Nicole Fritz gets it wrong

Here's an article in the Business Day last week that bewilders me beyond exasperation. It is authored  by Nicole Fritz, Director of the South African Litigation Centre and former law clerk to Justice Richard Goldstone: SA must insist on justice without exception

The article draws equivalence between Israel and Sudan, claiming that both use the same banal excuses of selectivity in order to deflect attention away from their crimes. It behoves the director of the SA Litigation centre to do better than to put forward evidence suggesting that the application of a critique by one actor (Israel) is incorrect because it has been applied speciously by another actor (Sudan).

Fritz states that the report by Goldstone cannot be accused of being selective. Her evidence? “It subjects both Israel and Palestinian faction Hamas to scrutiny. It concludes that Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. If the report pays greater attention to allegations made against Israel, that was unavoidable. Despite numerous requests to co-operate in the investigation, Israel refused. It refused the mission permission to enter Israel or the West Bank.”

Fritz does nothing to counter one of the major critiques of the report – that of its origins. It originated from the UN Human Rights Counsel that was formed to rid the world’s primary Human Rights organisation of the tainted history of selectively censuring Israel. But the new counsel has fared no better than the old commission. The new UN Human Rights Counsel has spent as much, if not more, of a disproportionate focus on Israel as the previous disbanded UN Human Rights commission did. Over 80% of its country specific resolutions have targeted Israel. Its members who oppress their own people with impunity, free from fear of retribution, use it as a shield to protect their own records by focusing only on Israel. This is the same counsel that congratulated Sri Lanka after it brutally wielded its power to topple a Tamil Tiger uprising, allegedly killing more than 20 000 civilians. But listen to Nicole Fritz. Listen to Goldstone's previous law clerk. The Gaza report was not selective. Oh dear!

Digging deeper into its origins, the original mandate of the resolution called for an investigation into only the war crimes committed by Israel. Granted, Goldstone did widen its mandate to include investigations of Hamas but the original mandate was never actually altered. Perhaps for this reason, in the context of the findings against Israel, the criticism of Hamas is provided almost as an after-thought, almost as if it were there serving purely as the veneer of balance.

Thirdly, the make-up of the investigation team was highly questionable, in particular, Christine Chinkin signed a petition declaring that Israel had committed war crimes before the investigation began. Including her on the investigation was akin to including a Nationalist apartheid judge to rule over a dispute between a white and black person in the 1960s. The positions of the Nationalist judge are already known, so why even bother with the investigation?

Fritz also discounts the affront caused by the Report’s conclusions, pretending that it equally condemned Hamas and Israel. But the report’s over-arching conclusions are (1) that what happened in Gaza was nothing but a premeditated, deliberate and targeted attack in order to punish, humiliate and subjugate a civilian population, and (2) that Hamas fighters did not abuse civilian compounds such as mosques, schools and hospitals as bases for cover.

Without even looking at a critique of the facts that the report stands upon, it is patently clear that Israel launched the attack to stop incessant rocket fire from Gaza. Further, there is an abundance of evidence in the public domain supporting the Israeli claims that Hamas operated from civilian compounds. The report doesn’t find against Israel. It makes a mockery of justice! Whilst I can tolerate criticisms of methods used by Israel, a distortion of the entire objective renders it nothing but a vicious and personal attack on Israel and all her citizens and supporters.

Comments

[the Hebrew prophet]

Maybe Nicole Fritz can inform us at to why the butcher of Sudan ,Omar Bashir is still on the loose even after his indictment on war crimes charges ,or is an Arab/Muslim killer exempt from any prosecution ?The continuous obfuscation of the facts in Gaza ten months ago ,by certain members of the SA govt.only reinforce the notion of blatant anti-semitism and anti -Israel feelings within the corridors of power .In the meantime the black dictator Mugabe is still running the show, with support from SA taxpayers, courtesy of the Zuma govt.in Zimbabwe ,yet Israel is more important as it deflects criticism away from the truth in Zimbabwe .How hypocritical ?

[the Hebrew prophet]

If Israel left Gaza 2005 with no Israeli presence wha
tsoever in the area ,why the thousands of Qassams fired into Sderot and Ashkelon ,by Hamas,what exactly was the provocation ,if any from the Israeli side? Nicole Fritz needs to answer this pertinent question and stop the rhetoric from her govt.masters
as we need to know the full extent of the Goldstone
report from the SA govt. perspective.

[Alex @ Israeli Uncensored News]

This is a problem with any formal legal system, it fails to differentiate on ad hoc basis. Before the law, Israel and Sudan are equal, and logically they are similar. Formal law fails to differentiate important differences which only can be evaluated in a Scottish-type common law court. It is also mistaken to apply common law to international relations. In domestic issues, a killer is almost always wrong, while in international relations killing is normal.

[John]

Nicle Fritz doesnt deal correctly with the reasn that more attention is given to Israel in the Goldstone Report. The reason is simple. If A's army killed 1400 people from B, and B's army killed 13 people from A. And, if A's army destroyed 1400 homes belnging to A civilians and B's army almost destroyed 1 home belonging to A civilians, isnt it clear which side will get more attention in such a report?

[the Hebrew prophet]

Another bloody day in Pakistan and Afghanistan ,with Sunnis and Shiites ,killing each other tit for tat,yet no word from Nicole Fritz ,Zackie Achmat and other Arab propagandists who like to vent their anti
Israeli/Jewish vitriol on this blog.The whole Hamas hierarchy (Haniyeh,Meshaal) and the underlings who
sent salvo after salvo of Qassams into Sderot and As
hkelon ,must be indicted on war crimes and crimes ag
ainst humanity.The UNRWA bosses(Irish) must be held accountable for their tacit approval of Hamas,s illegal use of ambulances in the war zone,to transport fighters and weapons ,the storage of munitions in Mosques and schools,the command centre ,used by Hamas as an operations tool ,in the basement of the main hospital in Gaza
City,the booby trapped local zoo,the taking of Gazans as shields when confronted by IDF personnel
and the smuggling of army fatigues on UN aid trucks into Gaza.Who is going to investigate these
charges and when as time is moving on ?

[the Hebrew prophet]

Hamid Karzai ,the Afghanistan head of state ,committ
ed electoral fraud in his troubled country,s first
democratic elections ,the Pakistani Intelligece Services field officers knowingly supply vital info,
on Nato/Coalition forces in Swat ,Kohat ,Kandahar,Pe
shawar ,to their tribal warlords ,who then send suicide bombers to kill innocent civilians who just
happen to be in the wrong place,Turkey continues to send troops across the border into Mosul and Kirkuk ,against the Kurds ,who would like their own independent homeland ,French/Swiss tourists go to the Temple Mount(HarHaBayit)to see what all the fuss is about ,the local scum(Arabs)seize the opportunity to go on the rampage and blame the pere
nnial scapegoat Israel, for the release of frustrat
ion and barbarism ,caused by the inept ,corrupt Fa
tah/Palestinian leadership ,that,s to busy helping
itself to billions of stolen money ,courtesy of Arafat ,the hero ,who conned his people out of nationhood,from Swiss banks. A somewhat damning in
dictment of all that,s wrong in the cynical world of Middle East politics.

[the Hebrew prophet]

Mugabe still in power next door,courtesy of the taxpayers in SA ,Julius Malema still showing his lack
of leadership ,Leonard Chuene ,the head of ASA ,and liar and Caster Semenya,s nemesis ,still sitting in his office and collecting his monthly salary ,Jacob Maroga ,the big boss at Eskom ,who got his 25% pay hike ,yet would love to hike his inefficient company
,s services by 45% per annum ,otherwise everything fine and dandy in cloud cuckoo land.

[the Hebrew prophet]

Where.s Nicole after another bloody day in Baghdad ,with more than 160 Muslims(Sunni,Shiite,Kurd) deaths ?Only a hypocrite would keep quite or hide while these atrocities and barbarism continue?

[the Hebrew prophet]

Hello Nicole more bombs in Pakistan,Peshawar ,target
ing civilians ,yet no comment ,why the hypocrisy ?

[the Hebrew prophet]

According to the 1995 Oslo talks ,the PA is responsi
ble for the treatment of sewage ,and the desaliena
tion of water in it,s territories.This doesn,t occur
as the Fatah elite and it,s big boss Mahmoud Abbas a
re to preoccupied with their bank balances ,so the scapegoat is the usual one Israel.Human Rights organ
isations are not interested in the truth as the truth doesn,t pay for the big salaries they ,the,leftist/liberal command.Lying ,deceit is the way to go as there is plenty funding from Arab states ,very eager to pay for the leftwing claptrap ,which won,t comment on the daily suicide bombings in Peshawar,Kohat,Islamabad.How nauseati
ngly hypocritical certain people are.

[the Hebrew prophet]

Has Nicole advised the Nigerian govt.on the arrest of Omar Al-Bashir (butcher of Sudan)and his imprisonment in the Hague ,on crimes against humani
ty,and if not ,why not?

[the Hebrew prophet]

Hilary Clinton spends far to much time and American taxpayers dollars on another failed Islamic state(Pakistan).The Pakistan Intelligence Services officers are rogues and killers in the pay of their
tribal warlords ,as it seems to be rather easy for bombs to be detonated at supposedly secure sites .Stop wasting time and money on centuries old tribal wars as these will go on for many more centuries ,it,s the mentality of the peasants ,and can,t be controlled.Israel needs more aid from Hillary ,weapons ,ammunition,anti-missile defence systems ,naval craft (patrol the Gaza coastline)
and more.

[the Hebrew prophet]

More projectiles from Hamas ,so quickly phone Nicole then her former boss, Judge Goldstone and lay a complaint as the UN will say it,s only Guy Fawkes eve
ning and that,s what happens when the Catholics try to blow up the Protestant houses of parliament .

[the Hebrew prophet]

Continuous wastage of American taxpayers dollars in Pakistan and Afghanistan will only exacerbate the problem for the American and world economy ,yet trying telling that to Barack Obama and his mouthpie
ce Hillary Clinton.European taxpayers money is squa
ndered on leftwing/liberal pie in the sky nonsense ,in Palestinian refugee camps 60 years on from the 1948 League of Nations mandate of two nations living
side by side in peace and prosperity.Try telling that to the leftwing govt.s in Europe who believe that Palestine should be all of Israel ,not withstanding evidence to the contrary . Strange days indeed as John Lennon sang all those years ago.