Wow!
Maybe it's because I don't know where to look or maybe because most of what this woman says is mostly in Arabic, but I haven't heard of her before, but I love her already.
In my opinion, the West has a hard time hearing a clearly defined and commonsense voice from the Arab side in Palestine. Haneen appears to be this voice and a very courageous one at that.
I hope to hear more from her.
A Palestinian voice that drips commonsense in a way that America can understand, will soon have a huge, sympathetic following...and be able to sell the Palestinian cause.
Palestine needs a real leader. Could she be one?
"Haneen Zuabi, the first woman to be elected to the Knesset as a representative of an Arab party, has welcomed Iran's growing influence on Palestinian affairs and praised Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon as a means of offsetting Israel's regional military edge. Having Israel as the region's sole nuclear power, she said, was "dangerous to the world."
"She said Iran's role in Palestinian affairs was "more useful" than that of regimes like Jordan and Egypt, in that Iran stood more firmly "against occupation than a lot of the Arab countries. This is our interest."
"Zuabi was asked if she felt worried, living among Jews, that Iran was getting close to acquiring a nuclear weapon. She replied: "No, I am not." Indeed, she said was "more afraid from the Israeli nuclear [weapons]."
Israel is thought to have between 150 and 300 nuclear warheads.
"When asked if she thought that Israel would use nuclear weapons, she replied, "The Israelis? I think yes… And I am afraid from real risk rather than from potential risk."
"Every day the Israeli [army] uses its violence, army violence."
"The Israeli violence of the army is an outcome of Israel's convenient feeling that no one will restrict her, that no Arab country will really declare a war against [Israel]."
"She added: "I believe that [Israel] would respect its use of power if she's afraid of others. The fact that [Israel]is not afraid of Arab countries, the fact that [Israel]is not afraid of a potential declaration of our Arab world to declare war against Israel, makes Israel more violent. You understand me?"
"Asked whether an Iranian bomb would make America nervous and lead to more US pressure on Israel, and whether that would be good from her point of view, Zuabi replied: "Exactly."
"Zuabi declared that the very concept of a Jewish state was "inherently racist", saying that Israel must be turned into a "state of all its citizens," which would eliminate its Jewish or Zionist nature. "
"When you agree with the 'Jewish state' idea, you necessarily agree with the idea of loyalty to this state. Rejecting the 'Jewish state' concept will block the road for anyone who demands our loyalty to such a state. There is no logic in demanding that I be loyal to an idea to which I do not agree to begin with, especially since I am proposing an alternative and fighting for it… The language of democracy does not speak of loyalty. This is a language of fascism, just like Lieberman. The language of democracy speaks of rights, equality, and values."
Full article: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238423651844&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Gaza Holocaust Never Happened - ITF
The IDF/IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces)/ITF (Israeli Terrorist Forces) said today that stories of abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers were just rumours and they closed the investigation.
Here are some rumours:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxAxgokbOrE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1XWqfCONQA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S-0dXljx7o
The rest of the newspaper story:
IDF ends Gaza war crimes probe, says claims are 'rumors'
By Anshel Pfeffer and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit on Monday instructed the Military Police Investigation unit to close the investigation into soldiers' accounts of alleged misconduct and serious violations of the army's rules of engagement during Operation Cast Lead. In a press release issued Monday the army said that the preliminary Military Police investigation into the testimonies revealed that they "were based on rumors and not first-hand experience." However, the Military Advocate General's announcement does not address testimonies published by the Associated Press on Friday that corroborate soldiers' accounts with testimonies given by Palestinians.
The probe was launched earlier this month after IDF soldiers were quoted as telling a military cadet academy that combat troops in Gaza fired at unarmed Palestinian civilians and vandalized property during Operation Cast Lead.
The army has barred those soldiers from speaking to the press. The testimonies include a description by an infantry squad leader of an incident where an IDF sharpshooter mistakenly shot a Palestinian mother and her two children. "There was a house with a family inside .... We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof," the soldier said. Another squad leader from the same brigade told of an incident where the company commander ordered that an elderly Palestinian woman be shot and killed; she was walking on a road about 100 meters from a house the company had commandeered.
Here are some rumours:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxAxgokbOrE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1XWqfCONQA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S-0dXljx7o
The rest of the newspaper story:
IDF ends Gaza war crimes probe, says claims are 'rumors'
By Anshel Pfeffer and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit on Monday instructed the Military Police Investigation unit to close the investigation into soldiers' accounts of alleged misconduct and serious violations of the army's rules of engagement during Operation Cast Lead. In a press release issued Monday the army said that the preliminary Military Police investigation into the testimonies revealed that they "were based on rumors and not first-hand experience." However, the Military Advocate General's announcement does not address testimonies published by the Associated Press on Friday that corroborate soldiers' accounts with testimonies given by Palestinians.
The probe was launched earlier this month after IDF soldiers were quoted as telling a military cadet academy that combat troops in Gaza fired at unarmed Palestinian civilians and vandalized property during Operation Cast Lead.
The army has barred those soldiers from speaking to the press. The testimonies include a description by an infantry squad leader of an incident where an IDF sharpshooter mistakenly shot a Palestinian mother and her two children. "There was a house with a family inside .... We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof," the soldier said. Another squad leader from the same brigade told of an incident where the company commander ordered that an elderly Palestinian woman be shot and killed; she was walking on a road about 100 meters from a house the company had commandeered.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Boycott APARTHEID Israel!
The evidence is overwhelming. Israel is an Apartheid State and practices Institutionalized Genocide and Anti-Semitism against the People of Palestine.
"Several homes visited by the AP this week still had graffiti in Hebrew scribbled on the walls. "Death to the Arabs," read one inscription in a house near where Mahdiyeh Ayyad's body was found.
"The eternal people have no fear," read another. "Long live the Jewish people," was scrawled elsewhere, alongside Stars of David and four-letter English words describing Hamas and Gaza. Crude holes for snipers were covered with plastic sheeting or stuffed with cloth."
Israeli soldiers told of vandalizing homes they seized to use as army posts, as well as relaxed rules of engagement, including hasty shooting at civilians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074408.html
"Several homes visited by the AP this week still had graffiti in Hebrew scribbled on the walls. "Death to the Arabs," read one inscription in a house near where Mahdiyeh Ayyad's body was found.
"The eternal people have no fear," read another. "Long live the Jewish people," was scrawled elsewhere, alongside Stars of David and four-letter English words describing Hamas and Gaza. Crude holes for snipers were covered with plastic sheeting or stuffed with cloth."
Israeli soldiers told of vandalizing homes they seized to use as army posts, as well as relaxed rules of engagement, including hasty shooting at civilians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074408.html
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Gaza Offensive Purpose: Expel All Non-Jews
Israeli Soldiers say Military Rabbi's said purpose of Israeli Offensive in Gaza was to Expel all Non-Jews.
The winter assault on the Gaza Strip was officially portrayed in Israel as an attempt to quell rocket fire by militants of Hamas. But some soldiers say they also were lectured about a more ambitious aim: to banish non-Jews from the biblical land of Israel.
This rabbi comes to us and says the fight is between the children of light and the children of darkness,` a reserve sergeant said, recalling a training camp encounter. His message was clear: `This is a war against an entire people, not against specific terrorists.` The whole thing was turned into something very religious and messianic.
As armies elsewhere use chaplains, the Israeli military inducts rabbis to serve religious soldiers. Their traditional tasks include ensuring that kitchens are kosher and religious services are available.
But soldiers now going public with allegations of misconduct in Gaza portray the military rabbinate as a corps of self-appointed holy warriors whose sermons and writings demonized Palestinians.
The army itself is a battleground of conflicting ideals in Israeli Jewish society, said Avi Sagi, a Bar-Ilan University philosophy professor who in the 1990s was a co-author of the military`s code of ethics, which obliges soldiers to avoid killing innocents.
On one side, he said, are universal values that call for respecting all human life equally and are largely shared by Jews who seek accommodation with the Palestinians. On the other side are more nationalistic passages of the Torah, cited by religious thinkers who liken the Palestinians to Old Testament invaders and place a premium on Jewish life.
In the Gaza conflict, the argument has focused on how to fight Islamic militants who for years have fired rockets indiscriminately at Israeli communities, causing scores of civilian casualties.
Maj. Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman, denied that the military rabbinate takes sides. Army rabbis violated a directive to `stay away from politics` in Gaza, she said, but they were few in number and acted on their own.
Well organized
In testimony reported by Israeli news media and in interviews with The Times, Gaza veterans said rabbis advised army units to show the enemy no mercy and called for resettlement of the Palestinian enclave by Jews.
The rabbis were all over, in every unit, said Yehuda Shaul, a retired army officer whose human rights group, Breaking the Silence, has taken testimony from dozens of Gaza veterans. `It was quite well organized.
The army, which conscripts almost every Israeli Jew at 18, has been dominated for most of its history by secular officers. But over the last 15 years, as secular Israelis have soured on the occupation of Palestinian territory, religious nationalists have taken over senior positions in elite combat brigades.
With them have come hundreds of volunteer rabbis, who teach at pre-military academies for religious youths and serve side by side with the troops.
The rabbis` role in Gaza came into focus last week along with testimony from soldiers who said that loose rules of war led to unwarranted civilian deaths and property destruction.
The testimony reported by two Israeli newspapers was the first such criticism to surface from within the army since the assault ended Jan. 18, leaving an estimated 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. Most Palestinian casualties were listed as civilians.
The army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, said Monday that he did not believe soldiers shot Gaza civilians `in cold blood.` He added that `isolated cases` of misconduct, if proved, `will be dealt with individually.`
Responding to newspaper photos, the army also condemned soldiers who wore T-shirts depicting a pregnant woman in a rifle`s cross hairs with the slogan `1 Shot 2 Kills.`
During the Gaza offensive, critics contend, rabbinical propaganda was part of a broader effort to legitimize Israel`s decision to use overwhelming force.
Legal opinion
Before the assault, the army`s legal office issued an opinion saying that Israel was entitled to use artillery against civilian neighborhoods from which Hamas was launching rockets.
And after the 22-day operation, a Tel Aviv University philosophy professor with close ties to the military, Asa Kasher, said the decision to shell Gaza`s cities stemmed from an anti-terrorism doctrine he had helped draft a few years ago. It stated that in Gaza, as in other areas the army does not control, there is no justification for endangering soldiers` lives in order to avoid killing civilians in the proximity of targeted militants.
That doctrine appears to be at odds with the military code, which obliges the army to avoid civilian casualties, and it was never formally adopted. However, it was echoed in religious terms in literature distributed in Gaza by military rabbis.
`Our ancestors did not always fight with a sword and at times preferred to use a bow and arrow from a distance,` one text read.
Actions must be taken from a distance in order to spare our soldiers` lives.
The reserve sergeant, an observant Jew who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity, said that he and a fellow soldier in his 15-man unit were troubled by the children of darkness` sermon, but that other troops seemed receptive.
In one of several postwar testimonies given at a left-leaning military institute, a squad commander identified only as Ram complained that army rabbis tried to press what he called a `religious mission` on his men.
The military rabbinate brought in a lot of booklets and articles and their message was very clear: We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the non-Jews who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land,` Ram said.
As a commander, he said, he tried to explain to his men that `not everyone in Gaza is Hamas [and] wants to vanquish us [and] that this war is not a war for the sanctification of the holy name, but rather one to stop the Kassams` -- a type of rocket fired from Gaza.
Danny Zamir, director of the institute that elicited the testimonies and leaked them to Israeli papers, was quoted in a transcript as voicing dismay that Israeli nationalists, like their Hamas enemies, are using faith to justify violence.
If clerics are anointing us with oil and sticking holy books in our hands, and if the soldiers in these units aren`t representative of the whole spectrum of the Jewish people, but rather of certain segments of the population, what can we expect?he said.
Ofer Shelah, military correspondent for the newspaper Maariv, said the rising profile of religious nationalists in the army has helped them in two showdowns with the high command.
After Israel withdrew its settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, graduates of two pre-military academies associated with the settler movement said they would refuse to obey future orders to disband West Bank settlements. The army threatened to cancel its certification of the schools, then backed down.
During the Gaza assault, the chief military rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, was called in to answer criticism that his department was distributing war propaganda. He denied knowledge of it, and a subordinate was given `a slap on the wrist` by the Defense Ministry, Shelah said.
Rabbi David Hartman, a leading Jewish philosopher who has lectured thousands of officers at his Shalom Hartman Institute, said the religious nationalist belief in holy war is still a minority view in the army.
But it has to be fought with a rational religious ideology that takes into account the living reality of two peoples,` he said. Otherwise, he added, `you have these rabbis volunteering in the army, and it`s not necessarily the people the army wants. There`s a vacuum, and it gets filled by crackpots.`
boudreaux@latimes.com
The winter assault on the Gaza Strip was officially portrayed in Israel as an attempt to quell rocket fire by militants of Hamas. But some soldiers say they also were lectured about a more ambitious aim: to banish non-Jews from the biblical land of Israel.
This rabbi comes to us and says the fight is between the children of light and the children of darkness,` a reserve sergeant said, recalling a training camp encounter. His message was clear: `This is a war against an entire people, not against specific terrorists.` The whole thing was turned into something very religious and messianic.
As armies elsewhere use chaplains, the Israeli military inducts rabbis to serve religious soldiers. Their traditional tasks include ensuring that kitchens are kosher and religious services are available.
But soldiers now going public with allegations of misconduct in Gaza portray the military rabbinate as a corps of self-appointed holy warriors whose sermons and writings demonized Palestinians.
The army itself is a battleground of conflicting ideals in Israeli Jewish society, said Avi Sagi, a Bar-Ilan University philosophy professor who in the 1990s was a co-author of the military`s code of ethics, which obliges soldiers to avoid killing innocents.
On one side, he said, are universal values that call for respecting all human life equally and are largely shared by Jews who seek accommodation with the Palestinians. On the other side are more nationalistic passages of the Torah, cited by religious thinkers who liken the Palestinians to Old Testament invaders and place a premium on Jewish life.
In the Gaza conflict, the argument has focused on how to fight Islamic militants who for years have fired rockets indiscriminately at Israeli communities, causing scores of civilian casualties.
Maj. Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman, denied that the military rabbinate takes sides. Army rabbis violated a directive to `stay away from politics` in Gaza, she said, but they were few in number and acted on their own.
Well organized
In testimony reported by Israeli news media and in interviews with The Times, Gaza veterans said rabbis advised army units to show the enemy no mercy and called for resettlement of the Palestinian enclave by Jews.
The rabbis were all over, in every unit, said Yehuda Shaul, a retired army officer whose human rights group, Breaking the Silence, has taken testimony from dozens of Gaza veterans. `It was quite well organized.
The army, which conscripts almost every Israeli Jew at 18, has been dominated for most of its history by secular officers. But over the last 15 years, as secular Israelis have soured on the occupation of Palestinian territory, religious nationalists have taken over senior positions in elite combat brigades.
With them have come hundreds of volunteer rabbis, who teach at pre-military academies for religious youths and serve side by side with the troops.
The rabbis` role in Gaza came into focus last week along with testimony from soldiers who said that loose rules of war led to unwarranted civilian deaths and property destruction.
The testimony reported by two Israeli newspapers was the first such criticism to surface from within the army since the assault ended Jan. 18, leaving an estimated 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. Most Palestinian casualties were listed as civilians.
The army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, said Monday that he did not believe soldiers shot Gaza civilians `in cold blood.` He added that `isolated cases` of misconduct, if proved, `will be dealt with individually.`
Responding to newspaper photos, the army also condemned soldiers who wore T-shirts depicting a pregnant woman in a rifle`s cross hairs with the slogan `1 Shot 2 Kills.`
During the Gaza offensive, critics contend, rabbinical propaganda was part of a broader effort to legitimize Israel`s decision to use overwhelming force.
Legal opinion
Before the assault, the army`s legal office issued an opinion saying that Israel was entitled to use artillery against civilian neighborhoods from which Hamas was launching rockets.
And after the 22-day operation, a Tel Aviv University philosophy professor with close ties to the military, Asa Kasher, said the decision to shell Gaza`s cities stemmed from an anti-terrorism doctrine he had helped draft a few years ago. It stated that in Gaza, as in other areas the army does not control, there is no justification for endangering soldiers` lives in order to avoid killing civilians in the proximity of targeted militants.
That doctrine appears to be at odds with the military code, which obliges the army to avoid civilian casualties, and it was never formally adopted. However, it was echoed in religious terms in literature distributed in Gaza by military rabbis.
`Our ancestors did not always fight with a sword and at times preferred to use a bow and arrow from a distance,` one text read.
Actions must be taken from a distance in order to spare our soldiers` lives.
The reserve sergeant, an observant Jew who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity, said that he and a fellow soldier in his 15-man unit were troubled by the children of darkness` sermon, but that other troops seemed receptive.
In one of several postwar testimonies given at a left-leaning military institute, a squad commander identified only as Ram complained that army rabbis tried to press what he called a `religious mission` on his men.
The military rabbinate brought in a lot of booklets and articles and their message was very clear: We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the non-Jews who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land,` Ram said.
As a commander, he said, he tried to explain to his men that `not everyone in Gaza is Hamas [and] wants to vanquish us [and] that this war is not a war for the sanctification of the holy name, but rather one to stop the Kassams` -- a type of rocket fired from Gaza.
Danny Zamir, director of the institute that elicited the testimonies and leaked them to Israeli papers, was quoted in a transcript as voicing dismay that Israeli nationalists, like their Hamas enemies, are using faith to justify violence.
If clerics are anointing us with oil and sticking holy books in our hands, and if the soldiers in these units aren`t representative of the whole spectrum of the Jewish people, but rather of certain segments of the population, what can we expect?he said.
Ofer Shelah, military correspondent for the newspaper Maariv, said the rising profile of religious nationalists in the army has helped them in two showdowns with the high command.
After Israel withdrew its settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, graduates of two pre-military academies associated with the settler movement said they would refuse to obey future orders to disband West Bank settlements. The army threatened to cancel its certification of the schools, then backed down.
During the Gaza assault, the chief military rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, was called in to answer criticism that his department was distributing war propaganda. He denied knowledge of it, and a subordinate was given `a slap on the wrist` by the Defense Ministry, Shelah said.
Rabbi David Hartman, a leading Jewish philosopher who has lectured thousands of officers at his Shalom Hartman Institute, said the religious nationalist belief in holy war is still a minority view in the army.
But it has to be fought with a rational religious ideology that takes into account the living reality of two peoples,` he said. Otherwise, he added, `you have these rabbis volunteering in the army, and it`s not necessarily the people the army wants. There`s a vacuum, and it gets filled by crackpots.`
boudreaux@latimes.com
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Israeli War Crimes Detailed
The Guardian Newspaper of the United Kingdom has compiled detailed evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the 23-day offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields and the targeting of medics and hospitals.
A month-long investigation also obtained evidence of civilians being hit by fire from unmanned drone aircraft said to be so accurate that their operators can tell the colour of the clothes worn by a target.
The testimonies form the basis of three Guardian films which add weight to calls this week for a full inquiry into the events surrounding Operation Cast Lead, which was aimed at Hamas but left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including more than 300 children.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) refused to respond directly to the allegations made against its troops, but issued statements denying the charges and insisted international law had been observed.
The latest disclosures follow soldiers' evidence published in the Israeli press about the killing of Palestinian civilians and complaints by soldiers involved in the military operation that the rules of engagement were too lax.
Amnesty International has said Hamas should be investigated for executing at least two dozen Palestinian men in an apparent bout of score-settling with rivals and alleged collaborators while Operation Cast Lead was under way.
Human rights groups say the vast majority of offences were committed by Israel, and that the Gaza offensive was a disproportionate response to Hamas rocket attacks. Since 2002, there have been 21 Israeli deaths by Hamas rockets fired from Gaza, and during Operation Cast Lead there were three Israeli civilian deaths, six Israeli soldiers killed by Palestinian fire and four killed by friendly fire.
"Only an investigation mandated by the UN security council can ensure Israel's co-operation, and it's the only body that can secure some kind of prosecution," said Amnesty's Donatella Rovera, who spent two weeks in Gaza investigating war crime allegations. "Without a proper investigation there is no deterrent. The message remains the same: 'It's OK to do these things, there won't be any real consequences'."
Some of the most dramatic testimony gathered by the Guardian came from three teenage brothers in the al-Attar family. They describe how they were taken from home at gunpoint, made to kneel in front of Israeli tanks to deter Hamas fighters from firing, and sent by Israeli soldiers into Palestinian houses to clear them. "They would make us go first so if any fighters shot at them the bullets would hit us, not them," 14-year-old Al'a al-Attar said.
Medics and ambulance drivers said they were targeted when they tried to tend to the wounded; sixteen were killed. According to the World Health Organisation, more than half of Gaza's 27 hospitals and 44 clinics were damaged by Israeli bombs.
In a report released today, a medical human rights group said there was "certainty" that Israel violated international humanitarian law during the war, with attacks on medics, damage to medical buildings, indiscriminate attacks on civilians and delays in medical treatment for the injured.
"We have noticed a stark decline in IDF morals concerning the Palestinian population of Gaza, which in reality amounts to a contempt for Palestinian lives," said Dani Filc, chairman of Physicians for Human Rights Israel. The Guardian gathered testimony on missile attacks by Israeli drones against clearly distinguishable civilian targets. In one case a family of six was killed when a missile hit the courtyard of their house. Israel has not admitted using drones but experts say their optical equipment is good enough to identify individual items of clothing worn by targets. The Geneva convention makes it clear medical staff and hospitals are not legitimate targets and forbids involuntary human shields.
The army responded to the claims. "The IDF operated in accordance with rules of war and did the utmost to minimise harm to civilians uninvolved in combat. The IDF's use of weapons conforms to international law," it said. The IDF said an investigation was under way into allegations hospitals were targeted. It said Israeli soldiers were under orders to avoid harming medics, but: "However, in light of the difficult reality of warfare in the Gaza Strip carried out in urban and densely populated areas, medics who operate in the area take the risk upon themselves."
Use of human shields was outlawed by Israel's supreme court in 2005 after a string of incidents. The IDF said only Hamas used human shields by launching attacks from civilian areas. An Israeli embassy spokesman said any claims were suspect because of Hamas pressure on witnesses. "Anyone who understands the realities of Gaza will know these people are not free to speak the truth. Those that wish to speak out cannot for fear of beatings, torture or execution at the hands of Hamas," the spokesman said in a written statement.
However, the accounts gathered by the Guardian are supported by the findings of human rights organisations and soldiers' testimony published in the Israeli press.
An IDF squad leader is quoted in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz as saying his soldiers interpreted the rules to mean "we should kill everyone there [in the centre of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist."
Please click on the link below to view three videos on this report.
• This article was updated on Tuesday March 24 2009 to reflect changes made for the first edition of the Guardian newspaper.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/23/israel-gaza-war-crimes-guardian/print
A month-long investigation also obtained evidence of civilians being hit by fire from unmanned drone aircraft said to be so accurate that their operators can tell the colour of the clothes worn by a target.
The testimonies form the basis of three Guardian films which add weight to calls this week for a full inquiry into the events surrounding Operation Cast Lead, which was aimed at Hamas but left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including more than 300 children.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) refused to respond directly to the allegations made against its troops, but issued statements denying the charges and insisted international law had been observed.
The latest disclosures follow soldiers' evidence published in the Israeli press about the killing of Palestinian civilians and complaints by soldiers involved in the military operation that the rules of engagement were too lax.
Amnesty International has said Hamas should be investigated for executing at least two dozen Palestinian men in an apparent bout of score-settling with rivals and alleged collaborators while Operation Cast Lead was under way.
Human rights groups say the vast majority of offences were committed by Israel, and that the Gaza offensive was a disproportionate response to Hamas rocket attacks. Since 2002, there have been 21 Israeli deaths by Hamas rockets fired from Gaza, and during Operation Cast Lead there were three Israeli civilian deaths, six Israeli soldiers killed by Palestinian fire and four killed by friendly fire.
"Only an investigation mandated by the UN security council can ensure Israel's co-operation, and it's the only body that can secure some kind of prosecution," said Amnesty's Donatella Rovera, who spent two weeks in Gaza investigating war crime allegations. "Without a proper investigation there is no deterrent. The message remains the same: 'It's OK to do these things, there won't be any real consequences'."
Some of the most dramatic testimony gathered by the Guardian came from three teenage brothers in the al-Attar family. They describe how they were taken from home at gunpoint, made to kneel in front of Israeli tanks to deter Hamas fighters from firing, and sent by Israeli soldiers into Palestinian houses to clear them. "They would make us go first so if any fighters shot at them the bullets would hit us, not them," 14-year-old Al'a al-Attar said.
Medics and ambulance drivers said they were targeted when they tried to tend to the wounded; sixteen were killed. According to the World Health Organisation, more than half of Gaza's 27 hospitals and 44 clinics were damaged by Israeli bombs.
In a report released today, a medical human rights group said there was "certainty" that Israel violated international humanitarian law during the war, with attacks on medics, damage to medical buildings, indiscriminate attacks on civilians and delays in medical treatment for the injured.
"We have noticed a stark decline in IDF morals concerning the Palestinian population of Gaza, which in reality amounts to a contempt for Palestinian lives," said Dani Filc, chairman of Physicians for Human Rights Israel. The Guardian gathered testimony on missile attacks by Israeli drones against clearly distinguishable civilian targets. In one case a family of six was killed when a missile hit the courtyard of their house. Israel has not admitted using drones but experts say their optical equipment is good enough to identify individual items of clothing worn by targets. The Geneva convention makes it clear medical staff and hospitals are not legitimate targets and forbids involuntary human shields.
The army responded to the claims. "The IDF operated in accordance with rules of war and did the utmost to minimise harm to civilians uninvolved in combat. The IDF's use of weapons conforms to international law," it said. The IDF said an investigation was under way into allegations hospitals were targeted. It said Israeli soldiers were under orders to avoid harming medics, but: "However, in light of the difficult reality of warfare in the Gaza Strip carried out in urban and densely populated areas, medics who operate in the area take the risk upon themselves."
Use of human shields was outlawed by Israel's supreme court in 2005 after a string of incidents. The IDF said only Hamas used human shields by launching attacks from civilian areas. An Israeli embassy spokesman said any claims were suspect because of Hamas pressure on witnesses. "Anyone who understands the realities of Gaza will know these people are not free to speak the truth. Those that wish to speak out cannot for fear of beatings, torture or execution at the hands of Hamas," the spokesman said in a written statement.
However, the accounts gathered by the Guardian are supported by the findings of human rights organisations and soldiers' testimony published in the Israeli press.
An IDF squad leader is quoted in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz as saying his soldiers interpreted the rules to mean "we should kill everyone there [in the centre of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist."
Please click on the link below to view three videos on this report.
• This article was updated on Tuesday March 24 2009 to reflect changes made for the first edition of the Guardian newspaper.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/23/israel-gaza-war-crimes-guardian/print
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
International Solidarity Movement Violence Report
Every week I get a report from the International Solidarity Movement on the notable actions and virtually unprovoked violence against the people of Gaza. These are stories written by Palestinians and International activists who journey to the occupied territories to put their bodies between - Palestinians trying to harvest Parsley, Olives, rebuild their homes, or just get delivered to a hospital safely - and Israeli military forces who constantly fire harrassing volleys at their feet in an attempt to drive them not only from their gardens, but out of Palestine altogether. Unfortunately, many International Activists who have come to Palestine to shield the people from Israeli fire, have themselves been wounded or killed. The theory is that Israel doesn't want the bad PR of hitting activists from other countries. But, I think - like a hungry lion who suffers no consequences for his actions - the Israeli's are getting bolder and more deadly all the time.
Here is the pasted link to the website. It reads like one of the best spy or action books, but it is all true.
I suggest subscribing to their weekly summary and if after you do, you may be moved to do as I did and send a donation. They send you back an amazing book full of personal Palestinian stories of faith and courage, but also of devastating loss.
It is good for the soul of those who are trying to make the world a better place and want to know how they can make a meaningful contribution.
Any who knows? Like me, you might meet and make friends with some of the most courageous and moral people in the world. I get so much hope for mankind from my new friends.
http://palsolidarity.org/
Here is the pasted link to the website. It reads like one of the best spy or action books, but it is all true.
I suggest subscribing to their weekly summary and if after you do, you may be moved to do as I did and send a donation. They send you back an amazing book full of personal Palestinian stories of faith and courage, but also of devastating loss.
It is good for the soul of those who are trying to make the world a better place and want to know how they can make a meaningful contribution.
Any who knows? Like me, you might meet and make friends with some of the most courageous and moral people in the world. I get so much hope for mankind from my new friends.
http://palsolidarity.org/
Monday, March 23, 2009
The State of Israel - Nazi Version
"In the name of the ghetto fighters of Warsaw, let us strive to see a world where no one needs to die with a stone in their hand trying to defend a starved, walled ghetto against an army of tanks and planes, where people like Tristan don't need to have their brains blown out for trying to prevent a wall from being built around yet another ghetto."
In this article, David Rovics a singer/songwriter from Portland Oregon, draws in stunningly historical colors the unavoidable similarities between the German/Nazi behavior of WWII and the Present State of Israel.
If you have already been forming a loose association in your mind for some time, then this careful chronology of the similarities will help firm things up for you in a stunning indictment.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14927
In this article, David Rovics a singer/songwriter from Portland Oregon, draws in stunningly historical colors the unavoidable similarities between the German/Nazi behavior of WWII and the Present State of Israel.
If you have already been forming a loose association in your mind for some time, then this careful chronology of the similarities will help firm things up for you in a stunning indictment.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14927
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
