Tel Aviv Considers Inquiry into Gaza War Crimes to Absorb Shock of Goldstone Report

Quds Press:

Hebrew sources revealed that the Israeli government is currently mulling the formation of a committee to investigate the war that Israel had launched on Gaza 9 months ago – martyring 400 000 Palestinians and injuring around 5000 – in the context its efforts to dilute the impact of the report of the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, who accused Tel Aviv of war crimes.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth’s issue of Monday, 12 October, 2009, “high-level figures in the judiciary body, in cooperation with the military prosecution body and foreign ministry officials, are mulling the possibility of making a recommendation to the cabinet council to form an independent committee to investigate into Operation Cast Led …. on the Gaza Strip.”

The press reported that the security services and judicial authorities “will be held during this week’s marathon deliberations in an effort to find a legal formula to deal with the report of the Goldstone Commission and its implications on the international arena.”

It also explained that one of the major options being deliberated by the “formation of an independent inquiry led by a judicial fact-finding decision-making at both the political and military during the war on Gaza, but Israeli security sources confirmed that the committee, if formed would be” state commission of inquiry”.