Israel rebuked the United Nations on Tuesday for a “one-sided” report charging that the counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead may have been a war crime. The report is a "politicization of human rights [and] a further example of the very one-sided, unbalanced and unfair attitude of the Human Rights Council," the prime minister’s spokesman Mark Regev told the French news agency AFP.
The author of the council report is Richard Falk, who is all but persona non grata in the government. He was prohibited from entering Israel last December when he tried to visit Gaza to complete a report on human rights. Israel previously opposed the Princeton University professor’s appointment as the United States' U.N. representative because of his harsh and continued verbal attacks on Israel.
Falk's report stated that if a probe shows that the IDF knew before entering Gaza that it could not differentiate between terrorists and civilians, “launching the attacks is inherently unlawful, and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law."
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told reporters on Monday that innocent civilians probably were killed during the counterterrorist campaign, but he added that they were exceptions under a policy that aimed only at terrorists, who often used civilians as shields.
Reuters headlined the report, “General Links Israeli Tactics to Gaza Civilian Toll,” implying that the Chief of Staff put the blame directly on army maneuvers. Reuters did not point out that half of Israel’s own 10 military casualties in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead were caused by “friendly fire,” underscoring the fact that mistakes almost always occur in combat.