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This is Justice from the Hip, an adaptation of the American Wild West to the modern Middle East, a justice with neither lawyers to pervert its course nor courts enforcing undesired laws. This is a justice that ignores the principles of law and is a criminal offence against those of God, this is a justice enforced by a sick society that lost its capability to differentiate between good and bad. The Israeli society has become nothing more than a bad weed that violates the main conditions imposed on its founding by the UN, the body that eventually granted independence to the State of Israel.
The American readers of this article may chuckle at the former paragraph; yet, for an Israeli citizen, writing it is a serious offence against the state. In the recently published Goldstone Report, this fact has been finally recognized, putting thus a serious question mark over Israel’s self description as a democratic society.
UN’s Authority
The UN has responsibility for human rights in territories under military occupation, since the treatment of civilians in such places falls under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Moreover, the UN granted independence to Israel under conditions broke by the last, thus the role of the UN in the actual conflict is doubly important.
Following the Israeli attack against Gaza between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009 – a massacre named by the Israeli authorities “Cast Lead” – the UNHRC sanctioned the creation of a commission to investigate "all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying power, Israel, against the Palestinian people.
Goldstone
Judge Richard J. Goldstone is a former South African Constitutional Court judge that served as the chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda from 15 August 1994 to September 1996. He gained there a reputation for fairness and objectivity.
It has been made public that he is a Zionist Jew, making thus his recent appointment as head of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict an extremely sensitive one.
On September 15, 2009, the judge presented the 575-page Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict to its mandating authority, the United Nations Human Rights Council. Judge Goldstone stood up to his reputation. There is no better testimony of that than the wild attacks against him in the Israeli media; obviously, in the best of the Phariseo-Zionist tradition, all of them are irrelevant.
This is Another Anti-Zionist Lie!
“This is Another Anti-Zionist Lie!” my Israeli readers may be exclaiming by now. It would be really tiring to bring all the anti-Goldstone expressions in the Hebrew media. The Jerusalem Post published on October 16 an article by Herb Keinon – a Nationalist Religious Jew - in which the last seriously claimed:
“The more likely scenario is that the issue will be taken up by the General Assembly, which, because of the automatic anti-Israeli majority in that body, will likely kick the issue over to the International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ), the body that took up Israel's construction of the security barrier and issued a decision against the fence in 2004.”
“Everybody is against us,” this reporter is claiming. This claim is the cornerstone of the Israeli society. No love, no faith, just “everybody is against us.”
It was time for the UN to address this ridiculous claim and Judge Goldstone did so.
What does the Goldstone Report Claim?
I plead the few readers having reached this part of the article to keep reading despite the legalistic jargon used. I attempted to summarize in a friendly manner the most important articles of this monumental report and believe it is worthy to read the following paragraphs.
In article 1674, the report states that Israel policies in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory did violate international human rights and humanitarian law.
Article 1675 defines Israel’s policy of blockade in the three years prior the attack as a collective punishment intentionally inflicted by the Government of Israel on the people of the Gaza Strip. It also claims the military operations and the manner in which they were conducted considerably exacerbated the blockade effects. The result, in a very short time was unprecedented long term damage both to the people and their development and recovery prospects.
In Article 1678 the report describes the first visit of the mission to Gaza, and the devastating effects of the operations on the population were, however, unequivocally manifest. In addition to the visible destruction of houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings, the sight of families, including the elderly and children, still living amid the rubble of their former dwellings – no reconstruction possible due to the continuing blockade – was evidence of the protracted impact of the operations on the living conditions of the Gaza population. Reports of the trauma suffered during the attacks, the stress due to the uncertainty about the future, the hardship of life and the fear of further attacks, pointed to less tangible but not less real long term effects. The following article states that women were affected in significant ways. In this issue, the report states in article 1683 “that deeds by Israeli forces and words of military and political leaders prior to and during the operations indicate that as a whole they were premised on a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed not at the enemy but at the “supporting infrastructure.” In practice, this appears to have meant the civilian population.”
The Israeli Government planned thoroughly and extensively the Gaza military operations, claims article 1680 and adds that while the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self defense, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole, especially due to its resilience and support of Hamas as it is added in article 1681.
“Vote Likud or we’ll kill you!” is the ongoing Israeli government message
I must add that publications in the Hebrew media support this claim. Texts by Israeli officers stating that the IDF goal was civilian punishment can be downloaded from my website downloads section.
Since the international community seems to have certain difficulties remembering uncomfortable facts, the reports reminds in article 1682 that “It is important that the international community asserts formally and unequivocally that such violence to the most basic fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals should not be overlooked and should be condemned.”
The report also addresses evil angles of the actual operation. Article 1684 states: “The timing of the first Israeli attack, at 11:30 am on a week day, when children were returning from school and the streets of Gaza were crowded with people going about their daily business, appears to have been calculated to create the greatest disruption and widespread panic among the civilian population. The treatment of many civilians detained or even killed while trying to surrender is one manifestation of the way in which the effective rules of engagement, standard operating procedures and instructions to the troops on the ground appear to have been framed in order to create an environment in which due regard for civilian lives and basic human dignity was replaced with the disregard for basic international humanitarian law and human rights norms.”
If that wasn’t serious enough, article 1686 states that “The repeated failure to distinguish between combatants and civilians appears to the Mission to have been the result of deliberate guidance issued to soldiers, as described by some of them, and not the result of occasional lapses.” Article 1687 states “…They were also to a large degree aimed at destroying or incapacitating civilian property and the means of subsistence of the civilian population.”
These statements are in accord to interviews published by the mainstream Israeli media.
As if we could think otherwise, article 1688 states that “It is clear from evidence gathered by the Mission that the destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy by the Israeli armed forces. It was not carried out because those objects presented a military threat or opportunity but to make the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population.”
Government of Israel, please take note: toilets are not military installations.
In another attempt to educate Israel in the obvious, Article 1694 adds: “Furthermore, the harsh and unlawful practices of occupation, far from quelling resistance, breed it, including its violent manifestations.”
The brave Israeli government attacked also the people’s dignity, as stated in article 1689: “Allied to the systematic destruction of the economic capacity of the Gaza Strip, there appears also to have been an assault on the dignity of the people. This was seen not only in the use of human shields and unlawful detentions sometimes in unacceptable conditions, but also in the vandalizing of houses when occupied and the way in which people were treated when their houses were entered. The graffiti on the walls, the obscenities and often racist slogans all constituted an overall image of humiliation and dehumanization of the Palestinian population.”
Eventually, the committee had no other option but to define Israel as a terrorist entity in article 1690: “The operations were carefully planned in all their phases. Legal opinions and advice were given throughout the planning stages and at certain operational levels during the campaign. There were almost no mistakes made according to the Government of Israel. It is in these circumstances that the Mission concludes that what occurred in just over three weeks at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 was a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.”
According to the report’s article 1691, this terrorist entity undermined the entire regime of international law, they are inconsistent with the spirit of the United Nations Charter and deserves to be categorically denounced.
In contrast to the Israelis, Palestinians displayed a brave attitude. Article 1695 states “The Mission was struck by the resilience and dignity shown by people in the face of dire circumstances. UNRWA Director of Operations John Ging relayed to the Mission the answer of a Gaza teacher during a discussion after the end of the Israeli military operations about strengthening human rights education in schools. Rather than expressing scepticism at the relevance of teaching human rights in a context of renewed denial of rights, the teacher unhesitantly supported the resumption of human rights education: ‘This is a war of values, and we are not going to lose it.’”
In an attempt to hide reality, Israel terrorized critiques, as stated in article 1700: “While the Israeli military offensive in Gaza was widely supported by the Israeli public, there were also dissenting voices that expressed themselves through demonstrations, protests, as well as public reporting on Israel’s conduct. The Mission is of the view that actions of the Israeli government during and following the military operations in the Gaza Strip, including interrogation of political activists, repression of criticism and sources of potential criticism of Israeli military actions, in particular non-governmental organizations, have contributed significantly to a political climate in which dissent with the government and its actions in the Occupied Territories is not tolerated. The denial of media access to Gaza and the continuing denial of access to human rights monitors are, in the Mission’s view, an attempt both to remove the Government’s actions in the OPT from public scrutiny and to impede investigations and reporting of the conduct of the parties in the conflict in the Gaza Strip.”
Article 1745 claims – among other things – that: “Hostile retaliatory actions against civil society organisations by the Government of Israel for criticisms of the Israeli authorities and for exposing alleged violations of IHRL and IHL during the military operations are inconsistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.”
Yet, Israel proclaims itself a democracy. “Interrogation of political activists” is a very mild term used by the committee; in my website there are proofs of physical attacks by Israel towards those of its citizens daring to criticize the government actions.
The report goes on along this line of analysis. The facts are clear. The crimes are obvious.
Yet, I almost fell of my chair while I reached article 1702, which is part of a section of the report named “The Impact of Dehumanization”:
“As in many conflicts, one of the features of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the dehumanization of the other, and of victims in particular. Palestinian psychiatrist Dr Iyad Sarraj explained the cycle of aggression and victimization through which “the Palestinian in the eyes of the Israeli soldier is not an equal human being. Sometimes […] even becomes a demon [… ]” This “culture of demonization and dehumanization” adds to a state of paranoia. “Paranoia has two sides, the side of victimization, I am a victim of this world, the whole world is against me and on the other side, I am superior to this world and I can oppress it. This leads to what is called the arrogance of power.” As Palestinians, “we look in general to the Israelis as demons and that we can hate them, that what we do is a reaction, and we say that the Israelis can only understand the language of power. The same thing that we say about the Israelis they say about us, that we only understand the language of violence or force. There we see the arrogance of power and [the Israeli] uses it without thinking of humanity at all. In my view we are seeing not only a state of war but also a state that is cultural and psychological and I hope, I wish that the Israelis would start, and there are many, many Jews in the world and in Israel that look into themselves, have an insight that would make them, alleviate the fear that they have because there’s a state of fear in Israel, in spite of all the power, and that they would start to walk on the road of dealing with the consequences of their own victimization and to start dealing with the Palestinian as a human being, a full human being who’s equal in rights with the Israeli and also the other way around, the Palestinian must deal with himself, must respect himself and respect his own differences in order to be able to stand before the Israeli also as a full human being with equal rights and obligations. This is the real road for justice and for peace.”
The Israeli “arrogance of power” is described also in the following article – 1703 – and this time by an Israeli:
“Israeli college teacher Ofer Shinar offered a similar analysis: ‘Israeli society’s problem is that because of the conflict, Israeli society feels itself to be a victim and to a large extent that’s justified and it’s very difficult for Israeli society to move and to feel that it can also see the other side and to understand that the other side is also a victim. This I think is the greatest tragedy of the conflict and it’s terribly difficult to overcome it […] I think that the initiative that you’ve taken in listening to […] people […] is very important. The message that you’re giving Israeli society is absolutely unambiguous that you are impartial that you should be able to see that the feeling of being a victim is something that characterizes both sides. What requires you to take this responsibility is the fact that you have to understand how difficult it is to get this message through to Israeli society, how closed the Israeli society is, how difficult it is for Israeli society to understand that the other side is not just the party which is infringing our own human rights, but how they are having their human rights infringed, how they are suffering as well.’”
The college teacher makes a good attempt to justify Israel’s actions. However, when an Israeli officer brags on his assassination of a granny with a sniper’s rifle and Israeli soldiers coldly comment on the assassination of mothers and children from great distance with similar arms and all this is done openly in the Israeli media and these soldiers are not now in jail, that means the Israeli society as a whole had ceased to differentiate between good and bad.
“Roy Tov is Anti-Semite” are my few Israeli readers saying by now. Sure, according to the Israeli public opinion also are so those who wrote in article 1716: “…The firing of white phosphorus shells over the UNRWA compound in Gaza City is one of such cases in which precautions were not taken in the choice of weapons and methods in the attack and these facts were compounded by reckless disregard for the consequences. The intentional strike at the Al Quds hospital using high explosive artillery shells and using white phosphorous in and around the hospital also violated Articles 18 and 19 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. With regard to the attack against Al Wafa hospital, the Mission found a violation of the same provisions, as well as a violation of the customary law prohibition against attacks which may be expected to cause excessive damage to civilians and civilian objects.”
Israel intentionally fires white phosphorous artillery shells on hospitals.
Yes, OK, better be called anti-Semites than to support firing of white phosphorous artilery shells on hospitals.
Israel failed even in the Treatment of Palestinians in the hands of the IDF by using them as human shields. Article 1722: “1722. The Mission investigated several incidents in which Israeli armed forces used local Palestinian residents to enter houses which might be booby trapped or harbour enemy combatants (this practice, known in the West Bank as “neighbour procedure”, was called “Johnnie procedure” during the military operations in Gaza). The Mission found that the practice constitutes the use of human shields prohibited by international humanitarian law. It further constitutes a violation of the right to life, protected in Article 6 of the ICCPR, and of the prohibition against cruel and inhuman treatment in Article 7 of the ICCPR.” Article 1723 adds on this that “The questioning of Palestinian civilians under threat of death or injury to extract information about Hamas and Palestinian combatants and tunnels constitutes a violation of Article 31 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits physical or moral coercion against protected persons.”
Article 1732 summarizes: “From the facts gathered, the Mission found that the following grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention were committed by Israeli forces in Gaza: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. As grave breaches these acts give rise to individual criminal responsibility. The Mission notes that the use of human shields also constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
Quick Sands
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror as a means of coercion. It is often used by states to delegitimize political opponents, and to legitimize the state's own use of terror against them. Goldstone’s report doesn’t leave any doubts the State of Israel is thus a terrorist organization, it says so explicitly in article 1690.
Probably no army in human history has been more insensitive than the IDF to civilian’s life. In its own version of Extraordinary Rendition, the State of Israel has kidnapped humanity into the quick sands of savage lawlessness.
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The Cross of Bethlehem
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