William Schabas' resignation from his post as head of the UN panel investigating last year's war in Gaza is seen in Israel as a huge diplomatic achievement. Now, Israel believes that it will be treated in a more balanced way by the panel's new head, Mary McGowan-Davis. But getting the head of the UN panel to resign won't change the outcome of its probe into war crimes committed in Gaza. That's because there is no way an international law expert can sympathize with Israel or even remain neutral over what Israel did to the Palestinians in the summer of 2014. Israel did Schabas in when it revealed that he had once received a $1,300 fee from the PLO. Despite Schabas' assertion that the PLO wanted nothing more from him than a legal opinion, and despite his assertions that he had acted with full “independence and impartiality” as chairman, the Israeli daggers were out and immediate character assassination of Schabas took place. Israeli politicians and the Israeli media made it appear that Schabas had sold his soul to the devil and thus could no longer be seen as a trusted or credible investigator. As far as Israel is concerned, the fate of anyone who criticizes the country is sealed. He is either an anti-Semite, or anti-Israeli, or driven by ulterior motives. Soon the report of the panel without Schabas will be released. And it will not be “balanced,” because the situation was far from balanced. Israel will of course want its five Israeli citizens and 67 soldiers who were killed to be printed in bold letters, and the thousands of rockets fired at Israelis by Hamas to be published in capital letters. But even with the panel's new, “balanced” head, the report will have to put in neon lights that in the summer of 2014, Israel killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, the majority civilians. Tens of thousands of homes in Gaza were also destroyed or badly damaged. And the fate of 20,000 Palestinians who still remain homeless, about half a year after the bombardment, remains unknown. Israel committed atrocities beyond all proportion in the Gaza Strip. There's just no other fair way to describe it. Even the most hardened observer cannot but be left aghast at what Israel did in Gaza last summer. And even if the report is “balanced” as Israel wants, what is the importance of a more balanced report or a more balanced inquiry leader if Israel refuses to cooperate with the inquiry panel, as it has done so many times before with this particular UN body? Israel refused to cooperate with the UN inquiry before it knew of the association between Schabas and the Palestinian Authority. Now that the “flaw” in the panel has been removed, will Israel cooperate with the inquiry? Probably not. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the council of making more decisions in 2014 against Israel than against Iran, Syria and North Korea combined. What Netanyahu conveniently forgets is that not one of these countries is occupying the territory of another as Israel is doing in Palestine. If Israel would like be compared to and be treated like countries, such as the US, England and France, it must respect international law and its institutions before it can demand similar treatment. Not for one second should Israel believe that its so-called success in getting Schabas to resign from his post was a grand political coup. The change in the UN inquiry's leadership will not absolve Israel from what it did last summer.
