ByMATHILDA HELLER
Updated:

The anti-Israel quasi-legal organization Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a criminal complaint in Germany against former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert for war crimes committed during the 2008-2009 Israeli military offensive on Gaza, known as “Operation Cast Lead.”

Olmert attended the Haaretz Democracy Conference in Berlin on Thursday.

According to HRF, under Olmert’s leadership, the Israeli government and military high command executed a large-scale military campaign that resulted in the “indiscriminate bombardment of densely populated civilian areas, the destruction of hospitals, schools, and UN facilities, and the killing of more than 1,300 Palestinians, among them over 300 children and 115 women.”

Operation Cast Lead, also known as the first Gaza war, was a 22-day conflict between Hamas and the IDF.

Several reports produced after the war – including one by Amnesty International and another by Human Rights Watch – claimed the IDF deliberately targeted civilians and used collective punishment against Gazan civilians.

EHUD OLMERT implored Mahmoud Abbas to embrace the role of historic peacemaker: ‘It will be 50 years before there will be another Israeli prime minister that will offer you what I am offering you now,’ he said.
EHUD OLMERT implored Mahmoud Abbas to embrace the role of historic peacemaker: ‘It will be 50 years before there will be another Israeli prime minister that will offer you what I am offering you now,’ he said. (credit: THAER GANAIM/FLASH90)


Another prolific report was the 2009 United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Report due to its lead author, Judge Richard Goldstone.


The 574-page report concluded that the IDF and Palestinian terrorist groups had committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity; however, it more strongly condemned Israel.


Two years later, Goldstone published a piece in The Washington Post titled ‘Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes,’ where he said evidence collected later on “indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy [by Israel].”

Hind Rajab's accusations against Israel

HRF references all three reports as evidence of Israel’s crimes, although it omits Goldstone’s subsequent retraction.

The organization lists all crimes allegedly committed by Israel during this war, including the use of white phosphorus, extrajudicial killings, the destruction of UNRWA schools, denial of humanitarian access, and the targeting of infrastructure.

As leader of Israel at the time, HRF says Olmert was “personally responsible” for the above actions.

HRF therefore requested an immediate criminal investigation, the issuance of an arrest warrant, and a European Arrest Warrant against Olmert.

The complaint was filed simultaneously with the General Public Prosecutor’s Office in Berlin and the Federal Public Prosecutor General in Karlsruhe.

 “The victims of Gaza deserve justice, no matter how much time has passed,” said Dyab Abou Jahjah, general director of the Hind Rajab Foundation.

“Those responsible for war crimes must know that accountability has no expiration date and that the world is closing in on impunity.”