UN Report on Jenin

The AP reported yesterday that the findings from the UN investigation of Israel's incursion into Jenin from late March to early April do "not back up claims of a massacre."

Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah, as always, had a response:

Israel is crowing that the report exonerates it from charges that there was a "massacre" in the camp. As we shall see, the Palestinian claims against Israel have been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in such a way as to diminish and obscure ample evidence that Israel committed serious breaches of international law. The most important thing about the new UN report on Jenin is that it is not an investigation into the events at the camp last April: none of the authors visited Jenin, since the UN Security Council-mandated investigation was blocked by Israel, which refused all cooperation.

...Israel not only blocked the Jenin investigation, but refused repeated requests by Annan for it to submit written testimony for inclusion in the report. Hence while having done everything possible to block, discredit and undermine an investigation into Jenin, the Israeli government is today citing the same report as vindication. The Israelis cannot have it both ways. If Israel claims that UN reports are not credible when they criticize Israel, it cannot then claim that they suddenly regain legitimacy when they appear to "exonerate" it...

Update: Today's Independent features a story critical of the UN report by Justin Huggler (who, along with Phil Reeves, wrote a damning piece on Jenin after finally gaining admittance into the refugee camp). In today's article, Huggler quotes Miranda Sissons, a co-author of the HRW report on Jenin, saying, "The UN's report is seriously flawed...It could have done much more and it doesn't move us forward in trying to establish the truth. It's a good example of the dangers of doing a report with no access to evidence on the ground." HRW also issued this statement following the release of the UN's findings.