In early July, Professor Elihu D Richter, head of the Genocide Prevention Program at Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Jerusalem, submitted a brief to Judge Richard Goldstone, chairman of the UN Human Rights Council Fact Finding Mission, which was then holding its hearings in Geneva. The Mission was investigating “ all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.” For those who have forgotten, 27 December is when Israel attacked Gaza by air and land to put a stop to some 8,000 rocket attacks against civilians in Shderot and Ashkelon over a period of many years. The term-“whether before, during or after” represented a grudging concession to those demanding context to the images of death and destruction in Gaza -many authentic, others staged-during the three weeks of the war.

At the time, Dr. Richter wrote a parallel op-ed for a newspaper in Geneva, Tachlis, in which I said “The smart money is on the bet that the Mission will be a kangaroo court, given the dismal record of the UN Human Rights Council, which until now has been something of haven for perpetrators of Human Wrongs. The Council is notorious as a platform for engaging in obsessive demonizing and delegitimizating of Israel”

Dr. Richter’s brief to Judge Goldstone and his colleagues on the Mission contained several simple messages.

*Hold Hamas accountable for incarcerating soldier Gilad Schalit incommunicado for 3 years, a violation of his human rights. International Human rights groups have been castigated by Elena Bonner, the widow of Andrei Sakharov, for their relative silence concerning Schalit, who has been held incommunicado for 3 years. Where are those who have fought to close down Guantanamo? There, alleged terrorists are given the rights of prisoners, with access to lawyers, visits by the International Red Cross, and basically decent living conditions? It is only recently that the International Red Cross has publicly declared that Schalit’s basic human rights are being violated

*Initiate steps to prosecute the leaders of Hamas and other terror groups for human and social costs of firing some 10000 rockets, missiles and mortars into southern Israel directed at its civilian populations, over the past 8 years. Because the intent of the perpetrators of these attacks has been to kill or injure a group defined by its national identity, they are committing crimes against humanity. Such crimes are in violation the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

*Don’t forget Iran’s accountability as a provider, protector, enabler, supplier, and instructor of Hamas.

Dr. Richter noted that in 2007, Nick Kaufman, an international lawyer, filed a petition to the International Criminal Court on behalf of the City of Sderot, calling for arrest of Khaled Ma’ashal, the leader of Hamas, for his inciting to these terror attacks. Had the ICC moved on this petition, it would have put this arch terrorist-and all the others-on notice that leaders of terror organizations, —not mere “armed organizations–like leaders of states, are prosecutable for their roles in promoting genocidal terror directed against civilian populations.

* Endorse the petition drafted by Professor Irwin Cotler of the Canadian Parliament to indict “re-elected” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his leading role in state sanctioned incitement of Hamas to genocide. In the pre-war period, Ahmadinejad referred to Israel as a “terrorist and criminal state”, and called for “annihilate[ing] this false regime”, (June 14), and used the language of Mein Kampf to engage in dehumanization, (“stinking corpse”” June 13), “ germ of corruption”, (Sept 23), and to demonize “Zionists [as ] few in number but dominating financial and monetary positions”, “caught in the clutches of Jewish power, “inquisitive and invasive people” and that “Zionism is root cause of insecurity and wars”. “”Iran will support Hamas until the destruction of Israel[1]. ( Nov 26 2008) This repeated incitement to genocide with its use of crude anti-Semitic motifs of dehumanization, delegitimization and demonization represents a continuation of trends going back to 1979, which sharply escalated in 2005, when Ahmadinejad was elected.

The Cotler petition has been signed by some 50 of the world’s ranking jurists, genocide scholars, and human rights leaders and heroes in the world, notably Louise Arbour, Gregory Stanton, Gregory Gordon, and Said Ibrahim. Judge Goldstone was active in the International Court Tribunal Rwanda, which convicted journalists and educators for inciting to Genocide. He knows that words kill. But I personally verified that Judge Goldstone did not sign the Cotler petition..

Here were the punch lines of Dr. Richter’s brief:

So far UN’s executive organs, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council remained silent in the face of…. [Hamas’ and Iran’s] incitement,[to genocide], ignoring their responsibilities under the UN Genocide Convention. This silence persisted despite the precedents from previous genocides, notably Rwanda, that such hate language is a warning sign, predictor, and catalyst of genocide….

…If the Commission fails to call for criminal prosecution of the known facts concerning the cruel and inhuman mis-treatment of Gilad Schalit, the Hamas rocket and terror attacks directed against civilians, and the incitement and hate language, by Hamas and Iran, it will recycle the culture of impunity for such violations of human rights to life, respect for life and human dignity. By failing to pursue these actions, it will itself have become a complicit bystander to these crimes…

Could the war in Gaza have been prevented had the world community exercised its responsibilities to prevent and protect? Incitement to Genocide-and genocidal terror– results from human choice by perpetrators and indifference by bystanders.

Judge Goldstone and his colleagues on the Gaza Commission have been bystanders to such incitement by Hamas’ leaders and their backers in Tehran?

Dr. Richter’s money was on the right bet. Others have documented the numerous errors of omission and commission of the Mission. It appears the Mission opted to ignore these points or air brush them away.

Judge Goldstone, on Israeli TV last night, lectured Israelis on establishing judicial procedures in keeping with international standards of fairness, openness, equity and transparency. But the evidence of preformed opinions of one of the members of the Mission-Christine Chinkin, and Goldstone’s being on the Board of Human Rights Watch-he abruptly resigned-one of the major accusers, and the rigged mandate of the Mission are themselves flagrant -indeed obscene -violation of these standards. These violations of elementary professional norms, I submit, underlie the double standards-(e.g. incitement to genocide is a crime against humanity in Rwanda, but ignored in Gaza), and the flawed inferences concerning Israeli state intent to commit crimes humanity are examples of the pernicious influence of these prior biases. If Israel was dropping leaflets to advance warning to Gazans to flee areas it bombed, then how can those whom Israel was warning be considered to be victims of intent to harm?

Dr. Richter asks: Should professional societies for international law and parliamentary committees for human rights in free countries with democratically elected governments investigate whether there has been professional misconduct, or just plain ineptitude, negligence and incompetence -willful or otherwise — by the Goldstone Mission? The consequences of not investigating the errors of omission and commission are staggeringly ominous for free democratic societies who strive to protect the right to life and security, the most elementary human right, from those, who, in the name of human rights, promote cults of death.

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