposely exaggerated and made extreme, in order to make a point with the participants of the conference.” The allegations were “based on hearsay ” and were “not supported by the facts as determined by the investigation,” Mendelblit said in a statement.
Israeli human rights organizations condemned the speed with which military police reached their conclusion.
“The speedy closing of the investigation immediately raises suspicions that the very opening of this investigation was merely the army’s attempt to wipe its hands of all blame for illegal activity during Operation Cast Lead,” as the Gaza operation was called, nine human rights groups said in a joint statement.They reiterated their call for a civilian investigation, which Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has rejected…The groups — The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Bimkom, B’tselem, Gisha, Hamoked, The Public Committee Against Torture, Yesh Din, Physicians for Human Rights, and Adalah — said accounts by Palestinians raise the possibility that acts by the military were worse than previously suspected.
The Jerusalem Post reported (IDF: Case closed on Gaza testimonies, March 30, 2009) that the results of the investigation referred to a testimony from a soldier named Aviv, who claimed to have known of a soldier who had been given orders to fire at an elderly Palestinian woman. During his interrogation, the IDF said, Aviv admitted he had never witnessed such an incident and that he’d based his statement on a rumor he had heard…The army also stressed that soldiers at the academy conference admitted to basing their claims relating to the use of phosphorous munitions during the operation on what they had heard in the media, and not from personal experience or knowledge…
The substance of the IDF report, however, seems to be of little import to the NGOs who readily released statements to the international media alleging that it was a puppet investigation meant to superficially rid the IDF of blame. With what proof do the NGOs discredit the IDF investigation completely? No one asked.
