Sunday, January 11, 2009

War Crimes in Israel Gaza Strip - Disproportionate Retaliation

Select Stories Of War Crimes in the Israel Gaza Strip Conflict

"I am not an expert on what is a war crime but I can recognize one when I see one."
Anton Emil Kuerti, (Jewish/Canadian) Internationally Acclaimed Concert Pianist

We do not need to be Law Experts when our knowledge of History Guides Us and Common Sense prevails.


Source: 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza Conflict Details (Wiki) - 11 January 2009
Belligerents
Israel (IDF) Hamas
Islamic Jihad
Popular Resistance Committees
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine



Strength
176,500 (10,000 deployed, backed by tanks, artillery, gunboats, and aircraft.) 20,000 Hamas operatives
Casualties and Losses
Total Killed: 13
Soldiers: 10
Civilians: 3

Total Wounded: 149
Soldiers: 110
Civilians: 39

Total Killed: 879*
Fighters: ~305
Policemen: ~138
Civilians: 444+***

Total Wounded: 3,490****

One Egyptian border guard officer killed and another wounded.
*Casualty figures in Gaza cannot yet be independently verified.

***Among the civilians killed in Gaza there were: 4 UN and 12 medical workers, 270 children, 68 women and 90 elderly people. Also, two foreigners, a Ukrainian woman and her child, were among the dead.
*****Among the wounded there were 1,080 children and 452 women.

*

Select Stories Of War Crimes in this Conflict


Grim role for doctor who Tracks the Dead - Sydney Morning Herald - 12 January 2009
Muawiya Hassanein has no time for pleasantries these days. The head of emergency services for the Gaza Strip, Dr Hassanein is the person who keeps a running track of the ever-escalating death toll of Israel's deadliest offensive ever in the overcrowded enclave.

In his office, he keeps the remains of an Israeli rocket that killed one of his medics several days ago. "I am also a human being and when I see the bodies of children and of women, it hurts me, but I hold back my tears in order not to demoralize the rescue workers."


Jewish dissenters speak out over Gaza - Toronto Star (Canada) - 11 January 2009
Judith Weisman, 78, is a Toronto psychotherapist. She grew up in "a very Zionist family" in Baltimore but "began to change when Israel supported the Vietnam War." She and her husband came to Canada in 1969. She worked at the Jewish Family and Children's Services.

Hamas' War Crimes - Los Angeles Times - 10 January 2009
The best example of Hamas' double war crime tactic was Tuesday, when it succeeded in sending a rocket to a town less than 20 miles south of Tel Aviv and injuring a child. At the same time, it provoked Israel to attack a United Nations school from which Hamas was launching its rockets. Residents of the neighborhood said two Hamas fighters were in the area at the time, and the Israeli military said they had been killed, according to the New York Times.

Israel: Stop Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza
- Human Rights Watch - 10 January 2009
Israel should stop using white phosphorus in military operations in densely populated areas of Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 9 and 10, 2009, Human Rights Watch researchers in Israel observed multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over what appeared to be the Gaza City/Jabaliya area.

Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus as an “obscurant” (a chemical used to hide military operations), a permissible use in principle under international humanitarian law (the laws of war). However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire. The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza’s high population density, among the highest in the world.

Norway concerned over destruction of aid vehicle
- The Norway Post - 11 January 2009
The Norwegian Department of Foreign Affairs is very concerned over the incident in which a Norwegian aid vehicle was hit by an Israeli rocket in Gaza on Friday, and accuses Israel of breaking International Law.

This is very serious indeed, and must be regarded as a clear breach of International Law, says Undersecretary of State, Raymond Johansen.- This comes on top of the fact that Israel neither shows respect for the UN Security Council.

Israel Is Committing War Crimes
- Wall Street Journal - 10 January 2009
Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. Senior Israeli political and military leaders may bear personal liability for their offenses, and they could be prosecuted by an international tribunal, or by nations practicing universal jurisdiction over grave international crimes. Hamas fighters have also violated the laws of warfare, but their misdeeds do not justify Israel's acts.

Israel should be held accountable for its crimes, and the U.S. should stop abetting it with unconditional military and diplomatic support.

'We Are Very Violent': Israeli War Crimes Mount - AlterNet - 10 January 2009
Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave's civilian population.

The Palestinian Authority revealed that it was planning to seek the prosecution of Israel's leaders for war crimes in the international courts. The legal challenges follow a wave of Israeli attacks on schools, universities, mosques, hospitals and ambulances in the past few days. The army claims the attacks are justified because the sites are being used by Hamas fighters.

A petition to the Israeli courts was announced on Wednesday by Taleb al Sanaa, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, over the shelling on Tuesday of a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp that killed at least 40 Palestinians sheltering there. UN officials, noting that they had passed on the school's GPS co-ordinates to Israel and that it was clearly marked with a UN flag, insisted that only civilians had sought refuge at the school. The UN has demanded an investigation.

A further petition has been launched by eight Israeli human rights groups, demanding that Israel's Supreme Court ban the army from targeting ambulances and medical personnel. The petition cites a large number of cases in which Israel has fired on ambulances, arguing that as a result medics have been unable to treat the wounded or transport them to hospital.

The Al Durra hospital in Gaza City was hit on Tuesday, and a day later three mobile clinics run by a Danish charity, DanChurchAid, were destroyed. The International Committee of the Red Cross dropped its usual diplomatic language this week in denouncing Israel's refusal to allow medical teams to tend the wounded.

The UN suspended its aid operations on Thursday after two of its drivers were killed and others wounded by Israeli fire directed at one of its relief convoys during another three-hour ceasefire.

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END NOTE....

What would Israel be today, if the population had not dramatically increased during the 20th century? It would surely be a Failed State. The 20th century has revealed Israel, with some assistance from Germany and other Western Powers drove - The Establishment of Israel.

One example, there are claims that Kristallnacht was instigated by the Jewish masonic lodge B'nai B'rith, in co-operation with the Zionist organization, LICA (Ligue International contre l'Antisemitisme) in Paris, on 9 November 1938. The aim of LICA was to encourage the emigration of German Jews. Why is Israel really so important to Western Powers including the USA? We know Not All Israelis/Jews are Equal and they will be treated accordingly.

Judaism penetrates the lives of many non-Jewish people globally, even though these people flippantly disregard its relevance. A simple example is found in the influence and significance of the Jewish Kabbalah and Jerusalem in the Freemasonry Movement and the names of Degrees/Rites/Ranks and their associated Rituals. The majority of Masons are not Jewish but they are ensuring Israel, Solomon's Temple and Jerusalem remains alive in the minds of this international network. Various religions can also be recognized as adopting aspects of Judaism, as part of their own religious identity and doctrine.