Jewish & World News

The Anti Defamation League condemned the remarks made by a senior Hamas official on Thursday, who claimed that the Holocaust was "a lie that has crumbled," and suggested that Israel had committed "countless Holocausts" on the Palestinian people. Mahmud Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas made the remarks during a memorial service for 43 Palestinians killed at a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp during an Israeli military incursion into Gaza in December 2008.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, who lost three daughters when the IDF fired shells at his home during Operation Cast Lead, will file on Sunday a massive damages claim against the State of Israel.

An indictment was filed in Belgium Wednesday calling for various Israeli officials including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Opposition leader Tzipi Livni, and former prime minister Ehud Olmert be tried for war crimes, reported Hungarian News Agency MTI.

The Israel Defense Forces will soon release new findings about a strike near the Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque during last year's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, in an effort to refute the Goldstone Report's claim that it targeted civilians. The report cited this incident as key evidence for its accusation that Israel deliberately targeted civilians during the operation.  The new evidence is based in part on Hamas and Islamic Jihad reports which show that more than half the casualties in the strike were armed members of these two groups.  The strike near the mosque, situated on the northern outskirts of the Jabalya refugee camp, occurred in January 2009, shortly after the IDF began its ground offensive. It killed 15 and injured 40, and was widely reported by the media and human rights groups.  Yet five internal army panels set up by Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi to investigate the IDF's actions during Cast Lead initially said there was no evidence that Israel had attacked ...

Israel's account of its conduct during the Gaza war was challenged on Monday after evidence emerged apparently contradicting one of the army's key findings, The Guardian reported. Israel last week submitted a 46-page response to a highly critical United Nations inquiry by South African judge Richard Goldstone, which accused both Israel and Hamas of "grave breaches" of the fourth Geneva Convention. In the report, Israel claimed its forces abided by international law throughout the war last year and denied targeting the al-Badr flour mill in northern Gaza, which was severely damaged during the IDF's three-week offensive.     But the UN mine action team, which handles ordnance disposal in Gaza, maintains that the remains of a 500-pound Mk82 aircraft-dropped bomb were found in the ruins of the mill last January. This evidence directly contradicts the Israeli report, which challenged allegations that the building was deliberately targeted and specifically state...

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday denied that two of its senior officers had been summoned for disciplinary action after headquarters staff found that the men exceeded their authority in approving the use of phosphorus shells during last year's military campaign in the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli government wrote in a recent report. In an official response provided to the United Nations over the weekend in response to last September's Goldstone Commission report, the government said that a brigadier general and another officer with the rank of colonel endangered human life during by firing white phosphorous munitions in the direction of a compound run by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The government finding aknowledges, at least in part, allegations by international organizations.     But the IDF on Monday flatly denied that Division Commander Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg and Givati Brigade Commander Col. Ilan Malka been subject to disciplinary act...

A satellite photograph showing a 60-meter Star of David carved into a Palestinian field during the offensive against Hamas in Gaza last winter, slid under the army’s radar screen when it examined the Goldstone Report’s allegations of misconduct against the IDF. When quizzed by The Jerusalem Post, the IDF said it was unfamiliar with the incident and said the Foreign Ministry should be contacted for an official comment. The star can be seen in a satellite photograph provided to South African jurist Richard Goldstone by the United Nations last July. According to a report by the UN Institute for Training and Research that accompanied the photograph, the satellite image was shot some time between January 3 and 10, 2009. The UNITAR report states that the photograph of the Palestinian field showed “ground signatures” that “include tank tracks across cultivated fields and paved roads,” as well as a “Star of David measuring 60m. in diameter carved into the soil likely by IDF vehicles.” ...

An Israel Defense Forces brigadier general and another officer with the rank of colonel endangered human life during last year's military campaign in the Gaza Strip by firing white phosphorous munitions in the direction of a compound run by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the Israeli government official says. The finding aknowledges, at least in part, allegations by international organizations. It was contained in a report that the government provided to the United Nations over the weekend in response to last September's Goldstone Commission report. Gaza Division Commander Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg and Givati Brigade Commander Col. Ilan Malka, were the subject of disciplinary action by GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant after headquarters staff found that the men exceeded their authority in approving the use of phosphorus shells that endangered human life, the Israeli government report said.     The incident in question occurred on Januar...

Israel submitted to the United Nations its response to the allegations of war crimes made in the Goldstone commission report which investigated the Israel Defense Forces' offensive in the Gaza Strip last year, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday. Friday marks the three-month deadline set by the United Nations General Assembly for issuing its own report on the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza Strip. "This morning we handed the UN a report of the investigations and operations that took place during Operation Cast Lead," Barak, who was speaking at a Jewish National Fund tree-planting ceremony near the Negev town of Omer, said. "This report stresses that the IDF is like no other army, both from a moral standpoint as well as from a professional standpoint."     "The Goldstone Report is a distorted, false, and irresponsible report," Barak said. "All of the soldiers and officers whom we sent to battle need to know that the state of Israel stand...

A prominent international human rights group on Thursday disputed Hamas' claim that it did not target civilians during last year's war against Israel, saying there was strong evidence the Islamic militant group intentionally aimed its rockets at Israeli towns. The criticism from New York-based Human Rights Watch drew fresh attention to Hamas' actions in the three-week war, during which about 1,400 Palestinians - most of them civilians - and 13 Israelis were killed. Most international criticism, including by Human Rights Watch, has been directed toward Israel. Both Israel and Hamas face a Feb. 5 deadline to respond to allegations in a UN report that they committed war crimes during the fighting. The report urged both sides to conduct independent investigations into the allegations, and both have signaled they will not comply, though they have not delivered formal responses.     In an internal Hamas document obtained by The Associated Press, the Islamic militant gro...

Gaza's Hamas rulers on Wednesday defended their actions during Israel's assault last winter, saying they did not target civilians while firing hundreds of rockets at Israeli towns, and rebuffing a UN call for a new inquiry. A Gaza-based Hamas commission of inquiry also determined on Wednesday that captive Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit is being treated fairly and is receiving the necessary medical attention. The panel was formed as Hamas' response to the Goldstone Report, which accused the Islamist group and the Israel Defense Forces of committing war crimes during last year's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.     A report handed by a Hamas official to The Associated Press days before a UN deadline indicated Hamas will not convene an independent investigation of its rocket fire. Both Israel and Hamas rejected charges by the UN inquiry of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, and both appear ready to ignore the demand for internal investigation...

Israel  will not set up a special panel to investigate last winter's Gaza offensive, a Cabinet minister said Tuesday, rejecting a key demand of a UN report  that accused the military of war crimes. Information Minister Yuli Edelstein said Israel would submit a document to the UN later this week that deals only with Israel's own investigations of its conduct during the three-week war. Those investigations have been conducted by the military, which has exonerated itself of any systematic wrongdoing. Gaza War "To the best of my knowledge, there is no intention to create an investigative committee," Edelstein, a member of the ruling Likud party, told Israel Radio, saying he had checked with his colleagues in the Cabinet. It was not certain that Edelstein's comments were Israel's last word on the subject. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was out of the country, and his office declined comment. Read More: Ynet

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Monday that he has decided to establish an independent panel of inquiry to evaluate the findings of the Goldstone Commission's probe into the Gaza war last year. Abbas has ordered all relevant parties within the Palestinian Authority to cooperate with this initiative, which would focus on human rights violations allegedly carried out by his PA security forces during Operation Cast Lead. The panel will comprise eight members and is to be headed by former Palestinian supreme court president, Isa Abu Sharar.     The UN-sponsored report, which was authored by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, has demanded that both Israel and Hamas carry out independent investigations into the war crimes allegations it raises. The Palestinian Authority had no role in the Gaza war. It lost jurisdiction over the coastal territory during a bloody Hamas coup in June 2007, 18 months before Israel embarked on Operation Cast Lead. Isra...

Israel was set to submit its rebuttal on Thursday to a United Nations report accusing it of having committed war crimes in Gaza last winter. Though the Israeli response has been kept under wraps, it is expected to list the essential flaws in the report and explain why the report is biased against Israel and tainted with many problems. By February 5, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was to file a compilation of all the responses to the report, authored by renowned South African jurist Richard Goldstone. In its rebuttal, Israel was to explain the reasons behind the offensive in the Gaza Strip and what it terms the hardships of fighting against a terror organization that operates inside civilian homes, schools, hospitals and UN facilities. Israel launched its three-week offensive in Gaza in December 2008 in an effort to halt near daily rocket fire from the coastal strip onto its southern communities. The Goldstone report has demanded that both Israel and Hamas carry out independe...

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni told CNN on Monday that she would be willing to face arrest to challenge the validity of war crimes charges reportedly filed against her recently in a British court. "For me, this is not a question," Livni told CNN's Christiane Amanpour, when asked whether she was willing to face arrest. "I mean, yes, the answer is yes. I am." Last year a UK court issued an arrest warrant for Livni, the chairwoman of the Kadima Party. BBC reported at the time that the warrant was eventually revoked once it was clear that Livni was not in Britain. "I would like this to be, in a way, maybe even a test case, because I'm willing to speak up and to speak about the military operation in Gaza Strip," Livni told CNN.  Read More: Ynet

Eleven Palestinian human rights organizations have called on the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government in Gaza to endorse the Goldstone report by investigating Palestinian violations of international law allegedly committed during operation Cast Lead. Acts listed by the report include Palestinian attacks on civilians in Israel and instances of internal repression, such as summary executions in the Gaza Strip and arrests and torture in the West Bank. The calls were made in identical letters sent to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh. The organizations asked the two leaders to launch investigations before the February 5 deadline by which the UN Secretary-General is to report to the General Assembly on compliance by Israel and the Palestinians with the assembly's earlier resolution. On November 5 the assembly endorsed the conclusions of the report and urged both Palestinian and Israeli authorities to investigat...

Israel is set to pay the United Nations $10 million in compensation for damage caused to UN buildings during Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip last winter, the BBC quoted officials as saying Thursday. According to the British website, Israel insisted that the Israel Defense Forces did not target the UN school buildings, vehicles and offices that were damaged or destroyed, and that the compensation was solely for collateral damage. Israel has argued that Hamas operatives fought in, or near UN-protected buildings during the fighting.  Read More: Haaretz 

The Jordanian national that attacked a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, killing 7 CIA agents, was furious over the Israel's Gaza offensive, the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on Thursday. The report quotes the brother of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi as saying that his brother, a physician, had even made numerous attempts to join Jordan's doctor's association as way of reaching the Gaza Strip and aiding the local population. The attack was carried out by a Jordanian, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who had been recruited by the CIA as a counterterrorism intelligence source. Al- Balawi's brother added that his brother had notified their family that he intended to travel to Turkey to meet up with his wife, but she said he never arrived. "We thought that he was in Gaza the whole time," the brother told Al-Quds Al-Arabi. He added that the family received an anonymous phone call in which they were told that Al- Balawi had perpe...