As human rights organizations continue to be vilified by an Israeli government still smarting from the effects of the Goldstone Report, the Forward has learned that the Israeli military has been in conversation and even actively working with Human Rights Watch, the international organization that has been often — and loudly — denounced by the Jewish world.
According to both HRW and officials from the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli military re-established a relationship with the organization early last October to help find Palestinian witnesses for its internal military investigation. This was a dramatic turnaround from what had been a complete freezing out of human rights organizations since the start of Operation Cast Lead, the incursion into Gaza in the winter of 2008–2009.
Israel’s January 29 report to the United Nations revealed that the military cooperated with an Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, for the same purpose. The report stated that the army had interviewed more than 100 Palestinian witnesses as part of its ongoing Cast Lead-related investigations. But HRW was not named in the report. The Forward has also confirmed that other human rights groups, including Adalah and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, based in Gaza, have been cooperating with the IDF.
The re-establishment of a relationship with HRW is the latest indication that for all its public defensiveness about the accusations of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in the Goldstone Report, Israel has had to confront the report’s implications.
Even those observers who have been critically following Israel’s reaction to Goldstone felt that the January 29 report to the U.N. was a much more serious effort to deal on legal grounds with the accusations leveled by Goldstone, and to show that Israel was engaged in a thorough investigation of its own behavior. The Israeli response, 46 pages titled “Gaza Operations Investigations: An Update,” was posted on a government Web site.
In addition to the new tone in the report, and the revelation of HRW’s help, highly ranked officers from the IDF’s Military Advocate General’s Office also met on February 4 in Tel Aviv with representatives of HRW to discuss the state of the IDF’s internal investigation. It was the first time in a year that the group had been invited to meet with government officials.
“I am very happy that we are able to cooperate and that they are able to reach out to us,” said Bill Van Esveld, a Jerusalem-based HRW researcher who facilitated the cooperation with the IDF and was at the February 4 meeting. “I know it sounds a little weird, given the public profile of Human Rights Watch, especially on Israel work, but we actually really want the IDF to see us as credible and not just as out to get them.”
The decision to ask HRW for help is particularly revealing. The witnesses that were sought were among those quoted in the group’s August 2009 report, “White Flag Deaths,” which cataloged seven incidents in which a total of 11 Palestinian civilians — among them, women and children — were killed, allegedly while waving “white flags” indicating surrender.
When the report was first published, Israel responded harshly. Mark Regev, the IDF spokesman, questioned “the credibility, the objectivity and the professionalism” of HRW and said that this report was not valid, because it was based on “unreliable witness reports.”
The Foreign Ministry had issued a paper at the end of July 2009 that was widely seen as a pre-emptive strike before the release of the Goldstone Report, with which Israel did not cooperate. In it, reference was made to five cases in which civilians waving white flags had been shot. Two of these were the same incidents described in the HRW report. No criminal investigations were launched at the time.
The Goldstone Report, released September 15, 2009, also made reference to a few “white flag” incidents.
According to HRW officials, they were contacted by the IDF on October 7, 2009, first through their Jerusalem office and then by fax at the New York headquarters. The investigators wanted help locating witnesses in three of the “white flag” incidents. The HRW field coordinator in Gaza then contacted these Palestinians directly and asked if they would cooperate with the Israelis. Out of 12 witnesses, 10 agreed, and they met military investigators at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel.
Van Esveld said the IDF was able to draw on his group’s contacts in Gaza. The military also made use of the detailed material HRW had gathered, including GPS coordinates indicating the location of the incidents. Criminal investigations follow two tracks. In one, Palestinian victims or witnesses are contacted for their version of the story. In another, the IDF tries to determine which soldiers were involved. The GPS coordinates were critical, an investigator told Van Esveld, in mapping out the incidents and helping commanders distinguish which of their soldiers were present.
HRW officials were informed at the February 4 meeting with the IDF lawyers that all seven of the “white flag” incidents mentioned in the HRW report had been turned into criminal investigations. They were among the 19 incidents involving shootings of civilians during Operation Cast Lead that the IDF announced in its report had been turned into criminal cases.
The meeting involved high-level officers from the Military Advocate General’s Office, including two with the rank of major. One of them was Dorit Tuval, head of the strategic section of the IDF’s International Law Department.
Though the IDF did not confirm that the criminal investigations were a direct result of HRW reporting, a spokesman, Captain Barak Raz, issued a statement touting the army’s cooperation with human rights organizations, writing that “a significant part of the claims, which the IDF is checking regarding Cast Lead is based on the individual inquires submitted by various organizations and the reports published since the end of the operation.”
The cooperation seems to be continuing. When the Forward reached Van Esveld, he said he had just received a call from the IDF, asking if it could see a copy of a death certificate in one of the “white flag” cases that Van Esveld had obtained.
“The people whose job it is to find facts are operating under one set of rules and imperatives. And politicians who are saying things to the Israeli public seem to be operating under very different drivers,” Van Esveld said. “With the people in the military police criminal investigation division that we’ve met with and talked with over the phone, it’s been professional and the tone has been good. With others, it’s been worse.”
The news that any part of the Israeli government or army is cooperating with HRW, an organization that is increasingly painted as an enemy of Israel, was shocking to those most invested in that portrayal.
“Frankly, I’m surprised that IDF has turned to these organizations, which are widely viewed as unreliable, and gave them legitimacy through this process,” said Gerald Steinberg, head of NGO Monitor, an organization that has taken frequent aim at human rights groups. “I expect this will not happen again. And I suspect it was a serious error.”
*Contact Gal Beckerman at beckerman@forward.com
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I am delighted to learn that the IDF has contacted Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem and that they are cooperating in the IDF's investigation. It is critically necessary for Israel to completely investigate the charges brought by the Goldstone Report as well as the series of NGO's that have published their own investigations. Everything sounded almost too good to be true until Gerald Steinberg made his threat. I am afraid that he and his friends will now go out of their way to identify every negative statement against the IDF and Israel that has ever been made by HRW and the other NGOs. So, it will become that much harder for the military to cooperate with any human rights organization in the future.
This article further demonstrates the immense gap between the earnest and principled Israeli majority and their self-serving political leaders.
Perhaps now the villification of James Goldstone will cease and an honest discussion will ensue! The character asassination of this gentleman has been horrible and unfair. Whatever the results, he has always been a supporter of Israel, and what was reported was what he ascertained.
As a life long supporter of Israel, and having been involved in the trials and tribulation of this great country, I know there are those, whose emotions come high and may go overboard in a war situation.
Let us hope, with the help of the Almighty, whether he be called Hashem oe Allah peace be on the horizon!
hrw has damaged its own credibility (and its jewish donor base) by its consistently anti-israel bias. it's almost as if israeli civilians, and their rights to life and security aren't "human rights", whereas hrw spends almost all of its time and energy protesting the rights of the citizens of gaza, who are overwhelmingly supportive of hamas and the armed struggle to destroy israel. hamas declared the ceasefire over, and the peaceful citizens of gaza rained over 100 qassams a day onto southern israel in december 2008, with no outcry frm hrw.
attempts to rehabilitate hrw will only last until the next round of israel-bashing, prompted by PLO propaganda, which their pro-palestinian staffers won't be able to resist.
Shame of all shame is Canada's current Prime Minister who is trying to please a fanatic bunch of Israel lovers in Canada.They force politicians nd the Media to "say no evil.see no evil and think no evil" about their HOLY Israel.Much to his shame Harper has given full cotrol of Canada's ME Policy to zionist extermists of Canada in the hope theey will vote for him in the next electionHarper has cut off the Federal funds to Human Rights Organizations who dared to expose Israeli war Crimes in Gaza and West Bank.The laes from Netyanhu Junta is they are bulldozing a Muslim Cemetery of centuries old.In its place they have the gal to build what they will call"center for Tolerance and human rights"! Ignominy has no bounds with these evil men!
It is somewhat unfortunate that the hysterics of the previous poster have been falsely posted under the name "Gil Troy", who is a well-known professor and columnist. Unsurprisingly, those who speak out of rage and hatred do not bother with scruples.
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. It is a sin to believe evil of others, but nevertheless, it is seldom a mistake. So do we all share the wrong of others the evil that is on this earth? The world in many parts are not such a nice place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
Why was breath given us? was it to gain power, get rich, build up our own little kingdom? Or was it to war on evil and drive it out as it has been driven out in heaven?
One breath. Is it not written in Ecclesiastes 3?
And the error we still walk in leads to one breath...does it not?
Is it not written...Ecclesiastes 10...There is and evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth form the ruler;
The ruler here is not G-D.....it is mankind, and the evil they embrace, saying I do it for my god. Ecc. 9..Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. It is written in Malachi 2..."I hate divorce," says the LORD G-D of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith."