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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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March 19th,
2009 - U.N. Rights Envoy Sees Israeli War Crimes in Gaza |
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U.N. Rights Envoy
Sees Israeli War Crimes in Gaza By Stephanie Nebehay Reuters March 19, 2009 Geneva - A United Nations
human rights investigator said on Thursday that Israel's military assault on
densely populated Gaza appeared to constitute a grave war crime. Richard Falk, U.N. special
rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the Geneva
Conventions required warring forces to distinguish between military targets
and surrounding civilians. "If it is not possible
to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful and would seem to
constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international
law," Falk said. "On the basis of the
preliminary evidence available, there is reason to reach this
conclusion," he wrote in an annual 26-page report submitted to the U.N.
Human Rights Council. Falk gave the same death
toll from Israel's offensive in December and January - 1,434 Palestinians,
including 960 civilians - as the Palestinian human rights center. Israel, which lost 13 people
during the war, disputes the figures and has accused Hamas fighters in Gaza
of using civilians as human shields during the conflict - an allegation which
Falk said should be investigated. He called the Israeli
attacks a "massive assault on a densely populated urbanised
setting" in which the entire civilian population had been subjected to
"an inhumane form of warfare that kills, maims and inflicts mental
harm". "As all borders were
sealed, civilians could not escape from the orbit of harm," he said. This denial of people's
right to flee the war zone as refugees may also constitute a crime against
humanity, he said. War Crimes Probe Falk called for an
independent experts group to probe possible war crimes committed by both
Israeli forces and Hamas. It should gather eyewitness testimony as well as
explanations from Israeli and Palestinian military commanders. Violations included Israel's
alleged "targeting of schools, mosques and ambulances" during the
offensive, which lasted from Dec. 27 to Jan. 18, and its use of weapons
including white phosphorus, as well as Hamas's firing of rockets at civilian
targets in southern Israel. Falk said that Israel's
blockade of the coastal strip of 1.5 million people violated the Geneva
Conventions and this suggested further war crimes and possibly crimes against
humanity. The aggression was not
legally justified and may represent a "crime against peace" - a
principle established at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals,
according to Falk, an American law professor who serves as the Human Rights
Council's independent investigator. Falk, who is Jewish,
suggested the Security Council might set up an ad hoc criminal tribunal to
establish accountability for war crimes in Gaza, noting Israel has not signed
the Rome statutes establishing the International Criminal Court. He was denied entry to
Israel two weeks before the assault started, forcing him to abort a planned
mission to Gaza. In his report, he said that the refusal had set an
"unfortunate precedent" for treatment of a special rapporteur. On Monday, he is to present
his report formally to the Human Rights Council, a 47-member forum where
Islamic and African countries backed by China, Cuba and Russia have a
majority. Neither Israel nor its chief ally the United States are members. Editing by Mark Trevelyan
and Jonathan Wright. © Thomson Reuters 2008. All
rights reserved. External link: http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLJ155314 Israel to
probe reported abuse by soldiers in Gaza By Amy Teibel Associated Press March 19, 2009 Jerusalem - Israel's
military on Thursday ordered a criminal inquiry into its own soldiers'
reports that some troops killed Palestinian civilians, including children,
during the Gaza war by hastily opening fire, confident that relaxed rules of
engagement would protect them. Their accounts, published in
a military institute's newsletter, echo Palestinian allegations and feed into
human rights groups' contention that Israel violated the laws of war.
Soldiers also reported the wanton destruction of civilian property. The troops spoke at a
get-together with students enrolled in a military preparatory course. The
transcript of the session appeared this week in a newsletter the institute
publishes, Israeli newspapers reported. The head of the course,
Danny Zamir, told the Haaretz daily he was "shocked" and relayed
the reports to Israeli military chief Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi because he
feared serious ethical lapses among troops. The military said it was not
aware of the reported incidents but that its top lawyer has ordered military
police to investigate. Speaking to Israel Radio,
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel "has the most ethical army in
the world" and reports of exceptions would be "checked
carefully." In one published account
reported by Haaretz and the Maariv newspaper, an Israeli sniper killed a
Palestinian woman and her two children after they misunderstood another
soldier's order and turned the wrong way. The sniper was not told the
civilians had been released from the house where they were confined and, in
compliance with standing orders, opened fire when they approached him. In another account given at
the military institute, an elderly woman was shot dead while walking on a
road, even though she was close enough for the soldiers to see whether she
posed a threat, Maariv said. Haaretz said the woman was shot from 100 yards
away. "The climate in
general, from what I understood from most of my men whom I talked to, was ...
the lives of Palestinians, let's say, are far less important than the lives
of our soldiers. So as far as they're concerned, they can justify it that
way," an infantry squad leader was quoted as saying. According to Israeli
government figures, during the course of the Gaza operation nine soldiers
were killed and 336 wounded. Four of those soldiers died in "friendly
fire" incidents. Official figures say that during the same period
Palestinian rocket fire into Israel killed four civilians and injured 182. Heavy Palestinian civilian
casualties and widespread destruction during the three-week war provoked
international outcry against Israel, which halted its fire on Jan. 18.
Palestinians say over half of the more than 1,300 Gazans killed were
civilians. However, Gur Rosenblatt, 35,
a reserve infantry major who said he took part in fighting all over Gaza
during the offensive, told The Associated Press he witnessed no wrongdoing. "I was with my soldiers
in the thick of the fighting and there was absolutely no incident where
soldiers purposely hurt civilians or damaged their property," he said.
"In fact we risked our own lives in order to protect civilians and their
property. Even when Palestinians had rigged buildings with explosives or
attacked us from homes we did our best not to harm civilians." Israel says the toll
published by the Palestinians is inflated but has acknowledged loosening its
rules of engagement in Gaza to minimize military casualties. Troops operating
in densely populated areas, for example, were supported with heavy tank and
artillery fire that sometimes flattened entire neighborhoods. Rights groups have accused
Israel of using disproportionate force and failing to protect civilians.
Cases they cite include the use of white phosphorus ammunition and shelling
near a U.N. school that killed 42 people seeking sanctuary there. White
phosphorus can be employed legitimately in battle, but rights groups say its
use over populated areas can indiscriminately burn civilians and constitutes
a war crime. Yaakov Amidror, a former
chief of Israel's military academies, told Army Radio that in combat not all
situations are clear-cut, and if it comes down to a choice between soldiers
being killed or killing others, "you must make a very cold choice and kill
the other side." But "if you see a woman
and two children in the crosshairs, it's pretty clear - there is almost no
case in the world that would justify pulling the trigger," Amidror said. Soldiers quoted in the
transcript also reported wholesale destruction of Palestinian property. "We would throw
everything out of the windows to make room and order," Maariv quoted a
soldier as saying. "Everything in the house was tossed out the windows:
Refrigerators, plates, furniture. The order was to throw all of the house's
contents outside." Troops felt they could write
"Death to the Arabs" on the walls of private homes and spit on
family pictures "just because you can," another soldier said. "I think this is the
main thing: To understand how much the army's ethics have sunk, really. It's
what I'll remember most," Haaretz quoted him as saying. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD971B6V80 |