Sign on to the U.S. Palestine Community Network’s statement calling for U.N. Action on the Goldstone report on Israeli War Crimes in Gaza!
On October 16, the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in Geneva voted to endorse the Goldstone report — the report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict headed by Justice Richard Goldstone. The Report was the product of a UN investigation into Israel’s three week military operation codenamed “Cast Lead” that killed upwards of 1400 Palestinians in Gaza, between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009.
The Goldstone Report calls for the UN Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court if the Israelis or Palestinians fail to investigate the alleged abuses themselves. The UN General Assembly as a whole will first discuss the Goldstone Report.
Over 750 organizations and individuals from around the world have already signed on to an appeal from the U.S. Palestine Community Network demanding action on the Goldstone report.
Let U.N. Secretary General Ban, President President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Congressional leaders, the U.N. General Assembly President, members of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. member states, the President, Prime Minister, Cabinet and Opposition leader of Israel, major media representatives and the International Red Cross know you join with the USPCN statement and want Israeli war crimes in Gaza prosecuted as called for in the Goldstone report!
Sign the petition at http://www.iacenter.org/palestine/gazawarcrimes/ (petition text below)
Sample Text (you will be able to edit it in step 2 after pressing the “submit” button):
To: His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General
The United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017-3515
cc: UN Security Council President H.E. Ambassador Le Luong Minh, Permanent Representative of Viet Nam; United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay; President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Congressional leaders, the U.N. General Assembly President, members of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. member states, the President, Prime Minister, Cabinet and Opposition leader of Israel, major media representatives and the International Red Cross
Dear Mr. Secretary-General:
I add my name to the over 750 international organizations and groups which have signed on to the following statement from the U.S. Palestine Community Network:
We, the undersigned organizations, institutions, and individuals, are writing to demand the full implementation of the recommendations of the “Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” and to express our deepest concern and strong condemnation of the premeditated prevention of endorsing the Report at the UN Human Rights Council’s twelfth session. It is the responsibility of the UN and the international community to put an end to the excessive and ongoing violation of international law, human rights law and international humanitarian law by the Israeli government and army in Palestine, and to hold the perpetrators accountable to the fullest extent, including prosecution, trial and punishment by the International Criminal Court and international tribunals.
The report, commissioned by the President of the UN Human Rights Council on 3 April 2009, and endorsed by hundreds of human rights and civil society organizations, irrefutably documents the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli military in Gaza with a massive amount of undisputed evidence. It, furthermore, clearly identified specific and practical legally-based recommendations for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly and UN Secretary General, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the international Community, and the Government of Israel (A/HRC/12/48: pp 545-554).
Pursuant to the text and spirit of international law, human rights law, and international humanitarian law, we demand the full implementation of the report’s recommendations including the immediate lifting of the savage and illegal siege on Gaza, the reconstruction of Gaza, and the report’s demand that the “Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court acts as expeditiously as possible” (A/HRC/12/48: p: 548). We demand that the UN Secretary General pursues and oversees the full implementation of the report’s recommendations and that each respective body identified by the report must carry out its role in implementing these recommendations. Furthermore, the report’s own conclusion that there is no equating “the position of Israel as the occupying power with that of the occupied Palestinian population or entities representing it” (A/HRC/12/48: p: 521) is critically important. We reject any attempt to criminalize or equate the resistance of an occupied people to the institutional, state-directed, massive violence of the occupier.
The absence of any serious attempt to stop the Israeli aggression during the war on Gaza was a serious moral failure on the part of the international community. The continuous failure to put an end to the excessive and ongoing suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza that are being kept captives under the immoral and illegal Israeli siege is another moral and legal failure that continues to the present day. The international community and the UN are being tested again and its credibility will come under serious question should it ignore once again the plight of the Palestinian people, and Israeli continuous violations of the international law, human rights law, international humanitarian law, the UN charter, and UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions.
The victims of the Israeli atrocities committed in Gaza deserve genuine justice and those responsible must be held accountable. Any delay or lack of progress in implementing the recommendations of the report, combined with the continuing Israeli violations of international law send a message of effective impunity. Only a full implementation of the report’s recommendations as a first step towards bringing justice to Gaza’s victims could foster genuine peace with justice in the region.
Sincerely,
(Your signature will be appended here based on the contact information you enter in the form above)
Sign the petition today: http://www.iacenter.org/palestine/gazawarcrimes/
Partial list of Organizational Signers:
- US Palestine Community Network
- Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition – New York
- Al-Hewar Center
- Al-Nakba Awareness Project
- American Iranian Friendship Committee
- American Muslims for Palestine
- Arab American Union Members Council
- Arab Group for the Protection of Nature
- Arab Resource and Organizing Center
- Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine
- Association Switzerland-Palestine
- Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
- BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from Within
- Break the Silence Mural Project
- Damascus Center for Theoretical and Civil Rights Studies
- Executive Office of the Palestinian Community in Germany
- Free Gaza Movement, USA
- Gaza Mental Health Foundation
- Global Women’s Strike – Ireland
- International Action Center
- International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
- International Solidarity Movement – Northern California
- Justice for Palestinians
- Neolaia Synaspismou, Greece
- New York City Labor Against the War
- PalCH – Switzerland
- Palestinian Youth Network
- Rachel Corrie Foundation
- Society of the Palestinian Community in Switzerland
- Students for Justice in Palestine – UC Berkeley
- United for Justice with Peace
- Women in Black – Cologne, Germany
For more information about the US Palestinian Community Network, visit its website at
http://www.palestineconference.org or email the USPCN at [email protected].
A copy of the Human Rights Council resolution on the Goldstone Report can be read here:
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/E8BF91E89228A29F852576500050D47B
A copy of the 575 page Goldstone Report can be read here:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf
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