Bearing witness

I don't know if any of this came through in my earlier post, but as I sat on Capitol Hill this afternoon and listened to debate over the anti-Goldstone Report resolution, I found myself getting angry.

Furious, actually. The congressmen defending the resolution made no attempt to be honest; they made no effort to have an intelligent debate about Goldstone's findings. They smeared the report as the "hopelessly biased" product of an anti-Israel inquisition. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., went so far as to compare Goldstone to the justices who approved the internment of Japanese prisoners during World War II.

And then 344 members of the United States Congress (here's the roll call) voted to bury his findings.

I know, I know - many of them urged Israel to conduct its own investigation of Operation Cast Lead. But Benjamin Netanyahu's government has no intention of conducting such a review. The war ended nearly a year ago; where is the Israeli investigation?

The IDF has shown no capacity for self-reflection in the last nine months. Israeli officers have acknowledged one wrongful killing - one! - and they chalk that up to a targeting error. Netanyahu wants to create a commission, not to investigate the report, but to investigate how to block its conclusions from seeing the light of day.

So the U.S. House of Representatives voted to help Israel bury the story of Iyad al-Samouni, a Palestinian civilian reportedly shot by Israeli snipers while fleeing his house with his family; and Majdi Abd Rabbo, a civilian reportedly used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers; and the hundreds of thousands of Gazans left without enough food, without clean water, without schools and hospitals and homes in the wake of the Gaza war.

Make no mistake: Israel committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead. Goldstone isn't the only one making that charge. If you don't believe him, believe the human rights groups making similar charges; believe the journalists who reported on Israeli crimes during and after the war.

Whatever the faults of Goldstone's report, and they are many, his conclusions cannot be ignored - not by anyone who claims to take seriously the ideas of human rights and justice.

Those ideas figure prominently in Jewish thought, by the way. I consider myself an agnostic, but I was raised Jewish, and I grew up hearing a lot about the importance of "bearing witness." You prevent future atrocities by shining a light on the crimes of the past. If you downplay their significance - if the perpetrators go unpunished - history will repeat itself.

Goldstone's findings need to be fully investigated. The IDF has hailed Operation Cast Lead as a success. If Israel is not held to account for the crimes it committed during the war, it will commit them again.

On a personal note: This is why I want to go back to report in the Middle East, and why I have such respect for journalists who work in conflict zones around the world - the Amira Hasses of the world. It's easy for politicians to turn their heads and ignore uncomfortable truths. It's important to have people bearing witness.

3 Comments

Alex Lobov — November 3, 2009 10:50 PM

Good on ya Gregg, a little bit of emotion suits you.
And you're right, it's horrible, the saddest part is, despite holding that tiny little glimmer of hope that something might change, I think we all expected this to come to pass. In exactly the way that it has.

areik — November 3, 2009 10:51 PM

"You prevent future atrocities by shining a light on the crimes of the past. If you downplay their significance - if the perpetrators go unpunished - history will repeat itself."

Is this not the exact argument made by Jews - and people of all ethnicities - for preventing genocide by remembering the Holocaust? I was also raised with Jewish values but consider myself non-religious. At least I can say my representative, Donna Edwards, voted against this resolution. Combined with McDonnell's soon-to-be-real win in Va., this has been a bad day for sensibility.

Evan — November 4, 2009 12:55 AM

Aside from seconding everything Gregg says here, I want to ask everyone: why do we think this happened? Is it simple ignorance on the part of the House, were they cynically manipulated or coerced by the "Israel lobby," or do they hold honest, personal beliefs that this kind of investigation into war crimes is somehow a bad thing, or dangerous for America? I just don't know.