U.N. Report on war crimes in Gaza ("Goldstone Report")

The Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict is making headlines. Israel is in full damage control mode.

The MSM won't be much help to you in finding the actual report. It's HERE, and it's a 6½ MB .pdf download.

The report builds on previous UN reports:

Last month's report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay

and

Last February's report of the Special Rapporteur Richard Falk on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

Source

I read this report.  It more or less repeats what was reported by previously reported by Amnesty International a few months ago:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/015/2009/en/8f299083-9a74-...

Both sides committed war crimes.  One side fired rockets in the general direction of civilians.  The other side committed a very long list of war crimes which included digging pits in front of tanks and heavy artillery and filling them with civilians as they engaged their adversaries.

Why are only one side's war crimes considered newsworthy?

Firing rockets in the general direction of civilians is a war crime.  Its in the same category as Israel's use of heavy artillery and flechettes in heavily populated urban areas, but not as extreme as using white phosphorus to bomb UN shelters full of civilians or soldiers forcing civilians to stand in front of them as they engage their adversiers.

The report does not criticize Palestinian attacks against Israeli soldiers.

Hey Jingles, did we get off on the wrong foot?  A poster asked what Palestinians can attack legally.  I replied Israeli soldiers.  But Palestinians can't attack Israeli civilians legally any more than Israelis can attack Palestinian civilians.  Indiscriminate attacks against civilians are illegal regardless.

Also we must watch different news.  Palestinian war crimes get prominent news coverage.  Israeli war crimes get little to no coverage.

Which side are you talking about? It seems to me we have for a long time had information about war crimes on both sides - information that came mostly from news outlets that deemed it "newsworthy".

What's "newsworthy" about the UN report is not the old news about war crimes, but firstly the fact that the UN has confirmed what we already knew and secondly the near-hysterical reaction of the Israelis to having the truth of their war crimes confirmed.

Seriously, thank you MS for starting this thread.

Justice Goldstone was emminently qualified to conduct this commission and I believe that he took great care in preparing it.  He is from South Africa, a Jew, a Zionist, and has been a strong supporter of Israel in the past.  He says that Israel was asked serveral time to participate and respond to the reported events. Israel always refused.

Now Israel, and it vicious lobby, are attacking the messenger, calling him biased, a "peace criminal" and even an anti-semite! The US is playing along, calling the report "one-sided".

100 killed in Gaza for every Israeli death in this 22 day "war".  How is this report not going to be one-sided?

George Jonas of the National Post even downgraded the term "war" to "incursion".  What an asshole.

Hey George - Gaza was a massacre - 1400 dead, 5500 wounded, 50,000 homes damaged or destroyed.

Thanks for clarifying your position, which appears to be one of neutrality.

Are you at all aware of the history of Israel's dispossession of the Palestinians, its racist apartheid policies, its blockade of Gaza, its jailing of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, its policies of demolition of Palestinian homes, its ethnic cleansing practices, its confiscation of Palestinian property?

If so, how do you equate the defensive violence of the Palestinians with the aggressive violence of the Israelis?

How do you figure that the Palestinians, if given a chance, "would have no qualms about committing atrocities on the same scale or greater" than the Israelis? Did you read the part of the Goldstone report [para 1668] where it says Gaza authorities discourage the targeting of civilians by armed resistance groups?

How do you figure the Palestinians are not entitled to live in a sovereign state, rather than being under perpetual occupation by United Nations troops?

Taking a "neutral' position on the Palestinian issue is being far too kind to the Israelis.

Yes I am aware that Zionists started an ethnic cleansing war back in 1947 which continues to this day.  By 1949, about 800,000

non-Jews were ethnically cleansed from one side and about 10,000 Jews were cleansed from the other.  If the Arabs had won this

initial battle, those numbers might well be reversed. Instead the people who fled Nazi atrocities in Europe, committed similar

atrocities against Palestinians who initially welcomed Zionist Jews immigrating to Palestine about 50 years earlier.

I am also aware that before that war Jewish refugees fleeing the horrors of Nazi Europe didn't have many places to go.  Many countries

including Canada refused to take them:

http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/readings/CanadaandJewishRefugeesinthe1930s.html

That's why so many Jewish refugees ended up in Palestine. In effect Western countries created a Jewish refugee problem and transferred

it to Palestine. The countries which created the problem morally responsible for the consequences of their actions.

When children fight over a toy because they can't share, it doesn't make sense for a parent to award the toy to one child or the

other. A wise parent takes the toy away from both children. They give it back after they agree to share. Israel never met the terms

for UN recognition. Israel was supposed to allow Palestinian refugees back home. Instead they renegued on this condition and remain

in non-compliance until this day. Since Israel did not meet the original terms for UN recognition, their membership in the UN should be

reduced to observer status or the same as Palestine's UN status.

No I don't believe Palestinians are ready for independence. The West Bank is ruled by a corrupt dictatorship. Fatah's mandate expired over

a year ago. In Gaza, Hamas still has a mandate, but that runs out this year and elections are unlikely. Do you believe that Hamas would

negotiate fair and just peace with their Israeli neighbors? I don't.

Yes I am aware of Israel's racist apartheid policies, its blockade of Gaza, its jailing of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, its

demolition of Palestinian homes, its ethnic cleansing practices and its confiscation of Palestinian property. I'm also aware that

many Israelis and Jews don't support these policies, but they seem unable to elect leaders who seek a fair and just peace. I support

bringing people guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity to justice, but I don't support collective punishment one way or the

other.

Not all Palestinian violence is defensive. Take their ineffective missile attacks for example. They're aimed at cities and civilians, not

military targets. A lot of Palestinian violence is revenge/hatred based. Not all Israeli violence aggressive. Some could be classified

as defensive such as efforts to take out Palestinian missiles and missile squads which attack Israeli civilians. With few exceptions

I believe in non-violent resistance. I support applying economic and diplomatic pressure on Israel to convince them to respect

international laws treaties and conventions. No person or state should be above the law.

Yes I read the Goldstein report. How does that relate to what Palestinian militants would do if they suddenly had the upper hand. Do you

believe Palestinian militants would be less ruthless than the Israeli military? Solving one injustice by creating another is how we got into

this mess in the first place.

That's why I support a "no state" solution. As in no state for Palestinians or Israelis. At least initially. Over time, I believe that the

majority of people on both sides who just want to live in peace would find a fair and just solution. But both sides must need to rid

themselves of fear, hate, prejudice, anger... That would require a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Once the truth comes out,

it will be much easier for people to make moral choices.

Do I believe a Truth and Reconciliation Committee will happen? No. I believe this war will eventually involve WMDs on both sides.

Even after massive death and destruction the survivors will bicker over the radioactive craters.

I only see one way out. The US and all nations must agree to stop arming the belligerents and disarmament. That will only happen if

the American public become aware that they are responsible for much of the death and destruction with their military support of Israel.

The power vacuum must be filled by a neutral thrid party, which is where UN peacekeepers come in.

Your analogy with children is highly patronizing. It fits in with your disdainful attitude to the Palestinians as a bloodthirsty mob who would slaughter all the Israelis if given half a chance. It fits in with your imperialist attitude that says the west can't trust the Palestinians to elect governments that we approve of and therefore they don't deserve to have their own government. It fits in with your presuming to lecture the Palestinians about non-violent resistance. It fits in with your nonsense about "truth and reconciliation" commissions and "neutral" UN peacekeeping forces as solutions to imperialist oppression.

Most 5 year olds understand the concept that sharing leads to good relations. Also I suggest you reread my posts. I said: "I'm sympathetic toward both Israeli and Palestinians civilians, most of whom I believe just want to live in peace." Where did I describe Palestinians as a bloodthirsty mob? Are you going to debate what I wrote or invent straw man arguments? 

I'm not blaming Palestinians exclusively for the problem, nor do I even allocate to them half the responsibility. Nor do I blame Israelis exclusively.  There's lots of blame to go around. Zionists, the UN, the US and other nations who arm belligerents, the news which keeps people misinformed, our leaders who support one side's war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as individual Palestinians who commit war crimes.

Yes I'm aware that the UN is partly responsible for creating this mess in the first place, but no I don't think they are subjective as they once were regarding this conflict.  The UN has far more members than it did back in 1947, and it has swung toward a far more neutral position on this conflict.

The report referenced in the first post in this string clearly indicates that war crimes were committed by both sides. Sure the number of civilians killed by Palestinians was far less than that killed by Israelis. But that's a reflection of the ineffectiveness of Palestinian weapons rather than an intent by Palestinians to limit Israeli civilian casualties. Give them a bigger stick and I believe they'd clobber more innocent people. That's not a statement about Palestinians specifically as much as a statement about human nature in general and concepts like revenge. After so much injustice and oppression, I'm sure many Palestinians harbor strong feelings toward the people they believe are responsible for their suffering.

Would you support giving Palestinians more rockets? I don't. Not because I don't think their cause is just, but because I don't believe more death and destruction will lead to peace. I believe in non-violence. I think that's the only way Palestinians can free themselves is by renouncing violence and embarressing Israelis into treating them like human beings. I believe in this type of resistance:

http://www.afsc.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/id/3565/pid/270

Here is a link to their website:

http://www.bilin-village.org/english/discover-bilin/

I'm against all types of oppression and injustice, not just that resulting from imperialism. ;)

I would imagine that's a common Palestinian perception. But Israelis are just people like the rest of us.  Some are racist bigots, some are kind and compassionate.  I'm not about to collectively paint all Israelis with the same brush.

FYI: Some of the people helping the residents of Bil'in resist non-violently are Jews and some are even Jewish Israelis.

Also this Israeli human rights group is almost exclusively Jewish and Israeli:

B'Tselem

I'm also aware that not all Palestinians hate Jews or Israelis. People are a complex bunch. 

The notion that somehow both sides are equally responsible for this nightmare is ludicrous. The crimes of the Palestinians are perpetrated by poorly-armed paramilitary organizations that aren't accountable to the Palestinian people. The Israeli crimes, on the other hand, are carried out with advanced military technology by the security forces of a state that prides itself on being democratically governed. The Palestinians crimes are committed as part of a war against an occupying power; the Israeli crimes are committed as part of a war against an occupied people. Israel enjoys the patronage of the world's only superpower, and is supported by influential lobbies throughout the Western world; the Palestinians, meanwhile, are global pariahs. While both sides share some responsibility for this mess, by every conceivable measure Israel's responsibility is far greater than the Palestinians'.

Regarding bigotry in Israeli and Palestinian society: there is an ugly psychological logic that plays itself out in situations of occupation, one that leaves both the occupiers and the occupied morally ruined. The occupiers have to learn how to despise the occupied in order to preserve their own sense of virtue: after all, if the occupiers were not to see the occupied are not despicable, then the occupiers would have to confront the full weight of the evil that they have inflicted upon the occupied. The occupied, meanwhile, are sychologically mutilated by trauma and terror, driving them ever downwards into an abyss of hatred and vengeance. Although some enlightened few can maintain their humanity in this situation, no one remains morally unscathed by this logic.

Anyway, back in July 2006 I wrote an article exploring Israel's history and its prediliction for fascism and in January of this year I wrote an article about the situation in Gaza. I think they're both still relevant now, and appropriate for this conversation:

The Temple Walls

Michael Nenonen

July 27 2006

In July 2006, following Hezbollah's abduction of Israeli soldiers on Lebanese soil, Israel launched a massive military campaign against Lebanon. In a country with fewer than four million people, hundreds of civilians are reported dead, thousands are still buried beneath the rubble, and over 800,000 have been displaced. Lebanon's pitiful infrastructure has been thoroughly destroyed.  The invaders don't care that the feeble Lebanese government has little influence over Hezbollah, or that Hezbollah's actions followed months of Israeli aggression against the people of Gaza. It doesn't matter to the invaders that since Israel's withdrawal in 2000 Israel's continued occupying a portion of Lebanon, that Israeli jets have regularly violated Lebanese air-space, that an Israeli spy ring has assassinated people on Lebanese soil, or that Israeli mines remained hidden beneath Lebanese feet. The lives of Israeli soldiers are apparently worth infinitely more than those of Arab civilians and the viability of the Lebanese state. 

Stories of Israeli atrocities are beginning to emerge from Lebanon. On July 16 2006 Robert Fisk reported in The Independent that the Israelis commanded the Lebanese civilians in Marwaheen to leave their village, and then bombed their departing convoy of civilian cars. Twenty civilians were burned alive, including at least nine children. If Stephen Harper sees this as "measured", then his moral yardstick is obviously broken. 

Is it a coincidence that Israel's cruelty so closely resembles that of fascist regimes? I have my doubts, doubts that go deeper than Israel's penchant for military aggression, the militarization of Israeli society, and Israel's constant use of arbitrary detention, torture, and collective punishment. Israeli fascism can also be found in Zionism's ideological history, the Zionist exploitation of the Holocaust, the Zionist's conduct of the war of 1948, Israel's institutionalization of racism, and Israel's close association with neo-fascists in other parts of the world. 

As Norman Finkelstein points out in Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Verso, 1995), the founder of Jewish Zionism, Theodor Herzl, agreed with the underlying principles of German Anti-Semitism. Herzl and the German Anti-Semites both subscribed to the ideals of romantic nationalism, a movement that rejected Enlightenment values in favour of the theory that each nation is an organic unity whose members share profound, non-rational bonds that "naturally" unite some people while "naturally" excluding others. To the Zionists, Anti-Semitism was the logical response of non-Jewish social organisms to the presence of Jewish bodies within their midst. The Zionist solution for this problem wasn't the elimination of Anti-Semitism, but rather the creation of a state where Jews would form the national organism and where they could defend themselves against non-Jewish infections. Finkelstein demonstrates conclusively that from the beginning Zionists planned to forcefully expel the non-Jewish residents of Palestine.

According to Ron David (Arabs and Israel for Beginners, Writers and Readers Publishing, 1993), the Holocaust provided Zionists with the perfect opportunity for the fulfillment of their plans. Already in 1941, the Stern gang, notorious for its terrorist attacks against Arabs and the British occupiers in Palestine, offered to create a Jewish state "on a national and totalitarian basis, which will establish relations with the German Reich". This deal would have protected Nazi interests in the Middle East. 

American Zionists were so committed to the formation of Israel that they helped prevent the survivors of the Holocaust from coming to the United States. In 1948, Morris Ernst, an advisor to President Roosevelt, wrote that American Jewish leaders demanded that Jewish refugees be given the sole option of emigrating to Palestine, and that he "was amazed and even insulted when active Jewish leaders decried, sneered and then attacked me as if I were a traitor" for suggesting that these refugees be allowed to emigrate to the U.S. 

Irgun, a Zionist terrorist group led by future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, played a significant role in coercing those refugees to relocate to Palestine. Irgun controlled the police forces inside the camps for displaced persons following the war. According to a January 10, 1948 official report of the Office of the Military Government for Germany-US, "This is an old technique in Eastern Europe and in all police states. By controlling the police, a small, unscrupulous group of determined people can impose its will on a peaceful and inarticulate majority; it is done by threats, intimidation, by violence and if need be by bloodshed...they have embarked upon a course of terror within the camps."   

Israel's founding war is shrouded in Zionist myths. Finkelstein draws upon recent Israeli scholarship to debunk these falsehoods. Contrary to popular belief, "the Zionist movement did not in principle support the partition of Palestine; the surrounding Arab states did not unite as one to destroy the nascent Jewish state; the war did not pit a relatively defenceless and weak Jewish David against a relatively strong Arab Goliath; Palestine's Arabs did not take flight at the behest of Arab orders; and Israel was not earnestly seeking peace at the war's end."

Israeli tactics during that war were often horrendous. For example, in the village of Deir Yassin in April 1948, Irgun terror squads under the command of Menachem Begin massacred 254 Arab civilians, many of them women, children, and old men. Besides raping women and looting and demolishing houses, there are reports that the Zionists cut off their victims' hands and blinded children. It's hard to confirm these reports, because the bodies were all thrown down a well. The Irgun command sent a message to its men stating "As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere."  Albert Einstein was one of the American Jewish leaders who signed a December 4, 1948 letter to the New York Times condemning the Deir Yassin massacre and raising serious concerns about Menachem Begin's  "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut). The letter described Tnuat Haherut as "a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties." 

Racism is the only way to justify such savagery. Just as Nazis referred to Jews as "vermin", so Begin referred to the Palestinians as "two-legged beasts" and "cockroaches," sentiments shared by many Israelis today, particularly in Israel's illegal settlements, which are breeding grounds for messianic fundamentalism and ultra-right-wing politics. Racism is also expressed in Israeli law, which discriminates against Israel's Arab citizens; by Israeli courts, which allow soldiers and settlers to abuse and kill Palestinians with relative impunity; and, of course, by Israel's brutal occupation of Palestinian land.

In The Fateful Triangle (Black Rose Books, 1984), Noam Chomsky describes Israel's extensive ties with neo-fascist regimes. Israel had close economic and military ties with Apartheid-era South Africa, a regime created by men who had studied in 1930s Germany and who warmly embraced National Socialist ideals. Israel went so far as to help South Africa evade a military embargo. Israel also provided ample military aid to Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and the Somoza regime in Nicaragua while the U.S.-trained military forces of these countries were committing massacres and widespread torture against their own population. Charles Maechling, the man who led counterinsurgency operations under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, has described the U.S. trainees as "indistinguishable from the war criminals hanged in Nuremberg after World War II," and has said that "for the United States, which led the crusade against Nazi evil, to support the methods of Heinrich Himmler's extermination squads is an outrage".  High-ranking Israeli politicians and military figures even had friendly visits with Argentina's Neo-Nazi Generals during the height of that country's massacre of approximately 1000 Jews. 

While fascism may not dominate Israeli society, it could well influence Israeli politics and culture in the same way that unconscious fears, desires, and hatreds secretly exert their influence over an emotionally traumatized person's conscious mind. The invasion of Lebanon may only be the latest expression of Israel's traumatized and fascist shadow-side, a side that threatens the Palestinians and Israel's neighbours, but also poses a danger to Israel's many cultural virtues, its democracy and its economy, and ultimately its own people. If the Twentieth Century has taught us anything, it's that fascism is as suicidal as it is murderous. In its blind fury it's willing to bring the temple walls tumbling down, crushing itself as well as its enemies. As I watch Israel's actions, I find myself wondering if Samson's begun pushing against the pillars. 

Gaza's Torment

Michael Nenonen

January 13, 2009

Watching Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, it was easy to forget that Israel, as an occupying power, is responsible under international law for the safety and well-being of Gaza's population. Israel and its apologists argue that Israel ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005, but they're mistaken.

A 2008 Oxfam report entitled The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion argues that "The contention by Israeli officials that Israel is no longer bound by the laws of occupation since it redeployed its forces to the perimeter of the Gaza Strip in 2005 is a fallacy. Israel retains effective control of the Gaza Strip, by virtue of the full control it exercises over the Gaza Strip's land border, its air space and territorial waters, and the movement of people and goods. Hence, the Israeli authorities are bound by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law to ensure the welfare of the Palestinian population in the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories)."

This position is echoed by John Dugard, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Since 1967, whose 2008 report states: 

"The test for determining whether a territory is occupied under international law is effective control, and not the permanent physical presence of the occupying Power's military forces in the territory in question. Judged by this test it is clear that Israel remains the occupying Power as technological developments have made it possible for Israel to assert control over the people of Gaza without a permanent military presence."

While Dugard condemns Hamas' rocket attacks, he qualifies this condemnation by highlighting their geopolitical context: "Common sense...dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by Al Qaeda, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation. While such acts cannot be justified, they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation."  Dugard makes a crucial point: the occupation, and not the resistance to it, is the fundamental source of all the violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel presents itself as being the innocent victim of terrorist attacks, but it's clear that Israelis have inflicted far more violence upon Palestinians than the Palestinians have inflicted upon them. Dugard writes that in the two years prior to his report, Israeli security forces killed 668 Palestinians in Gaza. Of this number, 359 were not involved in hostilities when they were killed, and 126 were minors. During the same period, Gaza's forces were responsible for killing four Israeli civilians and four members of the Israeli Security Forces, for a ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths of about 83 to 1.

Dugard also addresses the situation in the West Bank under the submissive Fatah government. What has Fatah's willingness to work with Israel done for the Palestinians?  "Unfortunately, Israel has not taken steps to dismantle the infrastructure of occupation. On the contrary, it has maintained and expanded the instruments that most seriously violate human rights - military incursions, settlements, the separation wall, restrictions on freedom of movement, the Judaization of Jerusalem and the demolition of houses." In light of its abuses in the West Bank and Jerusalem, Israel has provided no incentive whatsoever for Hamas to stop its attacks. Even so, Hamas respected the most recent ceasefire until November 4, 2008, when, as reported the next day by the Guardian Newspaper, Israeli forces broke the ceasefire by entering the Gaza Strip and killing six of Hamas' men.

Dugard outlines the brutality of the Israeli occupation: "It is highly arguable that Israel has violated the most fundamental rules of international humanitarian law...These crimes include direct attacks against civilians and civilian objects, and attacks which fail to distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects...the excessive use of force arising from disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian objects...and the spreading of terror among the civilian population."

It's hard to fully comprehend Gaza's torment. The 2008 Oxfam report reveals that 80% of families in Gaza rely on humanitarian aid, an increase from 63% in 2006.  Between June and September 2007, the number of households in Gaza earning less than $1.2 a day per person increased from 55% to 70%.  In 2004, households in Gaza spent an average of 37% of their income on food; by 2007, that figure had increased to 62%. Unemployment in Gaza was reported to be at 40%, and was expected to rise to 50%, giving Gaza the world's worst unemployment problem.  Ninety-five percent of factories in Gaza have shut down because Israel blocks raw materials from entering the Strip as well as exports from leaving it.

Because of Israeli-imposed fuel and electricity restrictions, Gaza hospitals have been experiencing power cuts for 8-12 hours a day, forcing them to rely on generators to run basic health facilities and critical surgical operations and procedures. Those generators rely on diesel and often need spare parts, both of which are in very short supply. Hospitals can't obtain needed supplies and equipment, and Israel regularly refuses to allow patients to be referred to Israel's hospitals. The World Health Organization reports that between October and December 2007 alone, 20 patients died because they were unable to leave Gaza, including five children. 

Children make up 56% of Gaza's population, and their situation is truly hellish. In her January 9-11, 2009 Counterpunch article, Livni's Big Lie, Ranni Amiri writes, "Even before the military campaign commenced, 75 percent of Gaza's children were malnourished, 46 percent anaemic and 30 percent suffered from stunted growth." Research conducted in 2002 by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program found that 54 percent of Palestinian children in areas subjected to Israeli bombardment suffered from severe, and 33.5 percent from moderate, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Similarly, research by Samir Quota, PhD and Eyad El Sarraj, MD that was published in the April-May-June 2004 issue of Arabpsynet Journal found that approximately 82% of Gaza's children were suffering from symptoms of PTSD. Around 33% of these children displayed symptoms of acute PTSD requiring psychological intervention. A September 2007 survey conducted in Gaza by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) found that there was a nearly 80% failure rate for children in grades four to nine, and a nearly 90% failure rate in Mathematics.

Again, these figures predate Israel's Operation Cast Lead, which, between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, killed over 1300 Palestinians, destroyed countless buildings, and caused damage to Gaza's infrastructure that will take decades to repair. During the invasion, Israeli forces acted without moral restraint. 

On January 8, Amnesty International reported that Israeli soldiers were using Palestinian civilians as human shields: "Our sources in Gaza report that Israeli soldiers have entered and taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families to stay in a ground floor room while they use the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position...This clearly increases the risk to the Palestinian families concerned and means they are effectively being used as human shields."

The Red Cross reported that Israeli forces appear to have targeted ambulances, and that Israeli forces actively prevented aid workers from reaching the site of a deadly bombing. On January 8, Democracy Now reported that "The Red Cross says Israel barred aid workers for four days from reaching victims in the neighbourhood of Zeitoun. Israeli soldiers reportedly tried to chase the rescue workers away. When they finally arrived, the workers found fifteen bodies, along with several children still barely alive. The children were lying next to their dead mothers."

Israeli forces have attacked clearly-marked UN buildings, including, on January 6, a school in Jabalya sheltering hundreds of terrified Palestinians. Israel initially claimed that this attack, which killed over 40 Palestinians, was in response to gunfire from militants in the school, but, as UNRWA spokesperson Chris Guness reported, "I've been authorized to say that the Israeli army, in private briefings with diplomats, is admitting that the firing that came out of Jabalya yesterday, the militant fire, was not from within the UNRWA school compound, it was from outside the UNRWA school compound. This is a crucial distinction, because serious allegations have been made against UNRWA that the militants were firing from within. In fact, those allegations are baseless."

There is ample evidence, despite Israel's denials, that Israeli forces have dropped white phosphorous on heavily populated civilian areas. White phosphorous even appears to have been used in a January 15 attack on a UNRWA building sheltering 700 Palestinians, destroying supplies of desperately-need food, fuel, and humanitarian aid. .

I rarely agree with the Vatican, but I think that Vatican Justice and Peace Minister Cardinal Renato Martino was correct when he said, "let's look at the conditions in Gaza: these increasingly resemble a big concentration camp."

The concentration camp analogy is more appropriate than the more familiar Bantustan comparison. In The Shock Doctrine (2007), Naomi Klein writes that "South Africa's Bantustans were essentially work camps, a way to keep African labourers under tight surveillance and control so they would work cheaply in the mines. What Israel has constructed is a system designed to do the opposite: to keep workers from working, a network of open holding pens for millions of people who have been categorized as surplus humanity." 

To understand Israel's actions in the Occupied Territories, we need to understand how Israel's economy has changed since the late 1980s, when Israel's business community wanted a lasting peace. Back then, Israel needed secure trading relationships with its Arab neighbours, and many Palestinians from the Occupied Territories worked inside Israel at low-wage jobs. During the 1990s, Israel's high-tech sector became the driving force in its economy. Since this sector exported its products around the world, Israel overcame its dependence on trade with its neighbours. At the same time, Israel received an influx of approximately one million Soviet Jews, who now comprise 18% of the Israeli population. These immigrants replaced the workforce from the Occupied Territories. After the dot-com collapse, the locus of Israel's economy shifted to the burgeoning homeland security industry. Israel is now the world's leader in this field, and as a result enjoys one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. 

Israel no longer requires any labourers from the Occupied Territories, it doesn't need to trade with its neighbours, and its foremost industry depends on the international demand created by war and terrorism. All Israel wants now is the land under the Palestinians' feet. Since a nation's culture is moulded by its economic interests, and because Israel is one of the most militarized countries on Earth, Israeli attitudes towards the Palestinians are becoming ever-more authoritarian and dehumanizing. 

The prognosis couldn't be worse. Israel has a vested economic interest in ethnically cleansing the Occupied Territories, the Israeli public is moving further to the right, and the Palestinians have no reason to stop their attacks. Last February, Israel's Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai, said that the Palestinians were risking a "shoah", the Hebrew word for disaster that also happens to be the term used by Jews worldwide to refer to the Nazi Holocaust. At the time, I thought this was hyperbole; now, I'm not so sure.

Conservative rabbis blast Goldstone

A piece by Gorden Levy, a journalist for Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. It has a small circulation but is considered one of the most most influential, according to it's wikipedia page ...

Disgrace in The Hague

I can find fault with many things that Israel does but I cannot find fault with their level of journalism.  I wish Canada had the same.

I don't appreciate the first paragraph of this post:

The first paragraph is deliberate misinformation.  I never said "both sides are equally to blame" ???  Quotes means you are quoting me, not making stuff up.

For example, this would be quoting me:  "There's lots of blame to go around. Zionists, the UN, the US and other nations who arm belligerents, the news which keeps people misinformed, our leaders who support one side's war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as individual Palestinians who commit war crimes."  Yes I wrote that, and you can quote me.  Maybe I wasn't clear...

I assumed that you were aware that Israel was founded by Zionists and that many Israelis are Zionists, probably a majority.  Some Israelis are not Jewish, and probably a majority of them are not Zionists.  No I'm not blaming most Israeli Arabs for Palestinian oppression and suffering.  Also a good number of Israeli Jews are also not Zionists and I'm not blaming most of them either.  Sorry for the confusion, I should have been more clear that by blaming Zionists, I was not referring to Palestinians.  I just assumed most people were aware that most if not all Palestinians are not Zionists...

By belligerents, I meant anyone authorizing, threatening or committing acts of violence.  That includes both Israelis and Palestinians, but not every Israeli or Palestinian.  I suspect a majority of Palestinians and Israelis are not belligerents.

The US is by far the biggest source of arms to the belligerents.  Since they only arm one side, they are responsible for the consequences to the other side.  As a result, the US may be the most responsible for Palestinian suffering.  Imagine what would happen if US arms to Israeli belligerents dried up...

By the news, I was referring to the same problem more eloquently expressed by Diogenes above.  The US news is far worse than Canada's news.  If Americans were objectively informed about this conflict, I doubt many of them would want to arm Israel, especially now with their sinking economy.  News/propaganda contributes to the popular support for arming Israeli belligerents and as a result Palestinian suffering.

By "our leaders" I was referring to Canadians, not Palestinians.  For example, Prime Minister Harper is not Palestinian.  His unshakable support of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity is also part of the problem.  Electing Ignatieff would change nothing.  Layton seems more balanced.  Our leaders should be objective and represent Canada's interests first.  Millions of oppressed Palestinians do not serve Canada's interests.  Our leaders should hold Israel responsible for their actions whenever they kill or mistreat Canadians.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/02/06/ot-von-kruedener-080206.html

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060716/mideast_family_060716/20060718?hub=Canada&s_name=

I am flattered that you compared me to Ghandi.  I am convinced that Palestinians can win freedom and justice by non-violent methods and that's where they need our help.  If the news won't cover "The UN Report on War Crimes in Gaza", then its up to everyone who is aware to spread the word to friends, family, across the internet....  If a cruel act is caught on camera and doesn't make our news, then everyone who is aware, must post links to those images on youtube and forums like this.  The more people who bear witness to the non-violent resistance going on in Bil'in, the more effective it becomes.  This information must be dispersed as widely as possible, so that it can't be ignored or minimized.  Every piece of pro-death and destruction propaganda must be challenged.  Misinformation and perception manipulation must be countered with accurate information and logic.

This website appears to be a pretty good source of accurate information regarding this conflict and many people here are well informed.  I'll probably stick around.

I think Finklestein is onto something.  The Gaza massacre is exactly how this event should be referenced.  I visited "Breaking the silence" as Finklestein suggested and came across this:

http://www.shovrimshtika.org/oferet/testimonies_category_e.asp

It is as Finklestein describes.  InSaNe.

Sounds like the Israeli soldiers went in, expecting to encounter resistance, but didn't encounter any.  After a while they just got bored and started randomly blowing stuff up and killing people mostly out of boredom.

LP, thank you for this link.  He says it so well. I never heard of this guy before but that's just me.

I bet he's Jewish too, going by the name.  But I don't want to say too much, with all this anti-semitism going around!

-Looking for an honest man

I stand by all those statements I made.  If you want to interpret them as allocating blame equally, you have a right to your opinion.

The Risks of De-Contextualizing Gaza War Crimes

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10796.shtml

"By drawing attention to one short but bloody outburst of violence, an outburst that is cast and investigated as unusual, other periods may be rendered normal.."

A good column here on Rabble, in case anyone missed it..

Israel losing legitimacy war by Richard Falk, Sept 25, 2009

Falk is scheduled  to speak in Toronto today on the Arab-Israeli conflict (2 p.m., U of T's Health Sciences Building, 155 College St., Room 610).

Sadly, I have to disagree with the premise. Israel is winning.  The Goldstone report has hardly been touched by Canada's MSM, politicians, or political parties.  If anyone out there knows of any politician who has said anything on this matter, please let us know!

The focus now is the phony-baloney debate on Iran and its WMD program.  Nice diversion. Reminds me of the good old George Bush/Saddam Hussein days.

The Goldstone report is a fair and balanced assessment of the Gaza Massacre of 2009.  Israel must be held to account for this. Israel must be held to account for its apartheid measures inflicted on Gaza.

I am astonished and disappointed how President Obama has capitulated to the Israel lobby.  It really demonstrates how little power he has.  Netanyahu gave Obama the middle finger on stopping expansion of illegal settlements by approving 455 more units one week before he set off for New York.  It made the attempt to restart peace talks a joke.

And the U.S.now finds the Goldstone report "unbalanced"? 

Granted 90% of the report deals with the "crimes" committed by Israel. But 99% of the wars victims were in Gaza, so it that sense, it was unbalanced.  Justice Goldstone cannot possibly be found to be anti-semite, anti-jewish or even anti-Israel. 

The many allegations hurled in the pro-Israel press at Goldstone is the absolute height of hypocrisy.  They even suggest blood-libel, whatever the hell that is.  The Holocaust industry is always creating new hysterical terms to further the cause of Israel.

This proves the United States can never be the honest peace broker that some believed the new President Obama might be.  The most powerful man in the world is the new emperor without clothes.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1117296.html

Gaza and the Goldstone Report: Your Urgent Action Needed Today

http://www.creative-i.info/?p=10597

"Please consider taking these urgent actions and forwarding to all of your contacts..."

Since Canada's MSM has all but ignored this story, I shall cite American some news sources...

A call to moral accounting - by Brant Rosen, op-ed in the Chicago Tribune

Obama should back the Goldstone Report,  George Bisharat, ope-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle

A time of moral reckoning - by James Carroll, op-ed in the Boston Globe

A blog by Dan Fleshler, author of "Transforming America's Israeli Lobby". I came across this link reading "The Opinionator" in the New York Times.

People, mostly kids, are still dying from cluster bombs in Lebanon. How come no Goldstone Enquiry there? Or was that a "just" war?

You have a point, Diogenes, but I somehow doubt that an apologist for the Israel lobby would be trying to distract us from Gaza by pointing to the US/Israeli cluster bombs dropped on Lebanon in 2006!

The UN should have a "Goldstone" report on that war as well. 

from Hansard, Commons Debate, Thurs, Sept 17. 

A leading question by a CPC member to the Hon(?) Peter Kent, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas) ...

I'm not sure how Mr. Kent intended to finish his sentence or why it was not recorded in Hansard. 

In its "time of need" perhaps? 

I'm hoping it was not recorded because of groans of derision, but I may be wrong.  He may have been speechless with a tear in his eye.

Israel must give due considertion to Justice Goldstone's report. While there are flaws its overall view should motivate Israelis to ask serious questions on conduct during war and be self-critical, take proper action where necessary.

PFLP: PA Decision to Postpone Consideration of the Goldstone Report Is An Unjustified Betrayal

http://www.pflp.ps/english

"The PFLP denounced the actions of the Palestinian Authority in requesting the postponement of consideration of the report of Judge Richard Goldstone on war crimes in Gaza at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva Switzerland, declaring that this act of betrayal will not be forgiven by the Palestinian people or the PFLP.."

I was disappointed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) caved in to US/Israeli demands to delay the vote on the Goldstone report and remain mystified as to why they have this power.  Israel uses divide and conquer tactics very effectively with the Palestianian leadership and they have done it again.

The PA remain mum on their reasons for agreeing to a delay. The move has provoked shock and anger from many Palestinians.

This is not a defeat however. The Gladstone report is still on the table and it's not going away. Justice Gladstone asked both Hamas and Israel to undertake their own credible investigations into the events examined in the report.

Otherwise both Hamas and Israel should be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Excellent news:

Israeli Vice Prime Minister cancels trip to UK, afraid he'll be arrested for war crimes

Norway finds UN Gaza report serious

Norway is a current member of the UH Human Right Council.

The United States is also now a member of the council (since Sept 14, 2009).

Canada was an original member of this council for 3 years ending in June of this year.  But in the eyes of our government, the UN HRC is now (and maybe always has been) one of the UN's "most flawed bodies". Nice statement. Excellent foreign policy, Canada.

More excellent news - it looks as if the pressure has had its effect:

Palestinian U-turn on Gaza report

The tide is turning. More great news!

EU backs UN Gaza Report, disappointing Israel

"On July 16 2006 Robert Fisk reported in The Independent that the Israelis commanded the Lebanese civilians in Marwaheen to leave their village, and then bombed their departing convoy of civilian cars. Twenty civilians were burned alive, including at least nine children."

Thanks. M. Spector. That is what I meant. As below, I believe there were war crimes committed in Lebanon as well. I am grateful for the Goldstone report on the latest massacre. Is there a statute of limitations on these reports? Seriously, is there?

(I'm late responding - been away.)

Even the Jerusalem Post sometimes lets the truth slip out in their columns:

by Gideon Levy

PFLP Hails UNHRC Adoption of Goldstone Report and Demands Prosecution of Occupation War Criminals

http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=pflp-hails-unhrc-adoption-goldstone-report...

Does anyone else share my suspicion that the only war crimes prosecutions that will ever come out of this will be against Palestinians?

No, M.

I think there is something very important going on here that has tremendous implications for the larger world. I think we are witness to a political awakening in the global south and among the Palestinian dispora.

Israel made a terrible strategic error with the massacre at Gaza. Suddenly the mask of victimhood was ripped away to reveal a monster. That has led, I think, to a political awakening in the global south and I think the Goldstone report and the political manipulation of the PA in collusion with Israel and the US has had the unintended consequence of breathing anger and new life into not just Palestinian political resistance.

The final acts are yet to be played out on this, but the United States now stands naked before the world. The US cannot reconcile Obama's words to the muslim world in Cairo with the actions of obstructing international law and perverting justice on behalf of war criminals at the UN. They can no longer have it both ways. I think we have reached a critical juncture in history and the whole world will is watching.

The CBC article above is based on one single sentence out of a 75 minute conference call between Judge Goldstone and U.S. rabbis who condemn the Israeli aggression and blockade of Gaza:

A (lengthy) transcript of the Sunday evening conference call appears here. And if you really want to, you can listen to the call here (I haven't done so yet - maybe I will).

NOTE: There were 150 rabbis and rabbinical students on the call!

ETA: Whoops, I misspoke. The first link I gave is NOT a transcript - it's one person's notes. I have no idea if they're accurate. Taanit Zedek (Fast For Gaza) has stated they will have a full transcript up by Oct. 21.

They must have read up on Canada's Somalia inquiry and decided that you can't even trust the whitewashes that you organize yourself.

Just want to say thank you to those who keep on reporting on this.

Has anybody asked Goldstone what would be a "proportionate" response by the Palestinians to years of being driven off their land, having their villages, crops, and farmlands bulldozed into oblivion, having thousands of their numbers held and tortured as prisoners in Israeli jails, being condemned to poverty and homelessness by economic blockades and home demolitions, enduring hundreds of daily incidents of humiliation and indignity, and having medical supplies, and water supplies, humanitarian aid, and access to international credit cut off by the Israelis?

Here is an explanation:

Abbas has effectively become a IDF and Shin Bet subcontractor.  BTW, who pays Abba's living/security expenses?

Did Richard Goldstone Hide More Sinister Crimes in Gaza? Parts 1,2

http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/2742-did-richard-goldsto...

http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/2757-did-richard-goldsto...

"Again we see a classic example of a UN investigation that only plays with the periphery of War Crimes committed by Israel whilst at the same time ignoring the most important horrific crimes carried out by the IDF.."

Part 3 of this series has the full text of US Congress "resolution" on the Goldstone report which is set for a vote today.  It will probably pass and pave the way for a US veto in the UN security council.

The resolution has 30 some "whereas" clauses. Together, they form an excellent representation of half-truths, out-of-context quotes, and outright rubbish pedaled by the formidable pro-Israeli propoganda machine.  The rules of the house allow this resolution to fast track a vote without any amendments.

A good example of why so many consider the US government as dysfunctional.

Canada voted against the Goldstone report at the UN General Assembly, which is the equivalent of voting in favor of attacking civilians, hospitals, ambulances, burning children alive with white phosphorus, digging pits in front of tanks and heavy artillery and filling them with civilians as they engage their adversaries, using children as human shields, as well as firing unguided missiles at civilians.

I'm embarassed to call myself a Canadian today.

US House Vote Against Goldstone Report Was a Vote of Conscience

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/us-house-vote-against-goldst...

"1,400 Gazans were brutally murdered by Israeli forces in the Gaza War...mostly civilians. In the War in Iraq, to date over 1,300,000 Iraqis have been killed...and continue to be killed on a daily basis. US war crimes are far worse than the Israeli ones...this is an indisputable FACT."

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq

"Opinion Research Business estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed violently..."

An interesting development...

Hamas: The unlikely peacemaker by Patrick Martin, the Globe and Mail, Nov. 14, 2009

A link to the Haaretz artcle is here.

Long thread