Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., November 13, 2009 Cheshvan 26, 5770 | | Israel Time: 01:53 (EST+7)
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South African locals think Goldstone inquiry could help fight Israel's PR battle
By Raphael Ahren

A group of prominent South African immigrants called on the prime minister this week to hold an inquiry into Operation Cast Lead. But rather than only investigating claims made by the Goldstone report, the group - which says the Jewish South African who wrote the report 'let the team down' - wants an inquiry that would place the Gaza war in the context of other modern military campaigns.

"Context would include factual findings relating to the manner in which Hamas ... operated," the letter reads, "the culpability of persons and militia initiating military and warlike operations in civilian areas, the problems of conducting military operations in civilian areas, the principle of proportionality where terrorist organizations carry out military actions in civilian areas and recommendations for the introduction of international law and human rights legal principles to deal with terrorist activities originating in civilian areas."
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The proposal was written by Cape Town native Charles Abelsohn, a lawyer from Kfar Sava, who sent it to David Baker, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's New York-born senior foreign press coordinator. Abelsohn sent another copy Wednesday to Mark Regev, Netanyahu's Australian-born spokesman.

The 690-word proposal begins by expressing dismay at the UN report, which was written by South African jurist Richard Goldstone and accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. It was signed by Abelsohn, former Telfed chairman David Kaplan, former chairman of the Israel South Africa Chamber of Commerce and pro-Israel activist Maurice Ostroff, and former Telfed vice chairwoman Annette Milliner-Giladi. The group underlined this was not connected to Telfed.

"The South African Jewish community is profoundly pro-Israel and Zionist and contributed to Israel tremendously throughout the years, probably per capita more than any other community," Abelsohn told Anglo File. "And we feel that in a sense [Goldstone] let the team down, he stabbed us in the back."

Abelsohn wrote data released as a result of the inquiry would "assist those who are fighting the good fight on Israel's behalf."

The ex-South Africans are not the first Israelis to call for an internal investigation.

However, their proposal is perhaps unique in demanding Cast Lead be contrasted with "the Turkish campaign against the Armenians, the British bombing of Dresden, the U.S.A. dropping of the atomic bomb," as well as NATO's bombing of Serbia and other military operations.

"I particularly mention Serbia where the number of bombs dropped on a civilian population was tremendously high," Abelsohn said. "This is how war is conducted, but all of a sudden, when Israel is involved, there is a law of human rights that doesn't appear to apply anywhere else.".

Abelsohn has not yet received any official response. "I'm not holding my breath," he said.
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