9 aug 2014
As calls grow for additional investigation and possible prosecution, nation's prime minister looks to allies in US Congress for support
According to U.S. Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY), the Israeli government hopes that he and his colleagues in Washington, DC will do everything in their power to prevent the International Criminal Court from pushing forward with possible war crimes charges against his nation over its recent attack on the Gaza Strip which resulted in the killing over nearly 1,900 Palestinians, including a large proportion of civilians and hundreds of children.
Speaking to the New York Post from Israel, where he was travelling at the invitation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (or AIPAC), Rep. Israel described the meeting between U.S. lawmakers in the delegation, AIPAC officials, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The prime minister asked us to work together to ensure that this strategy of going to the ICC does not succeed,” the congressman told the Post. “[Netanyahu] wants the US to use all the tools that we have at our disposal to, number one, make sure the world knows that war crimes were not committed by Israel, they were committed by Hamas. And that Israel should not be held to a double standard.”
During a meeting at The Hague on Tuesday of this week, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki told prosecutors at the International Criminal Court that “clear evidence” of war crimes by Israel against the people of Gaza exists.
“Everything that has happened in the last 28 days is clear evidence of war crimes committed by Israel, amounting to crimes against humanity,” Malki said. “There is no difficulty for us to show or build the case. Evidence is there for people to see and collect. Israel is in clear violation of international law.”
Prior to his trip, Rep. Israel released a statement announcing, “I have always been one of Israel’s strongest supporters in the U.S. Congress, and I will always stand up for its needs.” Recently, during the height of the conflict the congressman was among lawmakers who signed a letter to the United Nations calling on it to “condemn Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, which is a direct violation of international law.” That the Hamas government “uses human shields” in Gaza is a familiar Israeli government talking point, but no independent evidence exists to support the accusation and the claim is widely dismissed as straight propaganda by agencies and experts on the ground in Gaza.
Despite Congressman Israel’s characterization of the conflict in Gaza—and the consistent defense by Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that its military’s behavior in the Strip was and is justified—global indignation and condemnation has resulted from the fact that while three civilians and just over 60 soldiers were killed on the Israeli side during the fighting, official estimates on the Palestinian side put the death toll at 1,865 people killed, including 429 children under the age of 18; 79 people over the age of 60; and 243 women.
The Israeli government continues to repeat that it killed “900+ terrorists” during what it called Operation Protective Edge, but it offers no convincing argument on how it distinguishes an adult Palestinian male sleeping in his bed, seeking shelter, or fleeing hostilities from someone acting in a military or offensive capacity.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International on Thursday announced that is has seen mounting and “alarming” evidence that the IDF launched what it called “apparently deliberate attacks” against hospitals and health professionals in Gaza during Israel’s incursion.
“Such attacks are absolutely prohibited by international law and would amount to war crimes,” aid Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International. “They only add to the already compelling argument that the situation should be referred to the International Criminal Court.”
Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said it has now documented cases in which Israel fired on civilians who were fleeing the violence and stated that “deliberate attacks on civilians who are not participating in the fighting are war crimes.”
“The horrors of war are bad enough for civilians even when all sides abide by the law,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “But it’s abhorrent that Israeli forces are making matters even worse by so blatantly violating the laws of war designed to spare civilians.”
On Wednesday evening, as he addressed an informal meeting of the United Nation’s General Assembly, the head of the UN Ban Ki-Moon said the utter destruction of Gaza and the humanitarian crisis that continues there has both “shocked and shamed” the global community.
Speaking from Gaza, Pierre Krähenbühl, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) office there, said that 90 of the agency’s premises were hit during the conflict. He said that UNRWA has asked for investigations to be carried out regarding the attacks on agency-run schools that had been sheltering displaced Gazans.
“Perhaps nothing symbolized more the horror that was unleashed on the people of Gaza,” said Ban, “than the repeated shelling of United Nations facilities harbouring civilians who had been explicitly told to seek a safe haven there. These attacks were outrageous, unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
According to U.S. Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY), the Israeli government hopes that he and his colleagues in Washington, DC will do everything in their power to prevent the International Criminal Court from pushing forward with possible war crimes charges against his nation over its recent attack on the Gaza Strip which resulted in the killing over nearly 1,900 Palestinians, including a large proportion of civilians and hundreds of children.
Speaking to the New York Post from Israel, where he was travelling at the invitation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (or AIPAC), Rep. Israel described the meeting between U.S. lawmakers in the delegation, AIPAC officials, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The prime minister asked us to work together to ensure that this strategy of going to the ICC does not succeed,” the congressman told the Post. “[Netanyahu] wants the US to use all the tools that we have at our disposal to, number one, make sure the world knows that war crimes were not committed by Israel, they were committed by Hamas. And that Israel should not be held to a double standard.”
During a meeting at The Hague on Tuesday of this week, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki told prosecutors at the International Criminal Court that “clear evidence” of war crimes by Israel against the people of Gaza exists.
“Everything that has happened in the last 28 days is clear evidence of war crimes committed by Israel, amounting to crimes against humanity,” Malki said. “There is no difficulty for us to show or build the case. Evidence is there for people to see and collect. Israel is in clear violation of international law.”
Prior to his trip, Rep. Israel released a statement announcing, “I have always been one of Israel’s strongest supporters in the U.S. Congress, and I will always stand up for its needs.” Recently, during the height of the conflict the congressman was among lawmakers who signed a letter to the United Nations calling on it to “condemn Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, which is a direct violation of international law.” That the Hamas government “uses human shields” in Gaza is a familiar Israeli government talking point, but no independent evidence exists to support the accusation and the claim is widely dismissed as straight propaganda by agencies and experts on the ground in Gaza.
Despite Congressman Israel’s characterization of the conflict in Gaza—and the consistent defense by Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that its military’s behavior in the Strip was and is justified—global indignation and condemnation has resulted from the fact that while three civilians and just over 60 soldiers were killed on the Israeli side during the fighting, official estimates on the Palestinian side put the death toll at 1,865 people killed, including 429 children under the age of 18; 79 people over the age of 60; and 243 women.
The Israeli government continues to repeat that it killed “900+ terrorists” during what it called Operation Protective Edge, but it offers no convincing argument on how it distinguishes an adult Palestinian male sleeping in his bed, seeking shelter, or fleeing hostilities from someone acting in a military or offensive capacity.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International on Thursday announced that is has seen mounting and “alarming” evidence that the IDF launched what it called “apparently deliberate attacks” against hospitals and health professionals in Gaza during Israel’s incursion.
“Such attacks are absolutely prohibited by international law and would amount to war crimes,” aid Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International. “They only add to the already compelling argument that the situation should be referred to the International Criminal Court.”
Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said it has now documented cases in which Israel fired on civilians who were fleeing the violence and stated that “deliberate attacks on civilians who are not participating in the fighting are war crimes.”
“The horrors of war are bad enough for civilians even when all sides abide by the law,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “But it’s abhorrent that Israeli forces are making matters even worse by so blatantly violating the laws of war designed to spare civilians.”
On Wednesday evening, as he addressed an informal meeting of the United Nation’s General Assembly, the head of the UN Ban Ki-Moon said the utter destruction of Gaza and the humanitarian crisis that continues there has both “shocked and shamed” the global community.
Speaking from Gaza, Pierre Krähenbühl, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) office there, said that 90 of the agency’s premises were hit during the conflict. He said that UNRWA has asked for investigations to be carried out regarding the attacks on agency-run schools that had been sheltering displaced Gazans.
“Perhaps nothing symbolized more the horror that was unleashed on the people of Gaza,” said Ban, “than the repeated shelling of United Nations facilities harbouring civilians who had been explicitly told to seek a safe haven there. These attacks were outrageous, unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
1 aug 2014
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was right when, after saying that “All the evidence points to Israeli artillery as the cause” (of the attack on the UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp where more than 3,000 Palestinians were taking shelter from Israeli bombs and shells), he added the following. “Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children.” But there is, I say, something as shameful – the complicity of America’s corrupt political system in Israel’s war crimes.
Initially the mainstream media attached great significance to the fact that the U.S. had “condemned” the attack, the implication of the first reports being that it had condemned Israel. It did not. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said only that America “condemned the shelling of the school.” She did not name Israel. Body language is all important and when I watched and listened to her speaking I thought she delivered the condemnation as a dismissive, throwaway line. What I mean is that her body language said to me something like, “What I’m saying is not really important but I have to say it.”
From President Obama himself there were just more empty words – another call for an immediate ceasefire. I imagine the unspoken response of Israel’s leaders was something like: “We know you had to make that call, Mr. President, and you know that we are going to ignore it.”
Obama’s hypocrisy was on display (again) when he announced new sanctions on Russia. He said, “We stand up for rights and freedoms around the world.” What he didn’t add was “with the exception of the rights and freedom of occupied and oppressed Palestinians.”
I thought Chris Gunness, the spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), hit most of the right notes when he said: “It is beyond belief that in the 21st Century children, women and civilian men should be subjected to this kind of outrage. It (Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip) is an abomination, a barbarity that needs to end… The world should hang its head in shame.”
My own thought is that it’s President Obama and other so-called leaders, not the world, who should be hanging their heads in shame.
That said I still believe (perhaps naively) that Obama himself would like to use the leverage America has to try to cause Israel to be serious about peace on terms the Palestinians could accept, but he can’t because policy for the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel is controlled by a Congress that is answerable not to the American people but the Zionist lobby and its mad Christian fundamentalist allies.
In my analysis no president will ever be free to put America’s own best interests first by confronting the Zionist monster (a terrorist state) unless and until lobby funding is taken out of American politics. What America needs most of all is some real democracy.
On BBC Radio 4′s Today program Britain’s new foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said this. “I have explained to Israeli ministers, not only Netanyahu, that the world is rapidly turning against Israel.”
That made me wonder what would happen if all of Israel’s Jews and all members of Congress could be compelled to watch a lengthy compilation of film and video footage of the death and destruction Israel has delivered to the Gaza Strip. Would it make them understand why the world is turning against Israel and cause a change of hearts and minds in Israel and Congress?
Probably, almost certainly, not.
Since I wrote the above and sent it to other sites there have been two probably connected developments.
One was a statement from White House spokesman Josh Ernest. He said:
“The shelling of a UN facility that is housing innocent civilians who are fleeing violence is totally unacceptable and totally indefensible. It is clear that we need our allies in Israel to do more to live up to the high standards they have set for themselves“.
That was criticism and even condemnation of Israel for one of its actions. But again it was only words.
The other was an announcement that Hamas and Israel have accepted an unconditional humanitarian ceasefire for 72 hours. The question at the time of writing is this. Will it hold and, if it does, will Israel allow negotiations in Cairo to address both its security concerns and Hamas’s need and demand for an end to the siege (Israeli occupation by remote control) of the Gaza Strip…?
If agreement is not reached on both issues the war will be resumed.
Footnote
Dan Gillerman, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, has let a cat slip out of the bag. In an Al Jazeera program he said that Israel was enjoying “unprecedented” support from around the world. Why unprecedented? Because, he stated, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were fully supporting Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas. He also said that during his period at the UN (from 2003 to 2008) he couldn’t count the number of times Arab ambassadors and other Arab dignitaries had said to him: “Go, go. Don’t stop.”
Initially the mainstream media attached great significance to the fact that the U.S. had “condemned” the attack, the implication of the first reports being that it had condemned Israel. It did not. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said only that America “condemned the shelling of the school.” She did not name Israel. Body language is all important and when I watched and listened to her speaking I thought she delivered the condemnation as a dismissive, throwaway line. What I mean is that her body language said to me something like, “What I’m saying is not really important but I have to say it.”
From President Obama himself there were just more empty words – another call for an immediate ceasefire. I imagine the unspoken response of Israel’s leaders was something like: “We know you had to make that call, Mr. President, and you know that we are going to ignore it.”
Obama’s hypocrisy was on display (again) when he announced new sanctions on Russia. He said, “We stand up for rights and freedoms around the world.” What he didn’t add was “with the exception of the rights and freedom of occupied and oppressed Palestinians.”
I thought Chris Gunness, the spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), hit most of the right notes when he said: “It is beyond belief that in the 21st Century children, women and civilian men should be subjected to this kind of outrage. It (Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip) is an abomination, a barbarity that needs to end… The world should hang its head in shame.”
My own thought is that it’s President Obama and other so-called leaders, not the world, who should be hanging their heads in shame.
That said I still believe (perhaps naively) that Obama himself would like to use the leverage America has to try to cause Israel to be serious about peace on terms the Palestinians could accept, but he can’t because policy for the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel is controlled by a Congress that is answerable not to the American people but the Zionist lobby and its mad Christian fundamentalist allies.
In my analysis no president will ever be free to put America’s own best interests first by confronting the Zionist monster (a terrorist state) unless and until lobby funding is taken out of American politics. What America needs most of all is some real democracy.
On BBC Radio 4′s Today program Britain’s new foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said this. “I have explained to Israeli ministers, not only Netanyahu, that the world is rapidly turning against Israel.”
That made me wonder what would happen if all of Israel’s Jews and all members of Congress could be compelled to watch a lengthy compilation of film and video footage of the death and destruction Israel has delivered to the Gaza Strip. Would it make them understand why the world is turning against Israel and cause a change of hearts and minds in Israel and Congress?
Probably, almost certainly, not.
Since I wrote the above and sent it to other sites there have been two probably connected developments.
One was a statement from White House spokesman Josh Ernest. He said:
“The shelling of a UN facility that is housing innocent civilians who are fleeing violence is totally unacceptable and totally indefensible. It is clear that we need our allies in Israel to do more to live up to the high standards they have set for themselves“.
That was criticism and even condemnation of Israel for one of its actions. But again it was only words.
The other was an announcement that Hamas and Israel have accepted an unconditional humanitarian ceasefire for 72 hours. The question at the time of writing is this. Will it hold and, if it does, will Israel allow negotiations in Cairo to address both its security concerns and Hamas’s need and demand for an end to the siege (Israeli occupation by remote control) of the Gaza Strip…?
If agreement is not reached on both issues the war will be resumed.
Footnote
Dan Gillerman, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, has let a cat slip out of the bag. In an Al Jazeera program he said that Israel was enjoying “unprecedented” support from around the world. Why unprecedented? Because, he stated, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were fully supporting Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas. He also said that during his period at the UN (from 2003 to 2008) he couldn’t count the number of times Arab ambassadors and other Arab dignitaries had said to him: “Go, go. Don’t stop.”
16 july 2014
|
|
(Prefatory Note: this is a modified version of a post published online, July 15, 2014, at the recently established very informative website, Middle East Eye; as the casualty totals continue to mount while the world looks on in stupefied inaction, the attacks go on; at the very least, from a humanitarian perspective,there should be a global outcry demanding that children, mothers, and those sick and disabled be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip until current hostilities end. Yet this is a gap in international humanitarian law, refugee law, and the moral sensibilities of the combatant states.)
As the hideous Israeli assault on Gaza, named Operation Protective Edge, by the IDF enters its second week, overdue international appeals for a |
