Alex Kane writes that mounting evidence is making it increasingly hard to deny that war crimes were committed by Israel in its most recent assault on Gaza. The United Nations Human Rights Commission has sent in a three member team to investigate human rights violations in the most recent conflict.
The UN commissioned a similar investigation following Israel’s previous assault on Gaza in 2009 and that team found evidence of war crimes but the Obama administration used its leverage to have the Goldstone report shelved. This time around, the worldwide anger over Israel’s actions seems greater and it is not clear that similar charges, if brought, can be suppressed.
Israeli prime minister is clearly aware of the danger of being taken to the International Criminal Court on this issue and has appealed to his major source of support, the US Congress, to prevent that from happening.
I guess those M-16s the soldiers are carrying (in the picture accompanying that article) are for “legitimate self-defense” and don’t violate the arms control export act. Well, all the M119s the Egyptian army rode in to crush the protesters in Tahrir Square (and now the MB) didn’t violate it, either.
Israel and America do not do war crimes. Is is always the one they oppose.
“The United States is not a participant in the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC is a permanent international criminal court, founded in 2002 by the Rome Statute to “bring to justice the perpetrators of the worst crimes known to humankind – war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide”, especially when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so”
“The seven countries that voted against the treaty were Iraq, Israel, Libya, the People’s Republic of China, Qatar, Yemen, and the United States”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_International_Criminal_Court
At least the US and Israel are in good company.
“When other countries refused to agree to such an unequal standard of justice, the US campaigned to weaken and undermine the court. The Bush administration, coming into office in 2001 as the Court neared implementation, adopted an extremely active opposition. Washington began to negotiate bilateral agreements with other countries, insuring immunity of US nationals from prosecution by the Court. As leverage, Washington threatened termination of economic aid, withdrawal of military assistance, and other painful measures. ”
https://www.globalpolicy.org/us-un-and-international-law-8-24/us-opposition-to-the-icc-8-29.html
The bully in the international schoolyard.
It is up to us all to do contact our Congressperson and make a fuss and do what we can to insist that the US does not protect Israel from well-deserved war crimes charges.
Here is a news report from the WSJ on the swift justice meted to those who speak freely on Israel. A professor was just fired!
http://online.wsj.com/articles/tweets-on-israel-cost-professor-1407974658?KEYWORDS=israel
In Israel itself meanwhile, free speech thrives. Here is a professor in Haifa speaking his mind without fear of being fired.
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/28/professor_ilan_pappe_israel_has_chosen
Does any other country threaten our free speech in quite this way? It is sobering also to hear Max Blumenthal talk about attempts to silence him when he discusses his new book “Goliath”.
Congress is already terrorized and votes as instructed, should the rest of us be following suit?
The situation is utterly intolerable.
Hmmm … y’know there’s something missing from this post.
Something really major that puts it all in a whole other perspective.
Oh yeah.
Hamas.
Hamas would be the ones committing the worst of the war crimes here. They would be the one’s most responsible for this horrendous war. For its beginning and continuation and for most of the casualties. (Incidentally, I suspect that when *accurate* figures come through, it’ll turn out more of the dead are militants than civilians -- figures provided from Gaza do tend to be unreliable and untrustworthy if the past has taught us much. *Jenin “massacre” cough!*)
So.
Why are we focusing on Israeli “war crimes” and ignoring Hamas’es role in all this and their worse and more numerous war crimes again please? Is a bit of balance and seeing both sides of this issue too much to ask for here?
Also if this article is correct -- and why wouldn’t it be?
Then the UNRWA have some very tough questions to answer too :
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/08/12/after-hamas-debacle-a-way-forward-for-the-people-of-gaza/
-- Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “After Hamas Debacle — A Way Forward For The People of Gaza”, Forbes online article, 2014 August 12th @ 10.55AM.
Wonder if anything will be said and done -- especially by the usual suspects here -- about that? Or will it just go under the RADAR and be downplayed and ignored as per usual? (If so, why, yes really, they do need to ask themselves -- and be asked -- why!?)
Oh & Mano Singham, why is it that Gaza is seemingly such a priority and big issue for you? Quote seriously, please I’d really like to know, what makes you so keen to stand with one side of this issue -- the Islamofascist religious extrremists brutal and would be genocidal given the chance Hamas side at that?
PS. Latest news from Gaza :
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-17/hamas-says-israel-must-accept-demands-or-face-long-war/5676338
On the good side the ceasefire is holding , on the not so good, well, we have Hamas in charge of one of the warring sides and they’re saying :
Yeesh! Way to compromise and show you want to make peace and stop the killing and torment Hamas -- NOT!
I hope Hamas are forced to back down and end this war but as long as they run Gaza I don’t have much optimism for that happening I ‘m sad to say. Hamas are evil. If you know who they are & what they stand for and seek, then you know that.
PS. See :
http://freethoughtblogs.com/taslima/2014/08/15/the-follower-of-muhammad-the-prophet-of-islam/
You know what the difference between Hamas and ISIS is?
ISIS have more power to carry out their will against their victims than Hamas do. That’s all. Please think of that and what the implications are.
It’s a little hard for me to take the UN Human Rights Council seriously because of who is on it and their blatant bias against Israel.
Of course Israel is probably guilty, but lets not pretend that it is a totally legit independent group or anything.
StevoR @5:
Oh yeah. The SWC is well known for its bias-free treatment of Palestine, the Arab world in general, and Iran. Just like the IDF, one of your other news sources. Are you a fan of Pam Geller?
Disingenuous ass.
Because they’re the ones doing the overwhelming majority of the killing.
@ 7 StevoR
Hey, StevoR! When you were trawling Taslima’s blog for a picture to demonize Muslims -- any Muslim will do, right? There all the same to a bigot like you -- you should have stopped to read this post by Taslima (in response to Sam Harris):
Oops! I guess you better go ask Taslima Nasreen, famous outspoken critic of Islam, why she’s on “the Islamofascist religious extrremists [sic] brutal and would be genocidal given the chance Hamas side”.
… Also, you didn’t need to link to a picture of an Australian ‘Islamic State’ terrorist and pretend it was a Palestinian. There are plenty of pictures of real Palestinians on Taslima’s blog. Here for example.
War Crimes Apologist StevoR:
So, Hamas is responsible for Israel’s actions? I had no idea they were so powerful. Or are you buying into the idea that anything is justified when retaliating to violence? It isn’t. Even if we grant the highly dubious argument that Israel is acting in self-defense, that still does not justify any and all violence in reply. See: war crime. Now note that collective punishment is actually the routine M.O for the IDF.
So no, even being the aggressor in a conflict does not justify atrocity in return.
You have no reason to doubt the figures given by the UN (as opposed to Hamas) other than the fact that they are inconvenient to your selected narrative.
Note that no one is giving Hamas a clean bill of morality in these discussions; their rocket fire is too poorly aimed to be described as anything other than indiscriminate, and is thus wrong as well. However, Israel is taking most of the heat because Israel has almost all of the military power in the area, is the one invading the territory of the other, and is doing almost all of the killing… almost all of which happens to be against civilians.
Noting that one party is more heavily destructive than the other is not an example of imbalance, so piss off with your simplistic moral equivalence attempts.
I had to laugh at the fact that you start this post with some blatant defensiveness : “if this article is correct – and why wouldn’t it be?” Says it all, really. You are keen to dismiss any source that disagrees with you (e.g. your dismissal of the casualty figures because ‘omg Hamas bias!’) only to play this charade when citing things that agree with you. Nice.
Anyway, yes, Hamas stored arms on neutral grounds. An act of wrongdoing that they should not have done, and I don’t think anyone here will defend that action. However, I note that your source turns into blame against the UNRWA, by insinuating that they either stored the weapons there themselves, or turned a blind eye to Hamas doing so. Your source seems to have glossed over the fact that the weapons were discovered and reported on at least one occasion by the UN staff, who were immediately evacuated -- hardly what I would expect if they gave permission in the first place.
You ask that as if people are not supposed to give a shit about the news of the world, unless that news is personally connected to them. Why not blog about a topic that the author finds interesting / worrying? It seems to me that the only reason you don’t want him to post on this topic is because he disagrees with you; I suspect you’d be fine with this blog being turned over to this subject if it glossed over Israel’s awfulness the same way you do.
I don’t see any problem here, other than perhaps a certain bluntness in their phrasing. What is wrong with demanding Israel stop blockading them? It is unreasonable for Israel to do so in the first place.
What is wrong with demanding Israel restore Gaza’s airport? Israel destroyed their original unjustly, in violation of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation.
What is wrong with demanding a seaport? Gazans were prevented from having one by the unjust intervention of Israel, first by blockading Gaza and restricting their construction materials, and then by -- you guessed it -- destroying the construction progress that had been made.
On the subject of the blockade, who said this, and what were they talking about?
Answer: Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, speaking to the UN General Assembly on June 19, 1967, about the closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping by Egypt.
@ ^ Dunc : Okay, interesting bit of trivia. You could’ve given me a chance to answer it first and avoided spoiling it right away by using rot13 code or something but oh well.
@ Rob Grigjanis :
I take it that was meant as sarcasm not agreement? Perhaps you are unaware of your own bias es and the bias on this blog against Israel?
Are there any actual factual errors or reasons to dispute the articles veracity besides your own biased opinion of supposed bias? Incidentally, the IDF tends to be a lot more accurate in its reports than Hamas. See the non-existent “Jenin”massacre” for instance.
Me or her or both of us? Abuse in place of logic or / & evidence on your part is duly noted.
Pam Geller raises some good points on occassion, I wouldn’t say she always gets everything right but then nobody does. I’m not that familiar with all her work and not a huge follower of hers so no, not really.
@10. Dunc :
For very good reasons in self defense and because they protect their civilians whilst Hamas do not and actively work to increase their own fatality ratio. Try not to forget that reality and take it into proper account please.
@11. Silentbob :
Wrong. Of course.
No, they (not “there” -grammar fail on your part noted) not all the same to me and I have stated that repeatedly nor am I a bigot. Strawmonstering me reveals your own problems and lack of argument.
I did. I disagree with what she said but I don’t always comment on everything and that was something I let pass through to the wicketkeeper. (Metaphorically speaking.)
She isn’t based on the totality of her blogging and her other past columns /posts /articles et cetera.
@12. Silentbob :
I did no such thing. I never claimed that particular Jihadist terrorist was a Palestinian Jihadist terrorist. Please do improve your woeful reading comprehension Silentbob.
@ Hamas lover and supporter Holms :
Yeah, see above. I know for a fact that you have mislabelled me. Please cease and desist doing so in future.
For the record, no I don’t support or apologise for war crimes -- and most war crimes in this latest round of the Arab-Israeli wars were, yet again, committed by the Arab Hamas side. Every single one of the Hamas rockets was a war crime as was every case of Hamas using its own civilians as human shields then exploiting the inevitable casualties.
This is simply not relevant to and does NOT address what I observed as fact namely :
See also this excellent clip on the Young Turks youtube channel :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT-a-WWJgBg&feature=share
about the Hamassive stupidity of the Arab side.
FYI. Hamas now admits its responsibility for the kidnap and murder of teenage Israeli civilians that set this latest bout of bloodshed off. Hamas also refused and violated many ceasefires and this is indisputable reality.
Bzzt. wrong. I provided the reason of the precedent and past history saying that is extremely likely to be the case.
You assume Israel is being “awful” there -- it isn’t.
I object to singling Israel out for excessive criticism for defending itself whilst ignoring the actions of the other Hamas side and the many far worse conflicts and global issues simultaneously being overlooked or downplayed. I think the priorities here are badly warped and objectionable.
(Out of context Israel-blaming and bashing bits snipped.)
Nothing I guess. Insisting on Israel giving I to all these demands or facing a long war -- that’s the bit I’m objecting to. Hamas can ask for our Moon if it wishes, for it to say its going to launch an endless war until it gets what it wants is not so acceptable or reasonable.
Also the reason Israel doesn’t want Gaza to have an airport, seaport, etc .. is because Hamas and the PLO before them insisted on importing weapons they promptly used to attack Israel through them. First, the Hamas terrorism and constant warfare aimed at exterminating Israel needs to end. That needs to be the very first step for real peace.