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Charles Zentai

AFTER more than five years of court battles, the federal Government indicated late on Thursday evening that alleged war criminal Charles Zentai would be extradited to Hungary.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor, who was left with the decision whether or not to extradite, ruled Zentai, 88, would be sent to Hungary within two months.

“My decision is not one of determining Mr Zentai’s guilt or innocence,” O’Connor said. “It was about deciding whether or not Mr Zentai should be surrendered to Hungary in accordance with Australia’s extradition legislation and its international obligations. ” Read the full story

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: AJN file

JERUSALEM — Israeli leaders and soldiers will not be put on trial for war crimes, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session.

Netanyahu used his policy speech to attack the UN Goldstone Report that accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during last winter’s Gaza military offensive.

He reiterated that Israel has the right to defend itself.

“This distorted report, written by this distorted committee, undermines Israel’s right to defend itself,” Netanyahu said. “This report encourages terrorism and threatens peace. Israel will not take risks for peace if it can’t defend itself.”

Netanyahu said the state would protect its leaders, who protected Israelis by launching Operation Cast Lead against Hamas.
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RONI SOFER

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday evening harshly criticised the conclusions of a United Nations committee which probed the Israel Defense Forces’ operation in Gaza and accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes.

“The Goldstone Report is a field court-marital, and its findings were prewritten,” Netanyahu said in a closed forum. “This is a prize for terror. The report makes it difficult for democracies to fight terror.”

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Israeli soldiers prepare to enter Gaza in January 2009. Photo: Isranet

JERUSALEM — A United Nations investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza has found evidence that both sides committed “war crimes”.

The United Nations said the investigation, led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone, concluded that “Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity,” during its military operations in the Palestinian territories last December and January.

The report, which was released on Tuesday, “concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity” by firing rockets into southern Israel.

Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation, saying the UN Human Rights Council that ordered it was biased against the Jewish state.

The 575-page report, which was released ahead of its presentation to the UN Human Rights Council later this month, said Israel’s attacks in the Samouni neighborhood of Zeitoun, south of Gaza City, including the shelling of a house where soldiers had forced Palestinian civilians to assemble, amounted to war crimes.
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