IAN BLACK in Brussels, EWEN MACASKILL and NICHOLAS WATT | Friday
ISRAEL’S international reputation slumped to its lowest point in two decades this week amid condemnation in Britain and Europe of the Israeli army’s behaviour at the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin in the West Bank.
There were calls for a United Nations-led inquiry into allegations that the Israeli army carried out a massacre and that its soldiers were guilty of war crimes. Senior politicians lined up in Britain and Brussels to express outrage. The European Union’s external relations commissioner, Chris Patten, said Israel must accept a UN investigation into alleged atrocities against Palestinians or face “colossal damage” to its reputation.
In a British Commons debate Gerald Kaufman, a veteran Labour MP who is Britain’s most prominent Jewish parliamentarian, launched a ferocious attack on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, denouncing him as a “war criminal”. Kaufman said Sharon had “ordered his troops to use methods of barbarism against the Palestinians”.
Expressing fear that something dreadful had happened in Jenin, he said: “It is time to remind Sharon that the Star of David belongs to all Jews and not to his repulsive government. His actions are staining the Star of David with blood.”
With the Israeli army still blocking full access to Jenin it is impossible to establish even a rough body count. However, both Amnesty International and the New York-based Human Rights Watch have called for inquiries.
A senior Palestinian official, Nabil Shaath, accused Israel of carrying out summary executions and removing corpses in refrigerated trucks. He said close to 500 people had been killed: “The Israeli army took six days to complete its massacre in Jenin and six days to clean it up.”
An Israeli government spokesman dismissed as “ridiculous” suggestions of either a massacre or war crimes.
Against this background a peace process appears remote. United States Secretary of State Colin Powell has left the Middle East with no evidence that Israel will withdraw from the West Bank. US support for Israel remains strong compared with that of Europe.
In Britain even Foreign Secretary Jack Straw – in recent months a strong defender in public of Israel – joined in the criticism.
Straw said he was “profoundly concerned” at the scenes “of widespread destruction of densely populated refugee camps. We are doing all we can to obtain an authoritative account of the conduct of the Israeli operation and of its consequences. I have to say as a long-standing friend of Israel that such scenes can only be harmful to Israel’s reputation abroad.”
The Foreign Office Minister responsible for the Middle East, Ben Bradshaw, said the British government was concerned at “worrying reports” from Jenin. He added: “We expect the Israeli government to grant immediate access to all the international NGOs – the International Committee of the Red Cross and so forth – so a full investigation of events there can take place.”
Patten was even more direct: “It is in Israel’s interest to behave like a democracy that believes in the rule of law. There has to be movement, and movement fast, to enable the international community to deal with this calamity.”
He added: “If Israel simply refuses all the genuine calls for humanitarian assistance; if it resists any attempt by the international media to cover what is going on, then inevitably it is going to provide oxygen for all those who will be making more extreme demands.”
Patten added: “Israelis can’t trample over the rule of law, over the Geneva conventions, over what are generally regarded as acceptable norms of behaviour without it doing colossal damage to their reputation.” He backed Mary Robinson, the UN human rights commissioner, who has been asked to lead a fact-finding mission.
Poul Nielsen, the EU’s aid commissioner, said the job of relief workers was more difficult in the West Bank than in Chechnya.
Meanwhile, writes Peter Beaumont from Jerusalem, it has been reported in the right-wing Israeli newspaper Hatzofeh that an Israeli apparently refused to fire a missile at a Palestinian house, the latest sign of growing unease among some Israeli troops over the conduct of the fighting in Palestinian cities.
The newspaper said the Apache pilot refused a direct order for fear of hitting civilians. The claim also follows growing concern among some soldiers over the legality and effectiveness of certain actions, such as firing on ambulances trying to recover casualties.
The unnamed pilot’s refusal reportedly took place on Tuesday last week when infantry, backed by helicopters, captured Dura, a village near Hebron.
Hatzofeh claimed the pilot’s refusal came after a regimental commander’s order to fire at a Palestinian house to “liquidate” five alleged terrorists hiding inside. The commander told the pilot that the terrorists could be exactly pinpointed in the house and again ordered him to shoot. Again he refused.
The helicopter then left. When it
returned, the commander told him that the terrorists had disappeared, but ordered him to fire at the house nevertheless. The pilot again refused.