Local Editor, 17-12-2009

Freelance journalist in Austria Kawther Salam of Palestinian origin, reported that on Monday, at almost the same time when Ehud Barak was being given military honors at the war ministry, genocide charges against him were being presented at the office of the Austrian prosecutor, only about 15 minutes walking away.

The charges relate entirely to the Gaza massacre committed during the period between December 2008 and January 2009 by “Israeli” troops under the command of Ehud Barak, and the whole allegation of crimes in the letter to the prosecutor consists of the so-called “Goldstone Report” itself, and it names as witnesses the members of the commission, judge Goldstone and his colleagues, as well as their interview partners.

At the time when these charges were being presented, the news that an arrest warrant had been issued against Tzipi Livni in the UK became known in the evening hours of the very same day.
But Kawther doubts the Austrian government would be taking any action, even though Barak is currently war minister and vice-premier.

That is as Austria is still apprehended in the notion that they have a political and moral duty to ensure the security of “Israel”, whatever “Israel” does and probably at any cost to Austria, because of understandable yet irrelevant historical facts.
Austria has not implemented the Rome Statute of the ICC as a national law- which – unlike England which is issuing arrest warrants against multiple “Israeli” officials.
Ultimately the main reason why Austria has not taken action in this case might be the almost absence of public discourse around the crimes of “Israel”.

At the same time, Kawther sees that the governments who still support “negotiations” or a “two-state solution” should disabuse themselves of the notion that “Israel”, with its genocidal and racist to the extreme posture is in any way a partner for negotiations of any kind. The experience of over 60 years of occupation has shown that “Israel” consistently conducts all negotiations in bad faith, and that speaking with the “Israelis” is a fruitless endeavour. Kawther sees it is time for other approaches in order to solve the problems which they have caused during the last 6 or 7 decades.

PDF copy of the charges (in German) is found here.