Israel welcomed the UN report on Jenin because it denied there was a massacre, but ignored other accusations that its soldiers used indiscriminate force against Palestinians, writes Michael Jansen Click to view caption Israel reacted positively to the long-awaited United Nations report on its army's April offensive against the Palestinians in the West Bank town of Jenin, while leading human rights organisations and Arab analysts were critical. For Israel, the report was very important because it rejected a widely held, but mistaken, notion that Israeli forces in Jenin had massacred 500 refugees. Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Daniel Taub said the report cleared up "misconceptions about what happened in Jenin". Since the UN's dismissal of the charge of "massacre" was the main headline round the world, Israel does not have to worry about what the report said about its "disproportionate" and "indiscriminate" use of force against Palestinian civilians. The American group Human Rights Watch, which had a team on the ground in Jenin within days of the withdrawal of Israeli troops, said the report was "seriously flawed" and accused the UN of producing a "watered-down account of the very serious violations in Jenin", which is precisely what it did. Palestinian Minister of International Cooperation Nabil Shaath was lukewarm about the report but claimed it identified Israel's actions in Jenin as "a crime against humanity". He was wrong. The report never categorised Israeli actions as "crimes". Instead, it said that the Palestinians "adopted methods which constitute breaches of international law that have been condemned and continue to be condemned by the United Nations". Arab editorialists, who clearly had not read the report, were hostile. The Palestinian official daily, Al-Hayah Al-Jadidah, accused the UN of having a partisan interest "from day one". The paper was correct. The report issued by Secretary General Kofi Annan on 1 August is a 16-page review of the situation in the main cities of the West Bank from 29 March (when Israel's army started its Operation Defensive Shield) until 7 May. The report and the accompanying press release refer to "allegations" that during this period the Israeli army killed 497 and wounded 1,447 Palestinians, detained 7,000 Palestinian males between the ages of 15 and 45, used Palestinian civilians as "human shields" when conducting house to house searches, destroyed and demolished the homes of 17,000 Palestinians, extensively damaged Palestinian public and civilian property, imposed round- the-clock curfews on one million people, denied them access to medical and humanitarian services and attacked ambulances. The word with which one must quarrel here is "allegations": Israel did all these things, and all are violations of the rules of war and international law. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch warned that Israel could be charged with "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity". Only three allegations are leveled against the Palestinians: militants placed civilians in danger by taking refuge in heavily populated locations, resisted the Israeli military offensive and booby-trapped civilian homes. All of these allegations, inspired by Israel, are essentially foolish. Palestinian fighters had no place to go but to refugee camps and cities. Since Israel occupies the countryside of the West Bank, the Palestinians have no maquis, as did the French resistance to the Nazis. Human rights activists believe that all peoples have a right to resist armed intervention by an alien power intent on occupation. Palestinians also argue that placing booby-traps in houses and alleyways to target invaders does not constitute a war crime. Although the UN couched the report in terms of "allegations", neither the press release nor the body of the report pull punches when describing the devastating consequences for the Palestinians of Israel's Operation Defensive Shield. Palestinian civilians suffered severe hardships, compounded in Jenin and Nablus by the fighting. Closures and curfews "exacted a substantial humanitarian price from the civilian population" exacerbated by cuts in water, electricity and telephones, and shortages of food and medical supplies. The restrictions also caused a "devastating economic impact" by shutting down the Palestinian economy, the report said. Furthermore, there is no equality in the "allegations" recorded in the press release or the report. Israel bears far more blame than the Palestinians. However, the format adopted by the authors of the report turned what should have been a devastating indictment of Israel's inhuman treatment of the Palestinians into a game of allegations ping-pong. The report took this form because those who drafted it took into account Israel's positions and allegations against the Palestinians. Such material should have been excluded for two reasons. First, Israel flatly refused to permit a UN fact-finding team mandated by the Security Council, and constituted by Annan, to visit the West Bank. Second, Israel refused to provide information for the second-hand report mandated by the General Assembly. Material provided by the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Jordan, and the European Union was appended to the body of the report. This consisted of testimony, videotapes from Qatar's Al-Jazeera television network, and descriptions of the unfolding of events. While the UN apparently did not directly receive material from Israel, the report does refer repeatedly to "the account of the Government of Israel". What account? Where is it? Why was this material excluded from the appendices? Furthermore, the UN did not append material apparently supplied by US Jewish groups: perhaps they provided the Israeli material incorporated in the report. By getting surrogates to submit information, Israel could pretend it did not cooperate while ensuring that its point of view was stated. The Syrian daily Tishreen said that the report reflected US domination of the UN. Once again, the UN failed to take action against Israel's continuing violations of Palestinian political, civil and human rights. By preventing the UN from justly assessing and tackling these violations, the US is contributing to the so-called cycle of violence in Palestine and Israel. If the UN, with US backing, had strongly condemned Israel's use of airpower, artillery and other heavy weaponry against the densely populated Jenin refugee camp and old city of Nablus during April (where I witnessed and reported helicopter gunships firing missiles at civilian targets), Israel might have thought twice about dropping a one tonne bomb on civilian homes in Gaza on 22 July. Hamas' vow to kill 100 Israelis in retaliation for the Gaza attack is a direct result of the failure of the world community to put a halt to Israel's war of attrition against the Palestinian people. Summary of points in the report Toll: 497 Palestinians killed and 1,447 wounded. 30 Israeli soldiers and 48 Israeli civilians killed during the 29 March -7 May operation. Curfews: round-the-clock curfews affected 1 million Palestinians. Arbitrary arrests and detention: 7,000 Palestinians arrested, many held in harsh circumstances for prolonged periods with no outside contact. Disproportionate and indiscriminate destruction: 2,800 Palestinian refugee housing units damaged, 878 homes destroyed leaving 17,000 homeless or in need of shelter reconstruction. Denial of humanitarian access: Palestinians were prevented from seeking medical treatment, causing fatalities in some urgent cases. UN and humanitarian convoys were blocked or delayed. Attacks on ambulances: the report cites three such attacks (but Red Cross delegates told this reporter that ambulances were frequently attacked). Costs: the World Bank estimates damages to Palestinian public and private property at $361 million; this comes on top of $305 million in damages inflicted from 28 September 2000, to 29 March 2002.
