Rabbis’ group calls for probe of IDF
Rabbis for Human Rights–North America has called on Israel’s attorney general to open an independent investigation into alleged abuses by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza.
The U.S.-based group of rabbis joined 10 Israeli human rights organizations April 3 in calling for the investigation of Israeli soldiers’ actions during Israel’s military operation in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead.
“While Rabbis for Human Rights appreciates the army’s internal investigation into these allegations, we support our colleagues’ belief that an independent investigation is the only way to clear Israel’s name and to determine the veracity of the allegations,” a news release stated.
The organization called for allegations of human rights violations, the use of white phosphorus gas and the number of civilians killed all to be independently investigated.
Meanwhile, 65 IDF reservists who served in Operation Cast Lead have sent a letter to Israeli Attorney General Menahem Mazuz asking him to investigate the Hebrew-language daily Haaretz for slander. The reservists have accused the paper of publishing testimony from two reservists who fought in Gaza without taking the time to examine their claims of alleged misconduct and serious human rights violations.
No eyewitnesses to the alleged incidents were found and an IDF investigation revealed that a woman and children who were supposedly shot had actually been redirected and sent unharmed away from the scene of battle, Jerusalemonline.com reported. — jta & jpost.com
Israel-Egypt talks in offing?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said this week that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited the Israeli leader to meet, despite tensions between the two countries at the beginning of Netanyahu’s term.
The April 6 statement said Netanyahu and Mubarak talked by phone, and Mubarak invited Netanyahu to the Egyptian Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheik for talks. No date was set.
A Netanyahu-Mubarak meeting could thaw a developing diplomatic freeze around the new Israeli government because of its hawkish makeup and past records of some of its main ministers. — ap
Fraud unit probes foreign minister
For the third time in a week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was questioned by the Fraud Unit of the Israel Police.
The minister, who took office April 1, was interrogated for five hours April 7, in addition to five hours of questioning April 3 and more than seven hours on April 2. He is suspected of bribery, money laundering, fraud and breach of trust.
Police sources said “there is substantiated evidence regarding the suspicions against Lieberman.”
The allegations against the new foreign minister, elements of which have been ongoing for 13 years with no indictment, include receiving a bribe through the consulting firm run by his daughter, Michal. — ynetnews.com
U.N. appoints chief for Israel-Gaza probe
The United Nations last week appointed Richard Goldstone, a widely respected South African judge who is a trustee of Hebrew University, to lead a high-level mission to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Goldstone is the former U.N. chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The investigation was ordered by the Human Rights Council in January, and according to the mandate, it should focus on Palest-inian victims of the three-week war between Israel and Hamas earlier this year.
But Goldstone, a Jewish former judge of the South African constitutional court, said his team would investigate “all violations of international humanitarian law” before, during and after the conflict that ended Jan. 18.
Israel, which refused to say if it would cooperate, has rejected any participation in previous council investigations, including one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, calling them biased. Goldstone said he was “shocked, as a Jew,” to be invited to head the mission. — ap
Obama urges Muslims to see both sides
At the end of his two-day visit to Turkey April 7, President Barack Obama met with Muslim, Christian and Jewish students, and was quoted as urging Muslims to look at the “two sides” to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“In the Muslim world, the notion that somehow everything is the fault of the Israelis lacks balance because there are two sides to every question,” AFP quoted Obama as saying to university students in Istanbul.
Obama added, “I say the same thing to my Jewish friends — you have to see the perspective of the Palestinians. Learning to stand in someone else’s shoes, to see through their eyes … this is how peace begins.” — jpost.com
Attorney general to indict Olmert
Israel’s attorney general told Ehud Olmert that he plans to indict the former prime minister for alleged corruption in an investments affair.
Menahem Mazuz told Olmert’s attorneys April 5 that he would likely indict Olmert in the Investment Centers affair pending a hearing in which Olmert can defend himself against the charges.
Olmert is alleged to have granted special help to friends and his former law partner Uri Messer in receiving government grants during his tenure as trade and industry minister in Ariel Sharon’s government.
On April 7, Olmert requested postponement of a hearing in one of the cases against him in order to seek cancer treatment abroad. In two weeks, the former prime minister will be abroad for treatment for prostate cancer, which was diagnosed more than a year ago. — jta & jpost.com
Student undresses to protest chametz
Arieh Yerushalmi, a 28-year-old yeshiva student, was arrested April 5 for removing all of his clothes — except a sock covering his private parts — in a Tel Aviv supermarket to protest the store’s sale of chametz during Passover.
He was arrested last year for performing the same act in a store in Bat Yam. He was protesting a law passed last year by the Jerusalem Magistrate Court which ruled that the matzot law, which forbids the sale of chametz in public places, does not apply to supermarkets and some restaurants, since they are not considered public.
He told Ynet that since the supermarket is not considered public, he could not be arrested for public nudity. — jta