A group of Jewish lawyers in Australia, including World Jewish Congress Vice-President Robert Goot, has urged the United Nations not to submit to the prevailing “lynch mob mentality towards Israel.” In its submission to the UN Human Rights Council, which is conducting an inquiry into Israel’s offensive in Gaza last January, the Australian lawyers say they were driven to act because most council members had a “long record of implacable hostility to Israel’s very existence,” which was “in direct contravention” of the UN charter.
The UN inquiry is currently conducting an inquiry into Israel’s alleged human rights violations during the Gaza War, led by Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa. A second round of public hearings ended this week.
The submission by the Australian lawyers, which also includes Mark Dreyfus, a Jewish member of Parliament, argues that Israel was not responsible for the outbreak of hostilities in December 2008 and that its actions were proportionate to the threat posed by Hamas rockets. “Israel was lawfully entitled to use whatever force was needed to remove the danger of Hamas rockets and mortars and prevent a recurrence of the attacks on its civilians,” the lawyers wrote.
They added that they were “appalled” that the mandate of the inquiry did not include any consideration of the case of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held by Hamas in Gaza for more than three years. “The omission from your mandate and the refusal of the NGO community to demand Red Cross access to Gilad Shalit represent a significant moral failure,” they wrote.
The final report of the inquiry is scheduled to be finalized next month and is expected to be presented to the Human Rights Council in September.
