In a stunning blow against international law and human rights, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Tuesday attacking the report of the United Nations Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict. The report was authored by the well-respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone and three other noted authorities on international humanitarian law, who had been widely praised for taking leadership in previous investigations of war crimes in Rwanda, Darfur, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Since this report documented apparent war crimes by a key U.S. ally, however, Congress has taken the unprecedented action of passing a resolution condemning it. Perhaps most ominously, the resolution also endorses Israel's right to attack Syria and Iran on the grounds that they are "state sponsors of terrorism."- Stephen Zunes
"But's its just a resolution!" goes the spin, "ignore this". But wars are often started on the building block of "mere words". I have little doubt that congressional action supporting the total disregard for Israel's actions in Gaza will assist, in some small but real way, to future war crimes.
The vote on AIPAC's House Resolution 867 was 344-36, with 22 voting "Present". (Voting "Present" is a way of opposing a bill without voting No, aipac urged its members to chastise both those who voted No and Present). the fact that 58 members went on record not supporting an aipac bill on Israel is, in a strange way, somewhat remarkable, given US politics at present. In January, at the height of the carnage in Gaza, another aipac resolution in support of Israel's action was 390 - 5 No, with 22 Present. So that it can be said that aipac has lost 31 votes in the House. (a side note, nearly all Congresspeople in the San Francisco Bay Area voted either No or "Present" on this resolution... we have some good organizing going on)
Still, there is no denying that this resolution passed overwhelmingly. What did Congress just say?
Again from Zunes:
The Goldstone mission report — totaling 575 pages — contains detailed accounts of deadly Israeli attacks against schools, mosques, private homes, and businesses nowhere near legitimate military targets, which they accurately described as "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish humiliate and terrorize a civilian population." In particular, the report cites 11 incidents in which Israeli armed forces engaged in direct attacks against civilians, including cases where people were shot "while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags." The House resolution, however, claims that such charges of deliberate Israeli attacks against civilian areas were "sweeping and unsubstantiated."
Both the report's conclusions and most of the particular incidents cited were independently documented in detailed empirical investigations released in recent months by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, among others. Congressional attacks against the integrity of the Goldstone report, therefore, constitute attacks against the integrity of these reputable human rights groups as well.
Equating Killing Civilians with Self-Defense
In an apparent effort to further discredit the human rights community, the resolution goes on to claim that the report denies Israel's right to self defense, even though there was absolutely nothing in the report that questioned Israel's right to use military force. It simply insists that neither Israelis nor Palestinians have the right to attack civilians.
That has been the modus operandi of those that support Israeli policy these days, attack the human rights defenders. defame, de-legitimize, or sometimes even arrest on bogus charges. US Congress is more than happy to help out any way it can.
A bit of a tangent here. I do believe that aipac, et. al. does wield great influence in Congress, and their efforts make a difference. it's 100,000 members are accomplishing more than creating social gatherings. But it is not as some might presume, its not like the US congress is some place of innocence corrupted by aipac. Israel is not the only US ally that gets a free pass, and of course, congress grants immunity to even the most criminal US administrations the freedom to commit the worst crimes without fear of the slightest of consequences (rest easy Dick Cheney, congress has your back). As an example, long before anyone heard of Rachel Corrie, there were, for example, 4 american churchwomen killed by the El Salvadorean death squads, after being raped. So supporting terrible violence by US allies (there are very many examples of this), or at least turning an official blind eye to such violence, even when used against US citizens, is part of a rather despicable US tradition by the elite. It's something we need to stop, however. Some traditions are much better buried.
Back to Zunes:
License for War?
Having failed in their efforts to convince Washington to launch a war against Syria and Iran, neoconservatives and other hawks in Washington have now successfully mobilized a large bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives to encourage Israel to act as a U.S. surrogate: Following earlier clauses that define Israel's massive military assault on the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip as a legitimate defense of its citizens and make the exaggerated assertion that Iran and Syria are "sponsors" of Hamas, the final clause in the resolution puts Congress on record supporting "Israel's right to defend its citizens from violent militant groups and their state sponsors" (emphasis added). This broad bipartisan congressional mandate for a unilateral Israeli attack on Syria and Iran is extremely dangerous, and appears designed to undercut the Obama administration's efforts to pursue a negotiated path to settling differences with these countries.
I find this very disturbing. It should also be very disturbing to anyone who cares about anyone (or you know, everyone)in the Middle East. giving any kind of support or excuse for an attack on Iran or Syria by Israel is about the most insane policy that we can imagine. Not only could any such attack lead to terrible loss of life in any country Israel might attack, but it would inevitably lead to much pain and misery to the people of Palestine/Israel, as it would almost certainly to counter-attacks and re-attacks and re-counter-attacks that will lead to re-re-attacks ---ad infintum, until ... when? Now, it is probably true that most of congress has not read the resolution they just voted on (its 5 pages!, you can't expect Congress to read so much... they have donors to meet), so most of are unaware of what they just said. But Israeli elite was listening, that's for damn sure.
Congress made the next war just a bit easier. It made war crimes just a bit easier. That's not a good thing.
I wanted to share this other perspective on this resolution, this from Noura Erakat at Huffington Post:
-The House vote last week condemning the Goldstone Report, which encourages Israel and Hamas to conduct "credible" independent investigations of war crimes committed in Gaza, may help Israeli leaders avoid prosecution in the short-term. However, the House vote and the negative US votes at the UN will have long-term detrimental effects both on Israel and on the U.S.'s moral authority.
Consider that within the General Assembly, 110 nations endorsed the Report, while the U.S. was among the minority of 18 nations that voted against the endorsement. The Congressional vote will increase the likelihood of a worldwide campaign to push the UN General Assembly, the International Criminal Court, or other countries, under universal jurisdiction, to hold Israel to account for war crimes committed in Gaza. ...
Self-defense is of utmost concern because self-defense was a central element of Israel's ongoing argument for the war and is the heart of the U.S.'s rejection of Goldstone....
However, the self-defense claim propagated by Israeli and U.S. politicians since the initiation of Operation Cast Lead is inconsistent with both the facts and the law. Read it all.
This resolution has again reaffirmed US political support for Israel's leaders. It has also again reaffirmed US position as a rogue state, much like the policies of Bush. Whatever support the US has gained since the election of Obama and his words at Cairo have no been lost with actions like this.
That's not a good thing.
Rep Dennis Kucinich:
"Today we journey from Operation Cast Lead to Operation Cast Doubt. Almost as serious as committing war crimes is covering up war crimes, pretending that war crimes were never committed and did not exist."
"Because behind every such deception is the nullification of humanity, the destruction of human dignity, the annihilation of the human spirit, the triumph of Orwellian thinking, the eternal prison of the dark heart of the totalitarian."
"The resolution before us today, which would reject all attempts of the Goldstone Report to fix responsibility of all parties to war crimes, including both Hamas and Israel, may as well be called the "Down is Up, Night is Day, Wrong is Right: resolution."
"Because if this Congress votes to condemn a report it has not read, concerning events it has totally ignored, about violations of law of which it is unaware, it will have brought shame to this great institution."
"How can we ever expect there to be peace in the Middle East if we tacitly approve of violations of international law and international human rights, if we look the other way, or if we close our eyes to the heartbreak of people on both sides by white-washing a legitimate investigation?"
"How can we protect the people of Israel from existential threats if we hold no concern for the protection of the Palestinians, for their physical security, their right to land, their right to their own homes, their right to water, their right to sustenance, their right to freedom of movement, their right to human security of jobs, education and health care?".
"We will have peace only when the plight of both Palestinians and Israelis is brought before this House and given equal consideration in recognition of that principle that all people on this planet have a right to survive and thrive, and it is our responsibility, our duty to see that no individual, no group, no people are barred from this humble human claim."
Finally, this statement from Congressman Baird. Baird comes from Olympia Washington, he was Rachel Corries congressman. I think that touched him deeply. He is one of the very few congressman that have visited Gaza in many years. Now that's a concept, he actually knows what happen in Gaza from first-hand observation.
This is about much more than just another imposed political litmus test that we are all too often asked to perform. This is about whether we as individuals and this Congress as an institution find it acceptable to drop white phosphorous on civilian targets, to rocket civilian communities, to destroy hospitals and schools, to use civilians as human shields, and to deliberately destroy nonmilitary factories, industries and basic water, electrical and sanitation infrastructure. This is about whether it is acceptable to restrict the movement, opportunities and hopes of more than a million people every single day.
Baird is no Dennis Kucinich. In many ways, he is much more mainstream. He just knows too much. There may be hope after all. Maybe over time the next time aipac comes up with one of these things they may find 90 people opposed. the one after that, maybe 120. Let's just hope that it does not come too late... for the Palestinians, for the US, or for Israel.
If you live in a district represented by one of the 58 who refused to support this resolution, be sure to thank them.