A Golden Stone Thrown In The Lake

الخميس 22 تشرين الأول 2009

By Farah Mehdawi

I have certainly not been expecting Obama to pull the rabbit out of the hat and surprise us all with some solution that could push forward the peace process, especially after winning the Nobel Prize. While the world is dazzled with Obama’s magical tunes with promises of peace, prosperity and a better future, the only thing people have seen are Mitchell’s crocked eyebrow after his meetings with the Israelis, Clinton’s warnings to the Israelis of seizing settlement construction. All the while suppressing Palestinians’ right to proceed with discussing the Goldstone report in the UNHRC, simply to let things go smoothly between Israelis and Palestinians and keep all that has passed behind them.

I haven’t been expecting the Palestinians to reconcile any time soon either. Simply because the whole issue of having to bring Hamas to this point was Israel’s failure and their followers’ in the corrupted Palestinian Authority to bring them down after destabilizing their democratically elected government. This has led to a lot of internal conflict between people in Fatah, for example the comments Fatah’s Secretary Farooq Al Qaddomi blurted out in one-of-a-kind confession in his accusation of Abbas and Mohammad Dahlan of the assassination of Arafat.

As an observer, many things would come to my mind on thinking, if Hamas wished to reconcile with Fatah, would that be actually be out of good intentions only? Or does this have to be on solid grounds in which there is actually a government that cares for its people. I have taken it for a fact that it’s not Hamas’s problem with the National Palestinian Authority taken by Fatah, it’s a situation shared by other Palestinian parties even within Fatah itself, proved by Abbas Zaki’s resignation as Ambassador for Palestine in Lebanon, and each speech we have been hearing from Ahmad Jibreel from PFL – HC.

No matter who was accusing who of stalling the reconciliation, watching them debating was a farce, with Egyptian Intelligence Chief, Omar Sulyeman’s heartbreaking efforts to get both parties together while there are still massacres in Gaza strip and in the West Bank, and threats of destruction are hovering as ghost around the Dome of the Rock.

Those issues, among other things lay still at the bottom of a lake, when a golden stone was thrown, producing the most incredible chained waves beyond anyone’s imagination.

Fact finding mission headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone, investigated the military incursion of the Israeli armed forces in Gaza, as well actions taken by Hamas during the war, both described as actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.

The Mission was appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council in April with a mandate “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.”

The Human Right council received the 575 pages report on 29 Sep 2009, along with the recommendations of Judge Goldstone, but didn’t take an action, simply because the Palestinian Authority requested to defer discussions in the report for another six months, for further investigations.

No one was expecting such response from the Palestinian Authority, which the UN High Commissioner Richard Folk expressed on Aljazeera by saying “I am certainly not intelligent enough to understand something as perverse as this, the Palestinians betrayed their own people… it would have been an opportunity to vindicate the struggle of the Palestinian people for their rights under international law.”

But I presume Folk had no idea that it was the future of telecommunications company license owned by Abbas’s son about to be ruined, had the Palestinians not agreed on deferring the discussion. Or the fact that there was unusual cooperation between some at the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army, which Chief of the General Staff Gabi Ashkinazi told the Israel newspaper Maareef on 11/5/2009, according to Aljazeera.

Once Abbas found himself coerced to explain himself, as CNN reported, he said it was because “We did not want this draft resolution to be turned into a number like all the other resolutions regarding Palestine that are still unimplemented.” And thus regarding the Goldstone report he went as far as saying “we are totally aware that this campaign by Hamas … is serving their interest, of which is to postpone signature of the reconciliation agreement.”

In the session held last Friday by the 47 member counsel, 25 voted in favor, 6 voted against and there were 11 abstentions, I guess this where the fact finding was, when counties like the Philippines give their vote to serve such a cause, with all my respect of course, and until the Security Council decides on the resolution, the stone dives in hopes for far revelations.

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