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HOW ISRAEL PLANS TO WHITEWASH ITS WAR CRIMES IN GAZA  
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Dan Owen
July 24, 2024
+972 Magazine
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_ The Israeli army uses the veneer of internal accountability to fend
off external criticism. But its record reveals how few perpetrators
are punished. Every day, more and more horrifying evidence emerges,
revealing what many Israelis seek to repress. _

Palestinians search for martyrs and wounded in the rubble of a
destroyed building after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern
Gaza Strip, November 6, 2023., Photo: Atia Mohammed/Flash90 // +972
Magazine

 

The scale of horror that Israel has inflicted upon Gaza over the last
nine months is almost impossible to comprehend. The Israeli army’s
decision from the start of the war to significantly expand
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authorization for bombing non-military targets and causing harm to
civilians has resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of
Palestinians, and has left the Gaza Strip unrecognizable
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population faces mass hunger
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intentional Israeli policies, which are in violation of international
laws of war. 

Every day, more
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evidence emerges, revealing what many Israelis seek to repress. The
South African case charging Israel with genocide
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in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested arrest warrants
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity. A UN
Human Rights Council Commission found
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Israeli security forces committed crimes such as starvation, murder,
intentional harm to civilians, forced transfer, sexual violence, and
torture. Even the United States, Israel’s closest ally, concluded
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Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza is “inconsistent” with human
rights law. 

As these accusations pile up, Israel is beginning to launch another
large-scale operation alongside its ongoing military campaign: the
biggest crime cover-up in the country’s history.

Israeli leaders and diplomats repeat ad nauseam the well-worn mantra
that Israel’s army is the most moral in the world. This claim is
based, among other things, on the military’s supposedly robust legal
mechanisms that ostensibly approve every attack and investigate
suspicions of international law violations. In its arguments at the
ICJ against the accusation that Israel is committing genocide,
Israel’s defense team repeatedly praised these legal mechanisms:
even if Israeli soldiers commit war crimes, the lawyers argued, the
system is capable of investigating them on its own.
 
Palestinians receive the bodies of their relatives who were killed in
Israeli airstrikes, Al-Aqsa Hospital, Deir al-Balah, central Gaza
Strip, May 19, 2024.  (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90  //  +972
Magazine)
However, a new report
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I authored for the human rights group Yesh Din shows how the main role
of Israel’s military law enforcement system is to maintain the
appearance of internal accountability in order to shield itself from
external criticism. Indeed, +972 Magazine and the Guardian recently
revealed that Israeli intelligence agencies surveilled
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activities of the ICC, in part to determine which incidents were being
referred to the prosecutor’s office for investigation; in doing so,
Israel could retroactively open investigations into those same cases
and then reject the ICC’s mandate on the grounds of the “principle
of complementarity.”

Illusion of accountability

At the end of May, Israel’s Military Advocate General (MAG), Yifat
Tomer-Yerushalmi, announced
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she had ordered criminal investigations into at least 70 incidents of
suspected war crimes in Gaza. This came after the military referred
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of incidents to the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism
(FFAM), a military body intended to conduct an initial and rapid
examination of suspected violations of international law, before the
MAG decides whether or not to open a criminal investigation.

Allegedly, these are signs of Israel’s commitment to upholding the
laws of war. However, an examination of the past decade of Israeli
assaults on Gaza — including the 2014 offensive known as
“Protective Edge
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the repression
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2018-19 Great March of Return
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operation known as “Guardian of the Walls
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show that it is extremely unlikely that Israel has any intention to
properly investigate, punish, or prevent war crimes. 

Since 2014, hundreds of incidents
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raised suspicions of war crimes were brought to the attention of the
military. The vast majority of these were transferred to the FFAM, but
were closed without a criminal investigation after being
“reviewed” by the mechanism’s staff for unreasonably long
periods. For example, some cases concerning potential violations from
2014 were still under review by the FFAM in 2022.

 
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant speaks with Israeli soldiers at a
staging area not far from the Gaza fence, October 19, 2023.  (Photo:
Chaim Goldberg/Flash90  //  +972 Magazine)
The work of the FFAM and the composition of its members remains
confidential, so we will likely never learn the details of its
examination process or the rationale behind closing cases without an
investigation. Yet whether recommended by the FFAM or not, most
criminal investigations opened by the MAG and conducted by the
military police have been closed without charging any soldiers or
commanders. 

Out of nearly 600 incidents in Gaza from the past 10 years that raised
suspicions of law violations and whose outcomes are known, only three
investigations — one per military offensive — resulted in
indictments. Even in these rare instances, whitewashing remains
central to the military’s tactics, with the perpetrators avoiding
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punishment.

Adding to the military’s consistent failure to handle suspicions of
war crimes is the fact that, to date, the Israeli law enforcement
system has not addressed Israel’s policies regarding the use of
force and has refrained from investigating government and military
decision-makers. In other words, those directly responsible for the
unfolding disaster in the Gaza Strip — who expanded the
army’s targeting of innocent civilians
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Israel’s bombardment and open-fire guidelines
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restricted humanitarian aid
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designated entire areas in the Gaza Strip as kill zones
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will likely remain unpunished in Israel.

This stems in part from an inherent conflict of interest within the
law enforcement system. The Attorney General and the Military Advocate
General, tasked with investigating and prosecuting suspected breaches
of international law, also serve as legal advisors for approving
Israel’s lethal policies in Gaza. It is difficult to envision how
any of these bodies will now initiate a genuine and thorough
investigation into a policy they themselves helped formulate.

Presumably, some investigations which were recently launched will lead
to indictments
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junior-ranking soldiers for looting Palestinian homes
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Palestinian detainees
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important to keep in mind, though, that these instances could actually
boost the army’s image, by presenting the appearance of internal
accountability to the outside world. 

But these will merely be the exceptions that prove the rule. In the
great majority of cases, the system will operate to whitewash war
crimes. And when it does so, Israeli leaders shouldn’t be surprised
if they wind up as defendants in international tribunals.

_[DAN OWEN is a researcher at Yesh Din and the author of the report
'The General Staff Whitewashing Mechanism: The Israeli law enforcement
system and breaches of international law and war crimes in Gaza.']_

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_A version of this article was first published in Hebrew in Local
Call. Read it here
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_OUR TEAM HAS BEEN DEVASTATED BY THE HORRIFIC EVENTS OF THIS LATEST
WAR. THE WORLD IS REELING FROM ISRAEL’S UNPRECEDENTED ONSLAUGHT ON
GAZA, INFLICTING MASS DEVASTATION AND DEATH UPON BESIEGED
PALESTINIANS, AS WELL AS THE ATROCIOUS ATTACK AND KIDNAPPINGS BY HAMAS
IN ISRAEL ON OCTOBER 7. OUR HEARTS ARE WITH ALL THE PEOPLE AND
COMMUNITIES FACING THIS VIOLENCE. _

_We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The
bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to
engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed
by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on
Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is
ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence
Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies._

_This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the
past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and
militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized
siege on Gaza._

_We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need
your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity
of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians
and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the
fight of their lives._

_CAN WE COUNT ON YOUR SUPPORT 
[[link removed]] +972 MAGAZINE IS A LEADING
MEDIA VOICE OF THIS MOVEMENT, A DESPERATELY NEEDED PLATFORM WHERE
PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI JOURNALISTS, ACTIVISTS, AND THINKERS CAN
REPORT ON AND ANALYZE WHAT IS HAPPENING, GUIDED BY HUMANISM, EQUALITY,
AND JUSTICE. JOIN US._

* Israel-Gaza War
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* war crimes
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* Genocide
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* war criminals
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* Ceasefire
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Gaza
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* Palestinians
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* Rafah
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* Hostages
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* Hamas
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* IDF
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* Israeli military
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* Israeli murders
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