How Israel intends to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
The Israeli military uses the veneer of internal responsibility to fend off external criticism. But its record reveals how little punishment is given to the perpetrators of these crimes.
By Dan Owen
The scale of the horror that Israel has inflicted on Gaza over the past nine months is almost impossible to comprehend. The Israeli military’s decision at the outset of the war to dramatically expand its authorization to bomb non-military targets and cause harm to civilians has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians and rendered the Gaza Strip unrecognizable. The surviving population faces hunger and mass displacement due to Israeli policy decisions that violate the international laws of war.
Every day, more horrific evidence emerges, revealing what many Israelis seek to suppress. The South African case accusing Israel of genocide continues before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity. A United Nations Human Rights Council commission found that Israeli security forces committed crimes including starvation, murder, intentional harm to civilians, forcible transfer, sexual violence, and torture. Even the United States, Israel’s closest ally, has concluded that Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza is “incompatible” with human rights law.
As these accusations mount, Israel is beginning to launch another major operation alongside its ongoing military campaign: the largest cover-up in the country’s history.
Israeli leaders and diplomats repeat ad nauseam the well-worn mantra that the Israeli military is the most moral in the world. This claim is based, among other things, on the army’s supposedly robust legal mechanisms, which ostensibly approve every attack and investigate suspected violations of international law. In its arguments before the ICJ against the genocide charge against Israel, Israel’s defense team has repeatedly praised these legal mechanisms: even if Israeli soldiers commit war crimes, the system is capable of investigating these crimes on its own.
However, a new report I wrote for the human rights group Yesh Din shows that the primary role of Israel’s military law enforcement system is to maintain the appearance of internal accountability in order to shield itself from external criticism. Indeed, +972 Magazine and the Guardian recently revealed that Israeli intelligence services monitor the ICC’s activities, in part to determine which incidents are referred to the prosecutor’s office for investigation; in doing so, Israel can retroactively open investigations into those same cases and then reject the ICC’s mandate by invoking the “complementarity principle.”
The illusion of responsibility
In late May, IDF Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi announced that she had ordered criminal investigations into at least 70 cases of alleged war crimes in Gaza. The announcement came after the military referred hundreds of incidents to the General Staff Fact Finding Mechanism (FFAM), a military body designed to conduct an initial and rapid review of alleged violations of international law before the MAG decides whether to open a criminal investigation.
These measures are supposed to demonstrate Israel’s commitment to the laws of war. However, a review of the past decade of Israeli assaults on Gaza – including the 2014 offensive known as “Protective Edge,” the 2018-19 crackdown on the Great March of Return, and the 2021 operation known as “Guardian of the Walls” – shows that it is extremely unlikely that Israel has any intention of properly investigating, punishing, or preventing war crimes.
Since 2014, hundreds of incidents suggesting war crimes have been brought to the military’s attention. The vast majority of these were transferred to the FFAM, but were closed without criminal investigation after being “reviewed” for unreasonably long periods of time. For example, some cases involving potential violations dating back to 2014 were still under review by the FFAM in 2022.
The work of the FFAM and its membership remains confidential, so we will likely never know the details of its review process or why cases were closed without investigation. Yet, whether recommended by the FFAM or not, most criminal investigations opened by the MAG and conducted by the military police have been closed without any soldiers or commanders being charged.
Of nearly 600 incidents in Gaza over the past decade that have raised suspicions of law-breaking and whose results are known, only three investigations – one per military offensive – have resulted in indictments. Even in these rare cases, money laundering remains at the heart of the military’s tactics, with perpetrators escaping harsh punishment.
The army’s consistent failure to address war crimes allegations is compounded by the fact that, to date, Israel’s law enforcement system has failed to address Israel’s policies regarding the use of force and has failed to investigate decision-makers in the government and army. In other words, those directly responsible for the unfolding catastrophe in the Gaza Strip – who have expanded the army’s targeting of innocent civilians, dictated Israel’s directives on bombing and open fire, restricted humanitarian aid, and designated entire areas of the Gaza Strip as death zones – will likely go unpunished in Israel.
This is partly due to a conflict of interest inherent in the law enforcement system. The attorney general and the military advocate general, charged with investigating and prosecuting alleged violations of international law, also serve as legal advisers in approving Israel’s murderous policies in Gaza. It is hard to imagine how either body could launch a genuine, thorough investigation into a policy that they themselves helped formulate.
It is likely that some of the investigations launched recently will result in the indictment of low-ranking soldiers for looting Palestinian homes or abusing Palestinian detainees. It is important to keep in mind, however, that these cases could actually improve the image of the army, by presenting an appearance of internal responsibility to the outside world.
But these will be only a few exceptions that prove the rule. In the vast majority of cases, the system will work to whitewash war crimes. And when it does, Israeli leaders should not be surprised to find themselves accused before international tribunals.
Translation: JB for
Source: +972 Mag
