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Just Journalism Newsletter 23 September 2010 UNHRC accuses Israel of war crimes On the June 23 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted Resolution 14/1, calling for an investigation into the events upon the Mavi Marmara, which left 9 Turkish nationals dead. Israel, which had boarded the ship in question, refused to co-operate with the investigation, citing its concerns that the UNHRC was prejudiced against the state, and had already decided that Israeli soldiers had acted unjustly. Today, there was widespread coverage of the UNHRC's announcement that it had found Israel guilty of war crimes. In order to evaluate the legitimacy of Israel's concerns, it is important to note several points about the UNHRC and Resolution 14/1. 1) Despite being adopted several weeks after Israel had released video footage of its soldiers being physically assaulted aboard the Mavi Marmara, Resolution 14/1 stated that Israel was guilty of unjustified violence, before the investigation had begun: 'The Human Rights Council...[c]ondemns in the strongest terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli forces against the humanitarian flotilla of ships, which resulted in the killing and injuring of many innocent civilians from different countries'. 2) The UNHRC has a reputation for singling out Israel, at the expense of investigating alleged human rights violations by other states, as highlighted by Just Journalism here. The UNHRC has been criticised by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and his predecessor, Kofi Annan, for having a disproportionate focus on Israel/Palestine. The UNHRC was responsible for the investigation by Judge Richard Goldstone into the 2008 Gaza war, which accused Israel of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. The investigation's original mandate focused solely on Israel's conduct during the war, and one of the four members had already publicly declared her belief that Israel was guilty of war crimes before the investigation began, bringing into doubt the UNHRC's ability to conduct non-partisan investigations into Israel's actions. 3) In light of these concerns, Israel is co-operating with a different UN inquiry, under New Zealand's ex-prime minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's ex-president Alvaro Uribe, which was established by Ban Ki Moon. Israel has also set up both a civilian inquiry with a wide ranging mandate, monitored by international observers, including Lord Trimble, and a military inquiry to investigate the incident. To continue reading, click here. Security guard blamed for east Jerusalem riots Just Journalism reported yesterday on the BBC online coverage of the violence in East Jerusalem, which started after a security guard shot and killed a Palestinian man. The BBC's initial account ignored Israeli reports that 'the guard encountered a preplanned ambush which put his life in danger, prompting him to open fire' (Ynet), and even an updated version concentrated on tensions caused by settler activity, rather than emphasizing the trigger incident. The broadsheet coverage today has similarly downplayed the initial incident. Articles in The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Independent gave the story great attention, whilst in The Times, the report on the violence was absorbed into coverage of the peace talks. Notably, the three broadsheets that wrote articles just on the violence failed to give credence to the Israeli reports of the shootings. In 'Israeli security guard shoots dead Palestinian man', Rachel Shabi of The Guardian gives a greater deal of attention to the claims of the Palestinian residents in the Silwan district, and draws attention to the plans of the Israelis to raze the area in order to 'make way for an archaeological park.' Shabi only attributes one line to the Israeli account of the initial attack, before quickly seeking to put forward the Palestinian perspective, as she writes: 'Israel police say the guard fired shots in the air after his car was blocked and stoned by dozens of Palestinians. However residents say that the two Palestinian men were taxi drivers on their way to or from work when they were shot by the guard.' To continue reading, click here. New in The Weekly Standard: 'Shiva Ahari's plight continues' Just Journalism Executive Director Michael Weiss has written an article for The Weekly Standard, discussing the continuing plight of Iranian activist Shiva Nazar Ahari.The original article can be accessed here. The 26-year-old Iranian human rights campaigner Shiva Nazar Ahari was sentenced last Saturday by Iran's Revolutionary Court to six years in prison after being convicted on all charges made against her by the state, including that of moharebeh ("rebellion against God"), conspiracy to commit a crime against "national security," and anti-state propaganda. She was additionally sentenced to receive 74 lashes or pay a fine of $400, an option that makes this punishment especially gratuitous and sadistic. I wrote about Ahari's plight in late August for THE WEEKLY STANDARD, citing her first arrest at age seventeen for the 'crime' of attending a vigil for the victims of 9/11. Since then she's been in and out of trouble with the theocratic law for fighting on behalf of political prisoners in Iran. She was incarcerated again in June 2009, exactly a day after Iran's fraudulent presidential election, and was released three months later following payment of $20,000 in bail. While traveling with two associates to Qom to attend the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a man now considered to have been the guiding religious light behind the Green Revolution, Ahari was rounded up yet again. But perhaps sensing that attending a revered cleric's funeral was insufficient grounds on which to haul her before the draconian Branch 26 of Iran's Revolutionary Court, the prosecution cooked up an additional offense: Ahari, it alleged, was also affiliated with the Islamo-Marxist group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MeK), which has carried out terrorist attacks against the Iranian regime. To continue reading, click here. 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