U.N. war crimes inquiry hopes to visit Gaza early June
20 May 2009 11:14:18 GMT
Source: Reuters
* U.N. war crimes team hopes to visit region in June
* Leader Richard Goldstone says no official Israeli reply
* Inquiry team prepared to enter Gaza through Egypt
* Will hold public hearings to gather testimony
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, May 20 (Reuters) - United Nations human rights investigators said on Wednesday they hoped to visit Gaza and southern Israel in early June and hold public hearings on whether war crimes were committed in the recent conflict.
Richard Goldstone, the South African jurist who heads the four-member team, said Israel has not yet officially responded to its request to enter the country for the investigation into its invasion of Gaza in late December.
But the team was prepared to enter the coastal strip via the Rafah crossing in Egypt, a "second choice," Goldstone said.
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Richard Falk, the U.N. human rights investigator for the Palestinian territories, said in a March report that launching attacks without the ability to distinguish between military targets and surrounding civilians "would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law".
Falk, an American international law expert who like Goldstone is Jewish, was detained and turned back from Israel when he tried to conduct a separate mission last December.
Goldstone said he had made a direct approach to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be able to enter Israel but had received no official response. He said he was aware of media reports last month that Israel did not plan to cooperate.
Note: these UN investigators in the article are both Jewish individuals from non-Arab nations. The source of the story about Israel refusing to let them enter the Gaza to take testimony is Reuters another prominent news organization.http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LK937642.htm Don't know which way they will rule but no-doubt if it is against Israel they will deny the impartiality of the panel members even when half are Jewish.