PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L JERUSALEM 000166 SIPDIS NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE, SEMEP, AND NEA/IPA; NSC FOR SHAPIRO/KUMAR E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/27/2020 TAGS: PGOV PREL KWBG KPAL PHUM KAWC IS SUBJECT: PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE GOLDSTONE ALLEGATIONS Classified By: Consul General Daniel Rubinstein for reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (C) Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) issued a January 25 decree forming a committee to examine allegations against Palestinians in the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (the Goldstone report). PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told the Consul General on January 26 that the committee would be led by recently-retired Supreme Judicial Council Chief Issa Abu Sharar, along with four additional members: former supreme court justice Zuheir Sourani, Ghassan Faramand, Yassi Amouri, and Nasser Al-Rayes. Two of the five are Gazans. ¶2. (C) In a January 27 meeting with PolChief, Abu Sharar noted that the committee would meet for the first time on January 28. He anticipated that this first meeting would produce a short workplan, which would be sent as an interim response to the UN Secretary-General to inform his report to the UN General Assembly on February 5. Abu Sharar gave no deadline for the conclusion of the committee's full investigation. ¶3. (C) Abu Sharar said that allegations against Hamas in Gaza would fall under the committee's mandate, but that the committee's ability to investigate these allegations would depend on Hamas cooperation. He expressed pessimism on this point, adding that the committee had not yet contacted Hamas officials in Gaza. One of the Gaza-based members of the committee (probably Sourani, he said) would be responsible for this portion of the review. In response to a question from Polchief, Abu Sharar said he was unaware of Hamas efforts to conduct an independent review of allegations in the Goldstone report. ¶4. (U) Later on January 27, Hamas "Minister of Justice" Faraj al Ghoul announced through several media outlets that a committee under his direction has completed a 52-page response to allegations raised in the Goldstone report. He claimed that the Hamas "government" in Gaza had also commissioned international experts to assist in the implementation of the Goldstone report,s recommendations. Al Ghoul noted that Hamas,s report would be provided to the offices of the UN Special Coordinator Office for the Middle East in Gaza before the UN Secretary-General,s deadline. RUBINSTEIN