UN report on Gaza, first step to ICC trial of Israel: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Soheil al-Natour, Palestinian writer and journalist in Beirut, about the Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) saying that the recent UN report on Israel’s latest war on the Gaza Strip has provided enough evidence for the prosecution of Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

 The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all give us your thoughts on the recent development, now Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset have also confirmed that the UN report on the Gaza war provides enough evidence to have Israel appear before the ICC?

Natour: It is very courageous from the part of these Palestinians in the Israeli Knesset to say exactly some of the feeling of the Palestinians after hearing the report. You know that since a long time, probably even before the creation of the Israeli entity, all the Palestinians were not paying attention to the international capacities how to challenge the Israelis and to finish with all their lies about a land without people and the people searching for a land.

Now the Palestinians realize that the legal international process is very important in their struggle and they are asking to join the international [institutions] like the International Criminal Court. So now when there is a report like this by UN, independent judges and headed by an American judge is something very influential, every word accusing Israel by a crime. This will be a rolling stone in opening huge capacities for the Palestinians to condemn the Israelis and to bring them to justice after all their criminal actions during the last time - operation which was done with blood of Palestinians, with destruction of the society of Gaza and it [was] not punished never before.

This is the first time that there is something very acceptable in the language used, in defining even the minor mistakes that the Israelis did it thinking that it will pass. Now they are great mistakes for Israel when they did not cooperate with the delegation about investigation opened by the UN Commission for Human Rights.

This is the first step so we have to push and to invest in the meeting of UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva discussing this report on one hand and then push it to be directly in the implementation. So when the Palestinian members of the Knesset are saying this, this is also an indication to the Palestinian Authority to stick with this and to go forward, asking and demanding from whole capacities to condemn the Israelis and to punish them for all these crimes committed and that will be opening the way also for the crimes done before and they are not forgettable by the passing of time.

So this is a big file to condemn Israel and to fight the public opinion of the Israelis poisoned by the government and it is very influential. One of the influential things [is] that Mr. Netanyahu and many of his cabinet ministers were very cornered, that is why they were making lot of declarations against this report. It will be the first step and if we succeed to continue this first step to go to the right way in international arena, that means capacity for forbidding the Israelis to commit the crimes everywhere or to encourage them to continue the same repeated aggression on Gaza and other places in the Arab world and in Palestine.   

AHK/HMV 

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir