A missed opportunity: the Goldstone Report on Gaza and its consequences in Israel

Notes internacionals CIDOB, núm. 13

When Israel started its offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December 2008 it had four manifest objectives: First, to stop rockets being fired into the Northern Negev; second, to weaken the mili-tary and security infrastructure of Hamas in Gaza; third, to restore the deterrence it had lost after the years of rocket at-tacks against its territory, fourth, to secure release of caporal Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas in 2006. According to most international analysts, the war successfully achieved the first three goals. Nevertheless the international debate that fol-lowed the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UN-HRC) fact-finding mission on the violation of Human Rights during the conflict, had three additional unintended results: (1) it widened the differences between Israel and Internation-al Organisations, further undermining their credibility vis-à-vis Israeli society, (2) it further isolated Israeli NGOs peace activists and critics from the rest of the national political de-bate, (3) it slowed the efforts to relaunch the peace process. We will analyse these three consequences.

The facts

The Israeli military offensive derives from a long sequence of events whose milestones might be identified as follows: (1) September 2005, with the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, (2) January 2006 with the elections won by Hamas, and (3) January 2007 with the eruption of civil war between Hamas and Fatah that brought Hamas into full control on the Strip and its subsequent blockading by Israel.

Operation Cast Lead started on 27 December 2008, when Israel began a wave of air-strikes on the Gaza Strip. The strikes followed Hamas’ decision to end a six-month cease-fire. With the ceasefire over, Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against Israel, targeting for the first time major Israeli cities such as Beersheba and Ashdod, and vir-tually threatening the whole population of the Northern Negev of 700.000. The ground invasion of Gaza begun on January 3rd. Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on Janu-ary 18, completing its withdrawal on January 21. Between 1,166 (source: Israel Defence Forces) and 1,417 (source: Pal-estinian Ministry of Health in Gaza) Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed, thousands more were injured and lost their homes, Gaza’s infrastructure was annihilated.

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