Palestine is the barometer of Western integrity
HJFP MONTHLY PALESTINE REVIEW – JULY 2014
Don’t call me a Palestinian of the Palestinian Territories because it is called Palestine.
Don’t give me a fraction of my homeland and call it a solution.
Don’t give me oppression and call it peace.
Don’t give me a Bantustan and call it a home.
Don’t give me a prison and call it freedom.
Don’t draw the borders of my existence according to your whims and interests and call it a state.
My Palestine is the home that is mine since the dawn of history till the end of history.

GAZA SPECIAL
Background reports
01.07.2014
Where is the condemnation for the killing of Palestinian teenagers?
The discovery of the bodies of three Israeli teenage settlers is deeply saddening and our thoughts and prayers are with their families.
These deaths have been rightly condemned by the world. FOA calls on the global community and governments in particular to also
condemn the killing of Palestinian teenagers by the Israeli army, many of whom have been killed with impunity. In the last month alone,
these include:
18 year old Yusuf Abu Zagher, killed today (Tuesday 1 July) in the Jenin Refugee Camp
14 year old Mahmoud Dudeen, killed by Israeli forces during clashes in the southern West Bank city of Dura.
15 year old Muhammad Abu Thahr who was targeted by an Israeli sniper (caught on camera)
17 year old Nadim Nuwara who was also shot by Israeli snipers (Caught on camera)
Shamiul Joarder, Head of Public Affairs at Friends of Al-aqsa said 'from the time of the disappearance of the Israeli settlers teens, to
this morning, 7 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers but we haven't heard a word from our government. Yet this morning, we
have had emergency questions raised in parliament after the bodies of the Israeli boys were found. This reflects an apathy towards
Palestinian deaths, which is highly deplorable. Between 2000 and 2013, almost 1400 Palestinian children have been killed by
Israel but at no point has this been highlighted by our politicians or media.'
Relentless Israeli Violence
Israeli spokespeople have gone to great lengths to say there is no cycle of violence, but this is far from the truth. There is a clear cycle
of violence and Palestinians are the biggest victims of relentless Israeli violence. Israel must take responsibility for its actions, for
example, when Israel builds illegal settlements and steals land from Palestinian families, we have to ask what the foreseeable
consequences of that might be? Does Israel and the international community not foresee that illegal settlers (who commit violent acts
which go unreported) might face violence themselves? This is a cycle of violence. Israel has said that it faces a terrorist threat, yet the
Israeli army relentlessly targets Palestinian civilians on a daily basis. The real problem here is that they expect to continue this
relentless violence with impunity.
Targeting Hamas
Israel has accused Hamas, the government of Gaza of the kidnappings and murder even though they have denied this and
there is no independent evidence to support Israeli claims. Despite another group claiming responsibility, Israel continues to
use this tragedy as a pretext to attack Hamas and will no doubt do as much military damage as possible in the coming days.
Israel has already attacked civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip leaving innocent civilians in total blackout. Israel cannot be allowed to
pursue its enemies and kill recklessly and disproportionately with the world accepting that it has a special case. The emotions of the
Israeli public is being used to justify the Israeli response to the kidnapping and killing of the settlers. Even before their bodies were
discovered, 7 Palestinians had been killed in the search for them, this is indicative of the level of brutality Palestinians can expect now
that that the deaths have been confirmed.
For further comments and interviews, please email: Shamiul Joarder, Head of Public Affairs - shamiul@foa.org.uk
02.07.2014
At the heart of the crisis
The wrenching events unfolding in Israel and Palestine aren't random or isolated. They're part of the system of occupation itself. And we
need your help to get that urgent message out.
1
"To hate Arabs isn't racism, it's having values. #IsraelDemandsRevenge." Posted to an Israeli Facebook page in the last 24
hours.
16 year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair was found dead in East Jerusalem, the victim of what appears to be a price tag attack following
the killing of three Israeli teenagers on the West Bank. He was the 10th Palestinian killed by the IDF or right-wing extremists in the last
two weeks. We mourn his death as we do all lost lives. And we also know we must speak the truth, so that we may change the
conditions that make such unthinkable violence possible in the first place.
The ongoing Israeli occupation is at the heart of this crisis.
In addition to these deaths, across the West Bank the army has sealed off entire towns, arrested more than 400 people, and raided over
100 homes. Gazans have been subjected to more than 34 bombing raids in the same period. These are not isolated or even rare
instances of human rights violations, but the intensification of the daily enforcement of the Israeli occupation. Palestinians are subjected
to home demolitions, checkpoints, arrests, and indefinite detention not randomly and occasionally, but daily and systematically.
The shedding of just one child’s blood is too much and cause for deep mourning. While we mourn the 3 Israeli teenagers who were
killed in the West Bank, we also mourn families of the 1,384 Palestinian children killed by the Israeli military since 2000, according to the
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. That’s 1 Palestinian child killed by the Israeli military every 3 to 4 days.
The Israeli government is endangering lives and both fomenting and feeding off an atmosphere of vengeance and racism.
The Israeli government has continued to show little regard for either Israeli or Palestinian life. The pronouncements of Cabinet ministers,
IDF officials, and the Prime Minister Netanyahu make it clear that revenge, not justice, is the main agenda. Emerging reports suggest
that the government knew the fate of the teens long before that information was released, but withheld that information - indicating that
the government's primary aim has been to exploit the kidnapping to attack the infrastructure of Palestinian society. Meanwhile, hundreds
rioted in the streets of Jerusalem, chanting “death to the Arabs” and “we want war” while attacking Palestinians on the street, or in
shops. Settlers burned down a Palestinian sheep farm in a price tag attack.
All lives are precious.
We refuse to mourn only the deaths of Palestinians, or only the deaths of Israelis. But that does not mean we can ignore the enormous
power difference between Israelis and Palestinians, or pretend it is just a “cycle of violence” with no root cause or context. Each of these
horrific incidents that harms both peoples happen in the context of an ongoing occupation, itself inherently a system of daily violence.
And it is a system that by its very nature puts the lives, dignity, and human rights of all in jeopardy.
It is our responsibility to speak the truth
The media in both Israel and the United States have thus far failed to offer critical reporting that can help readers understand the
content of occupation or the degree of violence inflicted by the Israeli government’s escalation. But we can change that narrative - and
we have to, if we want to end the occupation and injustice.
Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director, Jewish Voices for Peace
02.07.2014
Israeli mass arrest campaign since 12th June 2014
2
o
639 Palestinians including 11 MPs and dozens of ex-detainees were detained so far since Israel started its arbitrary mass
arrest campaign throughout occupied West Bank on Thursday evening 12th June 2014.
o
44 arrests were carried out last night in different parts of occupied West Bank including the activist in prisoners' issues Bushra
Al-Tawil.
o
230 arrests were carried out in Hebron, while 102 arrests were reported in Nablus. 61 Palestinians were detained in Ramallah,
62 detainees were documented in Jenin and 25 others in Tulkarm, while 14 Palestinian citizens were arrested in Qalqilya.
o
85 Palestinians were also detained in Bethlehem, while 39 from Jerusalem were detained. Including 10 arrests were reported
in Tubas town near Nablus, and 10 others in Salfit city near Nablus, while one Palestinian was detained in Jericho.
UFree Network | An independent European-wide human rights network, set up to defend the rights of Palestinian political prisoners and
detainees.
04.07.2014
Palestinian women now targeted in Israel’s mass-arrest campaign
Palestinian women now targeted in Israel’s mass-arrest campaign, warns UFree Network and Yousef Al-Sedeeq Institute:
A 20-year-old Palestinian woman, Bushra Al-Tawil, was abducted in the middle of the night on 1st of July from her home in the West
Bank village of Al-Bireh -- signalling an expansion of the Israeli campaign of mass arrests beyond males. Al-Tawil is one of more than 50
Palestinians who had been previously jailed by Israel as political prisoners to be re-arrested without charge in Israel’s current campaign
of mass detentions. Israeli occupation authorities say the more than 600 arrests since 12th June, which have led to 12 Palestinian being
killed so far, were consequences of its investigation of the kidnapping and murder of three Israelis living in an illegal, Jewish-only
settlement. However, the lack of evidence and the increasingly indiscriminate nature of the arrests suggest that the Israeli government is
using the tragedy to pursue a broader agenda of retaliation and incitement.
Al-Tawil was first seized when she was just 17, in a dawn raid on her home in July 2011. A journalist and advocate for prisoners’ rights,
she was held for five months in “administrative detention,” a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold individuals indefinitely
based on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. Al-Tawil was finally released in December 2011, and
had continued her journalism studies – until now. Al-Tawil joins at least 17 other Palestinian women currently held in Israeli jails,
primarily the Hasharon and Damon prisons -- both of which are located outside occupied territory and thus violate article 76 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention. Numerous reports have documented that the majority of Palestinian women prisoners are subjected to
psychological torture and ill treatment, including beatings, insults, threats, invasive body searches and sexually explicit harassment.
“Israel is exploiting the pre-occupation of the international community with other regional events to worsen the conditions of its
occupation of Palestinian territories,” said Mahmoud Lweesi, spokesman for the Yousef Al-Sedeeq Institute for Prisoners' Protection in
“Palestine 48”. “This includes an expansion of the practice of administrative detention, in clear violation of the strict parameters
established by international law, for collective and criminal punishment.” In May, 192 Palestinians were being held in administrative
detention, with most participating in a hunger strike for 64 days to protest the practice. However, with the launch of Israel’s campaign of
mass arrests, it’s estimated that at least a 200 more Palestinians held as part of the sweep are being placed under the “administrative
detention” policy, forcing the hunger strikers to delay their protest until international attention can be re-focused.
“We call upon international human rights and humanitarian institutions to bring pressure to bear on Israel to halt its illegal and racist
practices against the Palestinian people, including women like Bushra Al-Tawil,” said Khaled Waleed of UFree Network.
“Continued silence on the part of the international community is tantamount to direct involvement in Israel’s crimes against humanity.”
He continues.
UFree Network | An independent European-wide human rights network, set up to defend the rights of Palestinian political
prisoners and detainees.
04.07.2014
Israel must be held accountable for its collective punishment of Palestinians
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/israel-must-be-held-accountable-for-its-collective-punishment-of-palestinians-12181
Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activists are urging governments and international civil society to take action to
hold Israel to account for its continued collective punishment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza following the disappearance
and death of three Israeli settlers.
3
Zaid Shuaibi, a spokesperson for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the civil society coalition that leads and supports the BDS
movement, said:
“Israel’s on-going actions are designed to terrorise Palestinians and constitute collective punishment. Military violence, collective
punishment and the deliberate targeting of civilians are endemic to Israel’s of decades old system of occupation, colonisation and
apartheid.”
“Israel is able to act with utter impunity because of the military, economic and political support it receives from governments around the
world. We call on international governments to impose a two-way arms embargo immediately and to suspend bilateral agreements until
Israel fully complies with international law”.
“At a time when mainstream bodies such as the Bill Gates Foundation, the Presbyterian Church USA and the US United Methodist
Church are divesting from companies profiting from Israel’s occupation, including G4S and Hewlett Packard, we call on people of
conscience to intensify BDS pressure.” Shuabi also called on people of conscience and supporters of BDS to consider joining
the Month Against the Apartheid Wall that is marking the 10th anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel’s
apartheid Wall is illegal.
Hundreds of military raids have been launched across the occupied West Bank since June 12, with more than 1000 private homes and
refugee camps and the offices of civil society organisations ransacked. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and many more have
been injured. More than 500 Palestinians have been detained and initial reports suggest that many of those arrested are held under
administrative detention, a form of detention without charge or trial on secret evidence. The number of children held in Israeli jails has
risen to 250. Israel has also imposed severe restrictions of movement. On Wednesday, Israeli settlers kidnapped and killed a 16 year
old from the Shuafat area of Palestinian East Jerusalem and Israeli soldiers attacked Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Palestinian organisations have detailed how Israel’s recent actions constitute collective punishment, a crime prohibited by the Fourth
Geneva Convention as well as customary international humanitarian law. Israeli occupation forces have also targeted the campuses of
Birzeit University near Ramallah and the Arab American University in Jenin, resulting in the detention and arrest of students and staff
and greatly infringing the Palestinian right to education.
Samia Botmeh, a professor at Birzeit University and a steering committee member with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural Boycott of Israel, said:
“Israel’s latest violations against Palestinian universities are part of its long history of oppression aimed at Palestinian
education. Closure of universities for periods stretching to years, murder and detention of students and professors,
destruction of universities’ properties and labs as well as the banning of lists of books have been Israel’s systematic policies
targeting Palestinian education.”
“It must be emphasized that throughout the decades of oppression, no Israeli university or association of Israeli academics has ever
protested the sustained assaults on Palestinian universities. It is essential to intensify all forms of BDS, including the academic and
cultural boycott, until Israel ends its violations of Palestinian rights.”
Israel has conducted at least 100 airstrikes and shellings of Gaza in recent days, including an intense bombing of dozens of locations in
the early hours of Tuesday, further worsening the situation for Palestinians in Gaza, which has been under a brutal military siege for
more than 7 years.
Haidar Eid, associate professor at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza and a PACBI steering committee member, said:
“We, residents of Gaza, have been unable to fathom how it is that official bodies of the international community tolerate
blatant war crimes committed against the people of Gaza, in spite of thousands of reports by mainstream human rights
organizations!” “Is it farfetched to expect people of conscience to heed our call to boycott this intransigent, racist and
militarized Israeli regime and the institutions that keep it thriving, the same way apartheid South Africa was boycotted until it
crumbled?”
Ayah Abubasheer, a youth and BDS activist in Gaza, added:
“During the past few weeks, Israel has been violently and intensely launching a series of air strikes against the Gaza Strip. The
population of the Gaza Strip continues to pay the price and bear the blaze of Israel’s polices.”
“Because collective punishment is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, we urge the international community to
pressure Israel to end its all-out military assault aimed against the total population of Gaza, open Rafah crossing permanently
and heed our call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions.”
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/israel-must-be-held-accountable-for-its-collective-punishment-of-palestinians-12181
07.07.2014
Interview with Tareq Abu Khiedar and his mother
Palestinians in Hebron face violent revenge for filming Israeli soldier's violence
Palestinians in Hebron face violent
revenge for filming ...
Palestinian activists face death
threats, raids and beatings by
Israeli soldiers as “revenge” for
filming their misconduct in Hebron,
says Issa Amro, director of Yo...
View
Preview by
on electronicintifada.netYahoo
4
Beaten Palestinian-American teen and mother speak out on Israeli police
Beaten Palestinian-American teen
and mother speak out on...
15-year-old American citizen, Tareq
Abu Khieder, said he was beaten
and detained by Israeli border
police in an interview Sunday with
his sister and mother, Suha Ab...
View
Preview
on www.washingtonpost...by Yahoo
07.07.2014
BBC elevates killing of Israelis above others in the Middle East
Please
see
this
article, BBC:
killing
of
3
Israelis
worse
than
‘waves
of
violence’
in
the
Middle
East: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/amena-saleem/bbc-killing-3-israelis-worse-waves-violence-middle-east
This details Kevin Connolly’s statement on Tuesday’s Today programme that there was something particularly awful about the killings of
three Israelis last month that sets them aside from the ‘other waves of violence’ in the Middle East.
Please complain to the BBC via the website at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
09.07.2014
Gaza Under Attack
GAZA HEALTH SECTOR AT SERIOUS RISK FROM FURTHER ATTACKS
CONCERNS RAISED OVER
FUEL
AND
MEDICINE
SHORTAGES
Israeli airstrikes have intensified
in recent days with no sign of a
ceasefire. Latest figures indicate
that 43 people have been killed,
including at least five children,
and over 320 people injured. Any
further increase in Israel’s attack
will have disastrous effects for a
healthcare system that has been
under significant pressure for
years.
Read more
GAZA: OPERATION MEDICAL RESUPPLY
AS
ATTACKS
CONTINUE,
MEDICINE
SHORTAGES INCREASE
Even before the current attack, we warned that
the list of zero-stock medicines in Gaza
(essential medicines with less than a month’s
supply) stood at almost a third. With the current
attacks ongoing, and numbers of injuries rising,
we have released essential medicines to aid
the emergency response. Using your donations
we can continue to procure essential medicines
and supplies and get them to where they are
most needed.
Read more
Medical Aid for Palestinians | 33a Islington Park Street | London | N1 1QB
10.07.2014
Please sign open letter to BBC over Gaza coverage
PSC has written an open letter to the BBC regarding its coverage of the bombings in Gaza. The letter will be delivered to the Director
General, Tony Hall. The letter is on our website at http://www.palestinecampaign.org/sign-open-letter-bbc/ Please sign the letter and
ask others to do the same. Signatures will be displayed on the website. Because of the volume of traffic to our website at the moment,
you may see a message when you attempt to go the letter which says ‘Resource limit reached’. Please try again later. You will be able
to get through if you keep trying, and we really appreciate your efforts.
The letter is cut and pasted here:
5
Dear BBC
Once again Gaza is under massive aerial bombardment from Israeli warplanes and drones, and, once again, the BBC’s reporting of
these assaults is entirely devoid of context or background. We would like to remind the BBC that Gaza is under Israeli occupation and
siege. We would like to remind you that Israel is bombing a refugee population – Palestinians who were made refugees when they were
forced from their land in1948 in order to create Israel.
We would like to remind you that Gaza has no army, air force, or navy, while Israel possess one of the strongest militaries in the world.
When you portray Israel’s shelling of a civilian population as a ‘response’ or ‘retaliation’ to rocket strikes from Gaza, we would like to
remind you that these events flow from the displacement of the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian people from their homes and
communities, with millions now corralled as refugees in the Gaza Strip. That initial injustice was compounded and continues with the
ongoing occupation and siege.
When you portray the occupier as the victim, and the occupied as the aggressor, we would like to remind you that resistance to
occupation is a right under international law. And we would like you to remember that Israel’s occupation, siege and collective
punishment of Gaza is not.
And, finally, we would like to remind BBC journalists, when interviewing Israel’s spokespeople over the coming days, to ask the one
question they have all failed to ask: “If Israel ends its occupation of Palestinian land, and allows the people of Palestine to live in
freedom from Israeli domination, would that bring peace?”
A couple of links which may be of interest:
International law and reporting: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/understanding-militant-international.html
Israel’s
dominant
20147675736829395.html
PSC
10.07.2014
media
narrative: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/israel-dominant-media-narrative-
Robert Fisk - The true Gaza back-story that the Israelis aren’t telling this week
OK, so by this afternoon, the exchange rate of death in two days was 40-0 in favour of Israel. But now for the Gaza story you won’t be
hearing from anyone else in the next few hours.
It’s about land. The Israelis of Sederot are coming under rocket fire from the Palestinians of Gaza and now the Palestinians are getting
their comeuppance. Sure. But wait, how come all those Palestinians – all 1.8 million – are crammed into Gaza in the first place?
Well, their families once lived, didn’t they, in what is now called Israel? And got chucked out – or fled for their lives – when the Israeli
state was created. And – a drawing in of breath is now perhaps required – the people who lived in Sederot in early 1948 were not
Israelis, but Palestinian Arabs. Their village was called Huj. Nor were they enemies of Israel. Two years earlier, these same Arabs had
actually hidden Jewish Haganah fighters from the British Army. But when the Israeli army turned up at Huj on 31 May 1948, they
expelled all the Arab villagers – to the Gaza Strip! Refugees, they became. David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first Prime Minister) called it an
“unjust and unjustified action”. Too bad. The Palestinians of Huj were never allowed back. And today, well over 6,000 descendants of
the Palestinians from Huj – now Sederot – live in the squalor of Gaza, among the “terrorists” Israel is claiming to destroy and who are
shooting at what was Huj. Interesting story.
And same again for Israel’s right to self-defence. We heard it again today. What if the people of London were being rocketed like the
people of Israel? Wouldn’t they strike back? Well yes, but we Brits don’t have more than a million former inhabitants of the UK cooped
up in refugee camps over a few square miles around Hastings. The last time this specious argument was used was in 2008-9, when
Israel invaded Gaza and killed at least 1,400 Palestinians (exchange rate: 1,100 to 13). What if Dublin was under rocket attack, the
Israeli ambassador asked then? But the UK town of Crossmaglen in Northern Ireland was under rocket attack from the Irish Republic in
the 1970s – yet the RAF didn’t bomb Dublin in retaliation, killing Irish women and children. In Canada in 2008, Israel’s supporters were
making the same fraudulent point. What if the people of Vancouver or Toronto or Montreal were being rocket-attacked from the suburbs
of their own cities? How would they feel? But the Canadians haven’t pushed the original inhabitants of Canadian territory into refugee
camps.
And now let’s cross to the West Bank. First of all, Benjamin Netanyahu said he couldn’t talk to Palestinian “President” Mahmoud
Abbas because he didn’t also represent Hamas. Then when Abbas formed a unity government, Netanyahu said he couldn’t talk to
Abbas because he had unified himself with the “terrorist” Hamas. Now he says he can only talk to him if he breaks with Hamas – even
though he won’t then represent Hamas. Meanwhile, that great leftist Israeli philosopher Uri Avnery – 90 years old and still, thankfully,
going strong – has picked up on his country’s latest obsession: the danger that Isis will storm west from its Iraqi/Syrian “caliphate” and
arrive on the east bank of the Jordan river. “And Netanyahu said,” according to Avnery, “if they are not stopped by the permanent Israeli
garrison there (on the Jordan river), they will appear at the gates of Tel Aviv.” The truth, of course, is that the Israeli air force would have
crushed Isis the moment it dared to cross the Jordanian border from Iraq or Syria.
The importance of this, however, is that if Israel keeps its army on the Jordan (to protect Israel from Isis), a future “Palestine” state will
have no borders and will be an enclave within Israel, surrounded on all sides by Israeli-held territory. “Much like the South African
Bantustans,” says Avnery. In other words, no “viable” state of Palestine will ever exist. After all, aren’t Isis just the same as Hamas? Of
course not. But that’s not what we heard from Mark Regev, Netanyahu’s spokesman. No, what he told Al Jazeera was that Hamas was
“an extremist terrorist organisation not very different from Isis in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Boko Haram…” Tosh. Hezbollah is a Shia
militia now fighting to the death inside Syria against the Sunni Muslims of Isis. And Boko Haram – thousands of kilometres from Israel –
is not a threat to Tel Aviv.
But you get the point. The Palestinians of Gaza – and please forget, forever, the 6,000 Palestinians whose families come from the land
of Sederot – are allied to the tens of thousands of Islamists threatening Maliki of Baghdad, Assad of Damascus or President Goodluck
Jonathan in Abuja. Even more to the point, if Isis is heading towards the edge of the West Bank, why is the Israeli government still
building colonies there – illegally, and on Arab land – for Israeli civilians? This is not just about the foul murder of three Israelis in the
occupied West Bank or the foul murder of a Palestinian in occupied East Jerusalem. Nor about the arrest of many Hamas militants and
politicians in the West Bank. Nor about rockets. As usual, it’s about land.
6
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/howard-jacobson/howard-jacobson-letrsquos-see-the-criticism-of-israel-for-what-itreally-is-1624827.html
ROBERT FISK - The Independent - Wednesday 9 July 2014
11.07.2014
US - Never before in my life have I seen
I'm asking you as an Israeli--we need you to tell Israeli leaders you won't accept racism, you won't accept human rights violations, you
won't accept occupation and the killing of civilians.
My name is Eran Efrati, I am Jewish, a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, and a 7th generation Jerusalemite. What I've seen in
Israel over the last few weeks is beyond anything I have witnessed in my life. I've seen terrified Palestinian children in Hebron and
Halhul, sitting on the ruins of their homes. I've seen mobs in the street chanting "death to Arabs" and pulling out Palestinian men from
their stores to beat them as other Israelis stood idly by. I've seen soldiers lined up at the Gaza border, ready at a moment's notice to
invade. And now, like you, I’ve seen the climbing death toll in Gaza, over 100 dead and some 500 injured –all by Israeli missiles, with no
end in sight.
As much as it pains me to say it, I don’t think I can do a lot about it. But I believe you can. American voices - and especially Jewish
American ones - are probably the most critical voices in the world right now. We need you to tell us - Israeli politicians, the Israeli media,
Israeli society - that you can't support this. That you can't support human rights violations. That you can't support racism. That you won't
support the idea that Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian lives.
Join me and sign this Open Letter now—if they get another 10,000 signatures, Jewish Voice for Peace will take out ads in Haaretz and
the Jewish Forward with our message.
We know the roots of this are long and deep. But the truth behind this latest assault has finally coming: as J.J. Goldberg wrote in The
Forward, the Israeli government lied, and created this situation. For weeks, the government knew that the three kidnapped teenagers
were dead. But they instituted a gag order on the media, lied to Israelis and the world, and falsely claimed the mass arrests and
collective punishment of Palestinians was all in the hopes of finding the teenagers alive. In other words, their chosen response was to
kidnap the mind of an entire country. From the very beginning, this has been about punishing Palestinians. From the beginning, the
government has been willing to manipulate and use its own people for that goal.
Overhead, I hear airplanes headed to Gaza all day long, and I know there's nothing I can do to stop them. And now we all know the
lengths they've gone to justify this attack, and how fully Israeli society has bought into it. And I don't think we can stop it from within.
US Jewish Voices for Peace
14.07.2014
Zochrot's statement
Below is a statement by ZOCHROT the Israeli Organisation that ”advances understanding of the Nakba especially among Israelis
and promotes the return of the refugees.” All the editorials and government statements I've seen here are appalling. Bang Bang.
Hamas fires rockets, Israel protects itself. End of story. The Zochrot statement condemns Israeli violence and collective punishment of
Palestinian families again and puts the latest violence into its context and historical background. The BBC was condemned by an
enquiry for omitting these and so misleading the public but has never changed
Hopefully our campaigning on 'British responsibility for the ethnic cleansing of 1948' will promote similar perspective as Zochrot's here.
Zochrot statement – Ongoing catastrophe since 1948
For more than 66 years, the Israeli Regime had been violating, systematically and harshly, the human rights of millions of Palestinians in
Israel, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the refugee's camps located in the Middle East. The violent reality we are witnessing these days,
that takes a heavy toll from many, especially the Palestinian Refugees, is a direct outcome of a racist regime which established itself
based on an ongoing destruction, dispossession, expulsion and occupation, while turning 70% of the Palestinian population into
refugees.
Since 1948, the Israeli regime had been denying the Palestinian disaster, its daily harsh implications, and the political and moral rights of
the Palestinians to return to their homeland. Therefore, a back and forth Ad hoc ceasfire solutions will not be enough. Only a
fundamental change in the regime, which will be based on taking responsibility on the ongoing crimes of the Nakba and the
implementation of the right of return of the Palestinian Refugees will bring about the ending of the violence
16.07.2014
Ceasefire for whom?
This morning, we had hoped to wake up to news of a ceasefire. Instead, the unrelenting attack on Gaza continues. Over 187
Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed. 1,300 Palestinians and 15 Israelis injured. Israel announced this morning that it would
accept a unilateral ceasefire, but the terms were actually a continuation of Israel’s ongoing war on civilians—a continued
blockade of Gaza, continued extrajudicial assassinations, continued imprisonment of Palestinians without charge, and continued
occupation. And with no guarantee Israel wouldn't violate the agreement as they have on numerous occasions in the past.
Three times in the last six years, Israel has conducted extraordinarily lopsided operations against the people of Gaza, and
each time the civilian population has paid a major price. Even with some of the most sophisticated protection in the world, the fearful
experience of rockets falling on Israel means that Israelis and the world pay attention during these escalations.
But they largely ignore the fact that the people of Gaza, who have no protection whatsoever, have been living under an unacceptable
state of siege for the last 7 years. And that the Palestinian people as a whole remain stateless, and have been living under a brutal
military occupation for 47 years. We will continue our efforts to respond to the current situation (please keep up to date here) while
keeping in mind that when the bombs stop falling, Israel's decades-long assault on Palestinian human rights will continue.

We will redouble our efforts to address the long-term causes and solutions.
While we monitor the situation, below are a few pieces, mostly from the last 24 hours, that we have found useful. We hope you will read
them and share them with friends, family, and community.
from IMEU: FAQ on Failed Effort to Arrange Ceasefire Between Israel and Hamas.
7
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


from 972mag: What Does Israeli Acceptance of "Ceasefire" Really Mean?
from Leftern Wall: Facing the Massacre With Eyes Shut
from Electronic Intifada: Urgent Call from Gaza Civil Society: Act Now
and the Occupy Judaism statement on the possible ceasefire
Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director, Jewish Voices for Peace
17.07.2014
Jon Snow - with Regev interview
'The Israeli military does not target civilians' - video
'The Israeli military
does not target
civilians' - video
As four boys die in a shell attack in
Gaza, Israeli government
spokesman Mark Regev says :"The
story with these four boys is a
tragedy - let's be clear the Israeli
...
View
on www.channel4.com
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I watched it live and couldn't believe that it ran for about 9 minutes. BBC1 would never do this, and the BBC News Channel (which only
similcasts BBC1's "flagship"news at 6pm and 10pm) probably wouldn't do this either, even though they're 24 hours. So how come the
commercial Channel 4, with a nightly limit of 45 minutes that's also got to fit in other stories and adverts, how come they managed it?
Must be down to Jon Snow himself. I noted a few weeks ago that Mark Regev now speaks through slightly clenched teeth - a good sign
that he's slightly unsettled.
18.07.2014
Gaza Ground Invasion: Casualties Rising
ATTACKS INTENSIFY WITH ISRAELI GROUND INVASION
GAZA: WORKING UNDER THE
BOMBS
Over the last 10 days Israel has
launched a sustained and intense
series of military operations against
Gaza culminating with the news of
a ground invasion last night.
Read on to hear the latest dispatch
from the Director of Programmes in
our Gaza office, Fikr Shaltoot.
Read more
Abunima BBC News Channel 2014 07 18 02 19 26
Abunima BBC News
Channel 2014 07 18 02
19 26
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http://uprisingradio.org/home/2014/07/16/why-an-israeli-academic-views-the-assault-on-gaza-as-incremental-genocide/
8
uprisingradio.org » Why An Israeli
Academic Views the As...
Listen to this segment with Ilan
Pappe Listen to the entire program
with Sonali Kolhatkar Hamas has
rejected an Israeli-Palestinian
ceasefire plan that was brokered...
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19.07.2014
Israeli Academics condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israeli-academics-condemn-the-slaughter-and-endless-oppression-of-the-palestinian-people/5391812
Gaza's crisis, Israeli ambition, and US decline
Gaza's crisis, Israeli
ambition, and US
decline
The US should stop enabling
Israel's unfettered freedom of
military initiative.
View
on www.aljazeera.com
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Why Hamas fires those rockets
Why Hamas fires those
rockets
MANY Gazans, not just their leaders in
Hamas, think they have little to lose by
fighting on. For one thing, the spotlight
has been switched back onto them since
the...
View on www.economist.com
20.07.2014
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Conditions for a ceasefire - Why Hamas fires those rockets
MANY Gazans, not just their leaders in Hamas, think they have little to lose by fighting on. For one thing, the spotlight has been
switched back onto them since the Israeli campaign began earlier this month. In Gazan eyes, Hamas gains from the violence because
the outside world may, as a result of the grim publicity generated by the bloodshed, feel obliged to consider its grievances afresh. This
week Hamas issued a ten-point plan. A ceasefire, it suggested, could be followed by a ten-year truce. Among its key demands were a
lifting of the siege of Gaza and the release of prisoners. Gaza’s seaport and airport would be reopened and monitored by the UN.
After the last big Israeli effort to stop the rockets, in November 2012, it was agreed that, along with a ceasefire, the blockade of Gaza
would gradually be lifted and the crossings into Egypt and Israel would be opened. The ceasefire generally held, but the siege
continued. As Gazans see it, they have remained cruelly shut up in an open-air prison. Firing rockets, many of them argue, is the only
way they can protest, even though they know the Israelis are bound, from time to time, to punish them.
More recently, say Gazans, the Israelis under Binyamin Netanyahu showed they were determined to destroy a peace-minded
Palestinian unity government endorsed by Hamas and the more moderate Fatah party under Mahmoud Abbas, after the failure of
American-brokered talks between Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister made it clear he would never talk to a
Palestinian government backed by Hamas, even though America cautiously welcomed it. So he has done everything, say the
Palestinians, to thwart it.
Among other things, Mr Netanyahu’s government has prevented Mr Abbas from reasserting his authority, as part of the unity deal, over
Gaza—and from paying off Hamas civil servants there. Indeed, Mr Abbas at first looked even more feeble than usual during Operation
Protective Edge: he could not, as a leader committed to peace, cheer on the Hamas rockets. Yet his pleas for restraint on both sides
have so far had little effect.
9
The Gazan grievance over prisoners stirs great passion among Palestinians everywhere. After three Israeli students were kidnapped on
the West Bank on June 12th and later found murdered, the Israeli security forces rounded up more than 500 Hamas people, even
though the movement did not claim responsibility for the crime. The increase in rocket fire was partly intended as a protest against the
round-up of prisoners. Any ceasefire, says Hamas, must include the release at least of those detained in the past month.
From the print edition: Middle East and Africa
20.07.2014
As Israel's military kills and injures hundreds of civilians in Gaza - whose population Israel is legally obligated to protect as an occupying
power - people around the world, including in the United States, wonder why official Washington appears so indifferent to even the most
graphic instances of "collateral damage". The primary reason is that most American policy elites still believe the United States needs to
dominate the Middle East, and that Israeli military assertiveness is instrumentally useful to this end - a mindset the Israel lobby artfully
reinforces.
Since World War II - and especially since the Cold War's end - the US political class has seen Middle Eastern hegemony as key to their
country's global primacy. For two decades following Israel's creation, it contributed little to this; thus, the United States extended it
virtually no military or economic assistance, beyond negligible amounts of food aid. Washington started providing substantial
assistance to Israel only after it demonstrated a unilateral capacity, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, to capture and hold territory from Arab
states allied, for the most part, with the Soviet Union. Support for Israel grew through the rest of the Cold War; after the Cold War, US
policymakers doubled down on the US-Israeli "special relationship", calculating that facilitating Israel's military superiority vis-a-vis its
neighbours would help solidify US post-Cold War dominance over the strategically vital Middle East.
The instrumental nature of the "special relationship" also shaped what seems, from outside, Washington's chronically ineffectual
stewardship of the so-called Middle East peace process - especially in seeking a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Notwithstanding rhetorical professions, neither Israel nor the US has ever wanted a two-state outcome.
Palestinian self-determination precluded
Israel's national security strategy has long rested on a military doctrine - which Israeli officials misleadingly label "deterrence" - requiring
that Israel's military be capable of using force first, disproportionately, and whenever and wherever in its neighbourhood Israeli
politicians want. Pursuing a two-state solution seriously would ultimately curb this freedom of unilateral military initiative.
Moreover, for a Zionist project with inherently religious roots, a two-state outcome would mean surrendering too much of the Jewish
Biblical homeland to sustain the Jewish immigration on which Israel's long-term future depends.
INTERACTIVE: Gaza Under Attack
Likewise, the US never intended the peace process to help Palestinians achieve real self-determination - for that would inevitably
constrain Israel's exercise of military supremacy over its neighbourhood, attenuating America's own drive for Middle Eastern
dominance. The process has instead been conducted to empower Israel, to subordinate Palestinians and other Arabs into an
increasingly militarised US sphere of influence, and to leverage Arab states' buy-in to this scenario. These dynamics are vividly
displayed in Israeli and US approaches to Gaza. The roots of Gazans' current trials go back to 2005, when Israel withdrew soldiers and
settlers from Gaza. Widely credited with having pushed Israel to take these steps, Hamas won internationally supervised Palestinian
elections the following year.
But Gaza's occupation was far from over. While Israel had withdrawn soldiers and settlers, it hardly let Gazans exercise anything
approaching sovereignty: Israel's military continued exerting strict control over their access to the world - whether by land, sea, or air and over flows of food, medicine, and other essential goods into their territory. For nearly a decade, this siege has eroded living
conditions for 1.7 million people. After becoming the elected governors of Gaza's population, Hamas offered Israel a long-term truce, if
Israel withdrew to pre-1967 borders. Instead of negotiating with Hamas, to consolidate a sustainable and truly self-governing entity in
Gaza that could ground broader conflict resolution, Israel and the US rejected Palestinians' electoral choice and worked in multiple
ways to isolate Hamas and undermine its popularity by increasing civilian suffering in Gaza - including, in 2006, 2008-2009, and 2012,
through military assaults inflicting thousands of Palestinian casualties. In some respects, this approach "succeeded", for a while. By
this spring, Hamas was at what even ardent supporters described as its weakest point, in terms of financial resources and regional
backing, since its founding. (To be sure, Hamas contributed to this by abandoning its base in Syria and counting on Egypt's short-lived
Muslim Brotherhood government to become its biggest regional backer.)
US failure
But Israel's insistence on perpetuating occupation - even without settlements - is renewing Hamas' resistance agenda. Earlier this
week, after Israel accepted an Egyptian ceasefire proposal that would have done nothing to address the ongoing siege, Hamas made
its own proposal: a ten-year truce, including a comprehensive ceasefire - if Israel met a set of ten demands.
10
Among them: opening all land crossings into Gaza, lifting the naval blockade, establishing an international airport and a seaport, freeing
all prisoners arrested in the Israeli military's current campaign, and committing not to re-enter Gaza for a decade. Israel, of course, is
not about to accede to any of this. And so the world waits to see if a ceasefire can be brokered, or whether Israel's military, after
bombing at least 1,800 sites in Gaza since July 8, is mounting a "boots on the ground" operation there - which, Israeli officials warn,
could last "many months".
Among this situation's many tragic aspects, one is particularly galling: After strategically failed interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya,
and (by proxy) Syria, it is abundantly evident that Washington's quest to dominate the Middle East has not just failed. This quest has
sapped US capacity to shape positive strategic outcomes in the region and, at least in relative terms, weakened the United States as a
global player. Looking ahead, the experience of the Arab Awakening casts further doubt on the long-term plausibility of co-opting
unrepresentative Arab governments into a US-led regional order that, among other things, enshrines Israel's perpetual military
ascendancy. Yet, US policy elites stick with their hegemonic script.
The alternatives to Washington's failed quest for hegemony are twofold: to shift US strategy towards cultivating a stable balance of
power in the Middle East and to promote greater reliance on international law and institutions as contributors to regional and global
stability. Either or both would compel fundamental revision of US posture towards Israel. Cultivating a stable regional balance will take
serious engagement with all relevant actors, including those (Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran) that seek to constrain Israel through both hard
and soft power. It will also require the United States to stop enabling Israel's unfettered freedom of military initiative, which contributes
to regional instability. Similarly, promoting international legal frameworks as strategic stabilisers is meaningless unless Washington
stops shielding Israel from the political consequences of thwarting them - whether by regularly violating international humanitarian law
or by opting out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and developing the region's only indigenous nuclear arsenal.
Unfortunately for Gaza's people and US interests, the US' political class remains deeply resistant to these imperatives.
Flynt Leverett is professor of international affairs and law at Penn State; Hillary Mann Leverett is senior professorial lecturer
at American University's School of International Service. Their book, Going to Tehran: Why America Must Accept the Islamic
Republic of Iran, is now in paperback.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Israel Drops Cancer-inducing Bombs on Gazans - International Middle East Media Center
Israel Drops Cancer-inducing
Bombs on Gazans - Internati...
A Norwegian doctor working in
Gaza has strongly criticized Israel
for using cancer-inducing bombs
against Palestinian civilians. The
IMEMC is a media collective.
We...
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2. Israel firing experimental weapons at Gaza's civilians, say doctors
Israel firing experimental weapons
at Gaza's civilians, ...
Physicians at al-Shifa hospital
accuse Israel of using Gaza as a
testing site for experimental
weapons that cause horrifying
injuries.
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20.07.2014
Take action to stop Israel
IJAN and Jews Against Genocide call on Jews of Conscience to “lay siege” on Israeli consulates with protests, creative
actions, pickets and demonstrations and to protest events that attempt to justify Israel’s brutality against the Palestinian
people. Please email reports of your actions to ijan@ijsn.net & jewsagainstgenocide1948@gmail.com
Like so many times before, the state of Israel is again unleashing its staggering capacity of lethal violence against the refugees and
victims of its historical crimes. Palestinians in the Gaza strip, most of them refugees, already living under siege in what is effectively an
open prison, are now being bombed and massacred. From South Africa to Turkey, London to France, Toronto to New York City, all
across the world, people have taken to the streets and massively demonstrated their anger and their solidarity with the Palestinian
people. But political leaders, from Obama in the US to Putin in Russia, from Hollande in France to Sisi in Egypt, are almost unanimously
backing Israel’s violence, an expression of their commitment to continue buying the very weapons that are “battle-tested” on Palestinian
civilians and in protection of their economic and political interests in the Middle East. They have once against extended to Israel the
diplomatic shield that enables its ability to act with impunity and its exemption from international law.
11
The inhumanity of Israel’s murder and repression machine is continuously justified by the needs of so-called “Jewish safety” after the
Nazi Holocaust. Since 2000, this machine has killed a Palestinian child every three days on average. If we, as descendants of multiple
histories of genocide and persecution against Jewish peoples, accept that this is the “price of our safety,” we become complicit in what
can only be described as a practice of human sacrifice. Less than two weeks ago, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian teenager, was
horrifically set on fire and burned alive by a band of Israeli vigilantes. The perpetrator, however marginal themselves, were acting on the
continuous drip of racist incitement against Arabs by the political and moral leaders of Israel. As Israeli fighter jet pilots set out once
again on missions that will incinerate Palestinian children with the highest and most sophisticated technology of death, we have an
obligation to make every effort, not just to say “not in our name”, but to help put an end to this.
Many of us have learned our family’s endurance of political violence, have heard from our parents and grandparents of being
abandoned to their fates. Let that history resonate within us and move us to act. At this moment, when Israeli
lawmaker Ayelet Shaked calls publicly to kill Palestinian mothers,and Israeli general Oren Shachor justifies killing whole families “to
frighten them,” let us remember that genocide begins with the indifference of the world. The time to act is now. We call on our fellow
Jewish people of conscience to bring support and solidarity to the Palestinian resistance and liberation struggle in earnest. We stand in
our own histories of resistance to genocide – some of us the children and grandchildren of Warsaw and Vilna ghetto resistance fighters
– when we stand with the Palestinian right to resist the latest brutal assault in 66 plus years of ethnic cleansing and colonization.
We call in particular for Jewish people, in whose name this violence occurs, to support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions (BDS) and to participate in BDS campaigns, which have proven to be among the most effective civic tools to put pressure on
those who enable Israel’s repression of Palestinians. We call on Jewish people to support efforts to end the complicity of our
governments in Israel’s repression of Palestinians and our own governments’ attacks on Palestinian activists. We especially call for
Jewish support of efforts to end US support for Israel, end Israel’s legal impunity, impose a military embargo against it, and to bring the
perpetrator of Israel’s crimes to justice. We share with you the following statement by Jews Against Genocide, a group of Jews in Israel
who have taken action against the shameless exploitation of Jewish history and suffering to justifygenocidal action against the
Palestinian people. We join their call for others to engage in similar actions of civil disobedience and to support and broadcast their
action. Let us help build a world where everyone is safe because we take care of each other, not a world in which some are safe when
others burn to death.
IJAN and Jews Against Genocide call on Jews of Conscience to “lay siege” on Israeli consulates with protests, creative
actions, pickets and demonstrations and to protest events that attempt to justify Israel’s brutality against the Palestinian
people.
Please email reports of your actions to ijan@ijsn.net &jewsagainstgenocide1948@gmail.com
Jews Against Genocide Statement and Action
We, Jews Against Genocide, came to Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial of the genocide committed against Jews, to honor the Palestinian
children who are dying in a genocide committed by Jews.
We brought dolls to symbolise the children of Gaza, and tried to bring a glimpse of the horror that Gazan’s face, to Israel’s doorstep. We
hope to show Israel, and the world, the absurd reality of using the memory of one genocide to justify another.
We invite compassionate people from across the globe to join the outcry by staging similar protests in front of Israeli embassies and
consulates around the world.
Just as we honor the people who were murdered seven decades ago in Europe because they were Jews, we are here to honor the
people who are being murdered at this very moment because they are the indigenous people of this land who are not Jews.
The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines Genocide as, “any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
The children of Gaza, who are being systematically murdered as we write this article, constitute 52% percent of the population under
siege in the strip. The vast majority of these children are descendants of refugees from historical Palestine. In the current round of
atrocities committed by the Israel occupation army, so far dozens of children have been murdered in their homes, with Israel’s warmaking leadership vowing “much higher costs” on the Palestinian side as the bombing and shelling continues.The war crimes and
crimes against humanity committed in Gaza today are the latest stage of an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against
the indigenous people of this land.
The Jewish State was founded on the Zionist principle of “maximum Jews on maximum land, and minimum Arabs on minimum land”,
which was made reality through sixty-six years of continued assault against Palestinians, denying them the right to live freely and
peacefully in their historical homeland.
The Israeli regime has turned the beautiful Gaza strip into a densely populated ghetto, with unsafe water, untreated sewage, and
insufficient resources and electricity. This ghetto has become a concentration camp, through repeated Israeli massacres in what the
Goldstone Report described as an effort to, “humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish[ing] its local economic
capacity.” We express our support and solidarity for the Palestinian civil society’s call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
against Israel, until it complies with the three basic demands of:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN
resolution 194.
Never Again for Anyone - End Israel's Genocide of Palestinians
Jews Against Genocide (JAG)
IJAN and Jews Against Genocide call on Jews of Conscience to “lay siege” on Israeli consulates with protests, creative
actions, pickets and demonstrations and to protest events that attempt to justify Israel’s brutality against the Palestinian
people.
12
Please email reports of your actions to ijan@ijsn.net & jewsagainstgenocide1948@gmail.com
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Argentina :: Canada :: England :: Europe :: India :: Israel :: United States
ijan@ijsn.net :: www.ijsn.net
© International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Tariq Abu Khdeir joins for exclusive interview
Tariq Abu Khdeir joins for
exclusive interview
Palestinian-American teen Tariq
Abu Khdeir tells Chris Hayes
about the moment his cousin
disappeared in East Jerusalem
before being burned alive in a
revenge killin...
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Calls for genocide enter Israeli mainstream | Jonathan Cook's Blog
Calls for genocide enter Israeli
mainstream | Jonathan C...
As we watch the horrifying slaughter
unfold in Gaza, bear in mind the Israeli
psychosis that fuels and justifies it.
Here are comments
from three rightwing Israelis...
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cook.net
A Beginner's Guide to the Israeli Palestinian Conflict (Preview)
A Beginner's Guide to the Israeli
Palestinian Conflict(Preview)
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on www.youtube.com(Preview)
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by
Yahoo
(Preview)
22.07.2014
Dr. Mads Gilbert, the Norwegian surgeon in Gaza
TERRIFYING TESTIMONY FROM Dr. Mads Gilbert, the Norwegian surgeon in Gaza
The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering,
dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent. The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals
are working 12-24hrs shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care,
triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not
bleeding humans. HUMANS!
Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!). My respect for the wounded is endless, in their
contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to
the Palestinian "sumud" gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair
of the warm child, covered in blood, protect ourselves in an endless embrace - but we cannot afford that, nor can they.
Ashy grey faces - Oh NO! not one more load of tens of maimed and bleeding, we still have lakes of blood on the floor in the ER, piles of
dripping, blood-soaked bandages to clear out - oh - the cleaners, everywhere, swiftly shovelling the blood and discarded tissues, hair,
clothes,cannulas - the leftovers from death - all taken away...to be prepared again, to be repeated all over. More then 100 cases came to
Shifa last 24 hrs. enough for a large well trained hospital with everything, but here - almost nothing: electricity, water, disposables, drugs,
OR-tables, instruments, monitors - all rusted and as if taken from museums of yesterdays hospitals.But they do not complain, these
heroes. They get on with it, like warriors, head on, enormous resolute.
13
And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flows, the warm but useless tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This
is not happening! An then, just now, the orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again, just now: salvos of
artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the sickening drones (Arabic 'Zennanis', the hummers), and the
cluttering Apaches. So much made and paid in and by US.
Mr. Obama - do you have a heart?
I invite you - spend one night - just one night - with us in Shifa. Disguised as a cleaner, maybe. I am convinced, 100%, it would change
history. Nobody with a heart AND power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of
the Palestinian people. But the heartless and merciless have done their calculations and planned another "dahyia" onslaught on Gaza.
The rivers of blood will keep running the coming night. I can hear they have tuned their instruments of death. Please. Do what you can.
This, THIS cannot continue.
Mads
Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Mads Gilbert MD PhD
Professor and Clinical Head
Clinic of Emergency Medicine
University Hospital of North Norway
N-9038 Tromsø, Norway
Mobile: +4790878740
23.07.2014
For the Review
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_sitrep_23_07_2014.pdf
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/12923-palestine-the-occupation-and-theresistance-for-beginners
23.07.2014
Israel’s plan to evict people from Gaza
The final solution for the Gazans may be well underway: while no "Western international" institution is paying that much attention...
http://nationalreport.net/israel-begins-construction-concentration-camps-outside-gaza/#sthash.ojbsFdEC.4wqFydVx.gbpl
23.07.2014
Take action: Add your name to the call for a military embargo on Israel
#StopArmingIsrael
Take action: Add your name to the call for a military embargo on Israel
Israel has once again unleashed the full force of its military against the captive Palestinian population, particularly in the besieged Gaza
Strip, in an inhumane and illegal act of military aggression. Israel’s ability to launch such devastating attacks with impunity largely stems
from the vast international military cooperation and arms trade that it maintains with complicit governments across the world.
Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Adolfo Peres Esquivel, Jody Williams, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchú and Betty
Williams have published an open letter calling on the UN and governments around the world to impose a military embargo on
Israel. Take action: Add your name to the call for a military embargo on Israel now!
29.07.2014
Joint Declaration by International Law Experts on Israel’s Gaza Offensive
Richard Falk posted: "(Prefatory Note: Posted here is a Joint Declaration of international law experts from around the world who are
listed below as endorsers. I am among the endorsers, and the text was initially drafted by Chantal Meloni who has served as rapporteur.
We welco"
Respond to this post by replying above this line
New post on Global Justice in the 21st Century
Joint Declaration by International Law Experts on Israel’s Gaza Offensive
by Richard Falk
(Prefatory Note: Posted here is a Joint Declaration of international law experts from around the world who are listed below as
endorsers. I am among the endorsers, and the text was initially drafted by Chantal Meloni who has served as rapporteur. We
welcome additional signatures that can be sent to me in the comments section, with affiliation noted for identification, and
names will be periodically added to the text. I view this as an important expression of professional judgment and individual
conscience relating to Israeli behavior in Gaza commencing on 8 July that has already taken so many innocent lives and
caused such widespread devastation. Please join us and spread the word!)
The International Community Must End Israel’s Collective Punishment of the Civilian Population in the Gaza Strip
As international and criminal law scholars, human rights defenders, legal experts and individuals who firmly believe in the rule of law
and in the necessity for its respect in times of peace and more so in times of war, we feel the intellectual and moral duty to denounce
the grave violations, mystification and disrespect of the most basic principles of the laws of armed conflict and of the fundamental
human rights of the entire Palestinian population committed during the ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. We also condemn
the launch of rockets from the Gaza Strip, as every indiscriminate attack against civilians, regardless of the identity of the perpetrators,
is not only illegal under international law but also morally intolerable. However, as also implicitly noted by the UN Human Rights Council
in its Resolution of the 23th July 2014, the two parties to the conflict cannot be considered equal, and their actions – once again –
appear to be of incomparable magnitude.
Once again it is the unarmed civilian population, the ‘protected persons’ under International humanitarian law (IHL), who is in the eye of
the storm. Gaza’s civilian population has been victimized in the name of a falsely construed right to self-defence, in the midst of an
14
escalation of violence provoked in the face of the entire international community. The so-called Operation Protective Edge erupted
during an ongoing armed conflict, in the context of a prolonged belligerent occupation that commenced in 1967. In the course of this
ongoing conflict thousands of Palestinians have been killed and injured in the Gaza Strip during recurrent and ostensible ‘ceasefire’
periods since 2005, after Israel’s unilateral ‘disengagement’ from the Gaza Strip. The deaths caused by Israel’s provocative actions in
the Gaza Strip prior to the latest escalation of hostilities must not be ignored as well.
According to UN sources, over the last two weeks, nearly 800 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and more than 4,000 injured, of
whom the vast majority were civilians. Several independent sources indicate that only 15 per cent of the casualties were combatants.
Entire families have been murdered. Hospitals, clinics, as well as a rehabilitation centre for disabled persons have been targeted and
severely damaged. During one single day, on Sunday 20th July, more than 100 Palestinian civilians were killed in Shuga’iya, a
residential neighbourhood of Gaza City. This was one of the bloodiest and most aggressive operations ever conducted by Israel in the
Gaza Strip, a form of urban violence constituting a total disrespect of civilian innocence. Sadly, this was followed only a couple of days
later by an equally destructive attack on Khuza’a, East of Khan Younis.
Additionally, the offensive has already caused widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure: according to the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 3,300 houses have been targeted resulting in their destruction or severe damage.
As denounced by the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on the Gaza conflict in the aftermath of Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in 20082009: “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 defence, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: The people of Gaza
as a whole” (A/HRC/12/48, par. 1680). The same can be said for the current Israeli offensive.
The civilian population in the Gaza Strip is under direct attack and many are forced to leave their homes. What was already a refugee
and humanitarian crisis has worsened with a new wave of mass displacement of civilians: the number of IDPs has reached nearly
150,000, many of whom have obtained shelter in overcrowded UNRWA schools, which unfortunately are no safe areas as
demonstrated by the repeated attacks on the UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun. Everyone in Gaza is traumatized and living in a state of
constant terror. This result is intentional, as Israel is again relying on the ‘Dahiya doctrine’, which deliberately has recourse to
disproportionate force to inflict suffering on the civilian population in order to achieve political (to exert pressure on the Hamas
Government) rather than military goals.
In so doing, Israel is repeatedly and flagrantly violating the law of armed conflict, which establishes that combatants and military
objectives may be targeted, i.e. ‘those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military
action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military
advantage.’ Most of the recent heavy bombings in Gaza lack an acceptable military justification and, instead, appear to be designed to
terrorize the civilian population. As the ICRC clarifies, deliberately causing terror is unequivocally illegal under customary international
law.
In its Advisory Opinion in the Nuclear Weapons case, the ICJ stated that the principle of distinction, which requires belligerent States to
distinguish between civilian and combatants, is one of the “cardinal principles” of international humanitarian law and one of the
“intransgressible principles of international customary law”. The principle of distinction is codified in Articles 48, 51(2) and 52(2) of the
Additional Protocol I of 1977 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, to which no reservations have been made. According to Additional
Protocol I, “attacks” refer to “acts of violence against the adversary, whether in offence or in defence” (Article 49). Under both customary
international law and treaty law, the prohibition on directing attacks against the civilian population or civilian objects is absolute. There is
no discretion available to invoke military necessity as a justification.
Contrary to Israel’s claims, mistakes resulting in civilian casualties cannot be justified: in case of doubt as to the nature of the target, the
law clearly establishes that an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes (such as schools, houses, places of worship and
medical facilities), are presumed as not being used for military purposes. During these past weeks, UN officials and representatives
have repeatedly called on Israel to strictly abide by the principle of precaution in carrying out attacks in the Gaza Strip, where risks are
greatly aggravated by the very high population density, and maximum restraint must be exercised to avoid civilian casualties. HRW has
noted that these rules exist to minimize mistakes “when such mistakes are repeated, it raises the concern of whether the rules are
being disregarded.”
Moreover, even when targeting clear military objectives, Israel consistently violates the principle of proportionality: this is particularly
evident with regard to the hundreds of civilian houses destroyed by the Israeli army during the current military operation in Gaza. With
the declared intention to target a single member of Hamas, Israeli forces have bombed and destroyed houses although occupied as
residencies by dozens of civilians, including women, children, and entire families.
It is inherently illegal under customary international law to intentionally target civilian objects, and the violation of such a fundamental
tenet of law can amount to a war crime. Issuing a ‘warning’ – such as Israel’s so-called roof knocking technique, or sending an SMS five
minutes before the attack - does not mitigate this: it remains illegal to wilfully attack a civilian home without a demonstration of military
necessity as it amounts to a violation of the principle of proportionality. Moreover, not only are these ‘warnings’ generally ineffective,
and can even result in further fatalities, they appear to be a pre-fabricated excuse by Israel to portray people who remain in their homes
as ‘human shields’.
The indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, the targeting of objectives providing no effective military advantage, and the intentional
targeting of civilians and civilian houses have been persistent features of Israel’s long-standing policy of punishing the entire population
of the Gaza Strip, which, for over seven years, has been virtually imprisoned by Israeli imposed closure. Such a regime amounts to a
form of collective punishment, which violates the unconditional prohibition set forth in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and
has been internationally condemned for its illegality. However, far from being effectively opposed international actors, Israel’s illegal
policy of absolute closure imposed on the Gaza Strip has relentlessly continued, under the complicit gaze of the international
community of States.
***
As affirmed in 2009 by the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict: “Justice and respect for the rule of law are the indispensable
basis for peace. The prolonged situation has created a justice crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action”
(A/HRC/12/48, para. 1958) Indeed: “long-standing impunity has been a key factor in the perpetuation of violence in the region and in the
reoccurrence of violations, as well as in the erosion of confidence among Palestinians and many Israelis concerning prospects for
justice and a peaceful solution to the conflict”. (A/HRC/12/48, para. 1964)
Therefore,
15
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We welcome the Resolution adopted on 23 July 2014 by the UN Human Rights Council, in which an independent,
international commission of inquiry was established to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international
human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
We call upon the United Nations, the Arab League, the European Union, individual States, in particular the United States of
America, and the international community in its entirety and with its collective power to take action in the spirit of the utmost urgency to
put an end to the escalation of violence against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, and to activate procedures to hold accountable
all those responsible for violations of international law, including political leaders and military commanders. In particular:
All regional and international actors should support the immediate conclusion of a durable, comprehensive, and mutually
agreed ceasefire agreement, which must secure the rapid facilitation and access of humanitarian aid and the opening of borders to and
from Gaza;
All High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions must be urgently and unconditionally called upon to comply with their
fundamental obligations, binding at all times, and to act under common Article 1, to take all measures necessary for the suppression of
grave breaches, as clearly imposed by Article 146 and Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention; these rules are applicable by all
interested parties as well;
Moreover, we denounce the shameful political pressures exerted by several UN Member States and the UN on President
Mahmoud Abbas, to discourage recourse to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and we urge the Governmental leaders of Palestine
to invoke the jurisdiction of the ICC, by ratifying the ICC treaty and in the interim by resubmitting the declaration under Article 12(3) of
the Rome Statute, in order to investigate and prosecute the serious international crimes committed on the Palestinian territory by all
parties to the conflict; and
The UN Security Council must finally exercise its responsibilities in relation to peace and justice by referring the situation in
Palestine to the Prosecutor of the ICC.
***
Please note that institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
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John Dugard, Former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Richard Falk, Former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Alain Pellet, Professor of Public International Law, University Paris Ouest, former Member of the United Nations International
Law Commission, France
Georges Abi-Saab, Emeritus Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies,
Geneva, Former Judge on the ICTY
Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Emeritus Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies,
Geneva, Switzerland
Chantal Meloni, Adjunct Professor of International Criminal Law, University of Milan, Italy (Rapporteur, Joint Declaration)
Roy Abbott, Consultant in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, Australia
Lama Abu-Odeh, Law Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, USA
Susan M. Akram, Clinical Professor and supervising attorney, International Human rights Program, Boston University School
of Law, USA
Taris Ahmad, Solicitor at Jones Day, London, UK
Maria Anagnostaki, PhD candidate, Law School University of Athens, Greece
Antony Anghie, Professor of Law, University of Utah, USA
Nizar Ayoub, Director, Al-Marsad, Arab Human Rights Centre in Golan Heights
Valentina Azarov, Lecturer in Human Rights and International Law, Al Quds Bard College, Palestine
Ammar Bajboj, Lecturer in Law, University of Damascus, Syria
Samia Bano, SOAS School of Law, London, UK
Asli Ü Bali, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law, USA
Jakub Michał Baranowski, Phd Candidate, Universita' degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy
Frank Barat, Russell Tribunal on Palestine
Emma Bell, Coordinator of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, Université de Savoie, France
Barbara Giovanna Bello, Post-doc Fellow, University of Milan, Italy
Brenna Bhandar, Senior lecturer in Law, SOAS School of Law, London, UK
George Bisharat, Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of Law, USA
Barbara Blok, LLM Candidate, University of Essex, UK
John Braithwaite, Professor of Criminology, Australian National University, Australia
Michelle Burgis-Kasthala, lecturer in international law, University of Edinburgh, UK
Eddie Bruce-Jones, Lecturer in Law, University of London, Birkbeck College, UK
Sandy Camlann, LLM Candidate, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France
Grazia Careccia, Human Rights Advocate, London, UK
Baris Cayli, Impact Fellow, University of Stirling, UK
Antonio Cavaliere, Professor of Criminal Law, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
Kathleen Cavanaugh, Senior Lecturer, Irish Center for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Elizabeth Chadwick, Reader in International Law, Nottingham, UK
Donna R. Cline, Attorney at Law, USA
Karen Corteen, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Chester, UK
Andrew Dahdal, Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Teresa Dagenhardt, Reader in Criminology, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Luigi Daniele, PhD candidate in Law, Italy
Alessandro De Giorgi, Professor of Justice Studies, San Josè State University, USA
Paul de Waart, Professor Emeritus of International Law, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Gabriele della Morte, Senior Lecturer in International Law, University Cattolica, Milan, Italy
Max du Plessis, Professor of Law, University of Kwazulu-Natal, and Barrister, South Africa and London, UK
Noura Erakat, Georgetown University, USA
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Mohammad Fadel, Associate Professor of Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Canada
Mireille Fanon-Mendés France, Independent Expert UNO, Frantz Fanon Foundation, France
Michelle Farrell, lecturer in law, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, UK
Daniel Feierstein, Professor and President International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), Argentina
Eleonor Fernández Muñoz, Costa Rica
Tenny Fernando, Attorney at Law, Sri Lanka
Amelia Festa, LLM Candidate, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Katherine Franke, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, USA
Jacques Gaillot, Bishop in partibus of Patenia
Katherine Gallagher, Vice President FIDH, senior attorney, Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), New York, USA
Avo Sevag Garabet, LLM, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Jose Garcia Anon, Professor of Law, Human Rights Institute, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Irene Gasparini, PhD candidate, Universitá Cattolica, Milan, Italy
Stratos Georgoulas, Assistant Professor, University of the Aegean, Greece
Haluk Gerger, Professor, Turkey
Hedda Giersten, Professor, Universitet I Oslo, Norway
Javier Giraldo, Director Banco de Datos CINEP, Colombia
Carmen G. Gonzales, Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law, USA
Penny Green, Professor of Law and Criminology, Director of the State Crime Initiative, King's College London, UK
Katy Hayward, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Andrew Henley, PhD candidate, Keele University, UK
Christiane Hessel, Paris, France
Paddy Hillyard, Professor Emeritus, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Ata Hindi, Institute of Law, Birzeit University, Palestine
Francois Houtart, Professor, National Institute of Higher Studies, Quito, Ecuador
Deena R. Hurwitz, Professor, General Faculty, Director International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of Virginia School of
Law, USA
Perfecto Andrés Ibánes, Magistrado Tribunal Supremo de Espagna, Spain
Franco Ippolito, President of the Permanent People’s Tribunal, Italy
Ruth Jamieson, Honorary Lecturer, School of Law, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Helen Jarvis, former member Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), member of IAGS, Cambodia
Ioannis Kalpouzos, Lecturer in Law, City Law School, London, UK
Victor Kattan, post-doctoral fellow, Law Faculty, National University of Singapore
Michael Kearney, PhD, Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex, UK
Yousuf Syed Khan, USA
Tarik Kochi, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex, UK
Anna Koppel, MSt Candidate in International Human Rights Law, University of Oxford, UK
Karim Lahidji, President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and lawyer
Giulia Lanza, PhD Candidate, Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy
Daniel Machover, solicitor, Hickman & Rose, London, UK
Tayyab Mahmud, Professor of Law, Director of the Centre for Global Justice, Seattle University School of Law, USA
Maria C. LaHood, Senior Staff Attorney, CCR, New York, USA
Louise Mallinder, Reader in Human Rights and International Law, University of Ulster, UK
Triestino Mariniello, Lecturer in International Criminal Law, Edge Hill University, UK
Mazen Masri, Lecturer in Law, The City Law School, City University, London, UK
Siobhan McAlister, School of Sociology, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Liam McCann, Principal Lecturer in Criminology, University of Lincoln, UK
Jude McCulloch, Professor of Criminology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Yvonne McDermott Rees, Lecturer in Law, University of Bangor, UK
Cahal McLaughlin, Professor, School of Creative Arts, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Araks Melkonyan, LLM Candidate, University of Essex, UK
Antonio Menna, PhD Candidate, Second University of Naples, Caserta, Italy
Naomi Mezey, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, USA
Michele Miravalle, PhD candidate, University of Torino, Italy
Sergio Moccia, Professor of Criminal Law, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
Kerry Moore, Lecturer, Cardiff University
Giuseppe Mosconi, Professor of Sociology, University of Padova, Italy
Usha Natarajan, Assistant Professor, Department of Law & Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies, The American
University in Cairo, Egypt
Miren Odriozola Gurrutxaga, PhD Candidate, University of the Basque Country, Donostia - San Sebastián, Spain
Georgios Papanicolaou, Reader in Criminology, Teesside University, UK
Marco Pertile, Senior Lecturer in International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Trento, Italy
Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Professor of Law and Theory, LLM, The Westminster Law and Theory Centre, UK
Antoni Pigrau Solé, Universitat Rovira i Virgili de Tarragona, Spain
Joseph Powderly, Assistant Professor of Public International Law, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Tony Platt, Visiting Professor of Justice Studies, San Jose State University, USA
Scott Poynting, Professor in Criminology, University of Auckland, New Zeeland
Chris Powell, Professor of Criminology, University S.Maine, USA
Bill Quigley, Professor, Loyola University, New Orleans College of Law, USA
John Quigley, Professor of Law, Ohio State University
Zouhair Racheha, PhD Candidate, University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France
Laura Raymond, International Human Rights Advocacy Program Manager, CCR, New York, USA
Véronique Rocheleau-Brosseau, LLM candidate, Laval University, Canada
David Rodríguez Goyes, Lecturer, Antonio Nariño and Santo Tomás Universities, Colombia
Alessandro Rosanò, PhD Candidate, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
Jamil Salem, Director Institute of Law, Birzeit University, Palestine
Mahmood Salimi, LLM Candidate, Moofid University, Iran
Nahed Samour, doctoral fellow, Humboldt University, Faculty of Law, Berlin, Germany
Iain GM Scobbie, Professor of Public International Law, University of Manchester, UK
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David Scott, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Phil Scraton, Professor of Criminology, Belfast, Ireland
Rachel Seoighe, PhD Candidate, Legal Consultant, King's College London, UK
Tanya Serisier, School of Sociology, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Mohammad Shahabuddin, PdD, Visiting researcher, Graduate School of International Social Sciences, Yokohama National
University, Japan
Dean Spade, Seattle University School of Law, USA
Per Stadig, lawyer, Sweden
Chantal Thomas, Professor of Law, Cornell University, USA
Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law, Columbia University, USA
Gianni Tognoni, Lelio Basso Foundation, Rome, Italy
Steve Tombs, Professor of Criminology, The Open University, UK
Paul Troop, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers, UK
Valeria Verdolini, Reader in Sociology, University of Milan, Italy
Francesca Vianello, University of Padova, Italy
Aimilia Voulvouli, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Fatih University, Turkey
Namita Wahi, Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, India
Sharon Weill, PhD, Science Po, Paris/ CERAH, Geneva, Switzerland
Peter Weiss, Vice President of Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), New York, USA
David Whyte, Reader in Sociology, University of Liverpool, UK
Jeanne M. Woods, Henry F. Bonura, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, Loyola University College of Law, New Orleans, USA
William Thomas Worster, Lecturer, International Law, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Maung Zarni, Judge, PPT on Sri Lanka and Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science
http://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/joint-declaration-by-international-law-experts-on-israels-gaza-offensive/
Richard Falk | July 28, 2014 at 4:10 am | Categories: Commentary, Gaza, International & Global Law, international lawyers, Israel, Joint
Declaration on International Law | URL: http://wp.me/p19Wt7-qH
Summary – Israeli long-term strategy
18.07.2014
Israel mows the lawn - Mouin Rabbani
In 2004, a year before Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Dov Weissglass, éminence grise to Ariel Sharon,
explained the initiative’s purpose to an interviewer from Haaretz:
The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process … And when you freeze that process, you prevent the
establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole
package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with … a [US]
presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress … The disengagement is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the
amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.
In 2006 Weissglass was just as frank about Israel’s policy towards Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants: ‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on
a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’ He was not speaking metaphorically: it later emerged that the Israeli defence ministry had
conducted detailed research on how to translate his vision into reality, and arrived at a figure of 2279 calories per person per day –
some 8 per cent less than a previous calculation because the research team had originally neglected to account for ‘culture and
experience’ in determining nutritional ‘red lines’.
This wasn’t an academic exercise. After pursuing a policy of enforced integration between 1967 and the late 1980s, Israeli policy shifted
towards separation during the 1987-93 uprising, and then fragmentation during the Oslo years. For the Gaza Strip, an area about the
size of Greater Glasgow, these changes entailed a gradual severance from the outside world, with the movement of persons and goods
into and out of the territory increasingly restricted. The screws were turned tighter during the 2000-5 uprising, and in 2007 the Gaza
Strip was effectively sealed shut. All exports were banned, and just 131 truckloads of foodstuffs and other essential products were
permitted entry per day. Israel also strictly controlled which products could and could not be imported. Prohibited items have included
A4 paper, chocolate, coriander, crayons, jam, pasta, shampoo, shoes and wheelchairs.
In 2010, commenting on this premeditated and systematic degradation of the humanity of an entire population, David Cameron
characterised the Gaza Strip as a ‘prison camp’ and – for once – did not neuter this assessment by subordinating his criticism to
proclamations about the jailers’ right of self-defence against their inmates. It’s often claimed that Israel’s reason for escalating this
punitive regime to a new level of severity was to cause the overthrow of Hamas after its 2007 seizure of power in Gaza. The claim
doesn’t stand up to serious scrutiny. Removing Hamas from power has indeed been a policy objective for the US and the EU ever since
the Islamist movement won the 2006 parliamentary elections, and their combined efforts to undermine it helped set the stage for the
ensuing Palestinian schism.
Israel’s agenda has been different. Had it been determined to end Hamas rule it could easily have done so, particularly while Hamas
was still consolidating its control over Gaza in 2007, and without necessarily reversing the 2005 disengagement. Instead, it saw the
schism between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as an opportunity to further its policies of separation and fragmentation, and to
deflect growing international pressure for an end to an occupation that has lasted nearly half a century. Its massive assaults on the
Gaza Strip in 2008-9 (Operation Cast Lead) and 2012 (Operation Pillar of Defence), as well as countless individual attacks between
and since, were in this context exercises in what the Israeli military called ‘mowing the lawn’: weakening Hamas and enhancing Israel’s
powers of deterrence. As the 2009 Goldstone Report and other investigations have demonstrated, often in excruciating detail, the grass
consists overwhelmingly of non-combatant Palestinian civilians, indiscriminately targeted by Israel’s precision weaponry.
Israel’s current assault on the Gaza Strip, which began on 6 July with ground forces moving in some ten days later, is intended to serve
the same agenda. The conditions for it were set in late April. Negotiations that had been going on for nine months stalled after the
Israeli government reneged on its commitment to release a number of Palestinian prisoners incarcerated since before the 1993 Oslo
Accords, and ended when Netanyahu announced he would no longer deal with Mahmoud Abbas because Abbas had just signed a
further reconciliation agreement with Hamas. On this occasion, in a sharp departure from precedent, US Secretary of State John Kerry
explicitly blamed Israel for the breakdown in talks. His special envoy, Martin Indyk, a career Israel lobbyist, blamed Israel’s insatiable
appetite for Palestinian land and continued expansion of the settlements, and handed in his resignation.
18
The challenge this poses to Netanyahu is clear. If even the Americans are telling the world that Israel is not interested in peace, those
more directly invested in a two-state settlement – such as the EU, which has started to exclude any Israeli entities active in occupied
Palestinian territory from participation in bilateral agreements – may start considering other ways to nudge Israel towards the 1967
boundaries. Negotiations about nothing are designed to provide political cover for Israel’s policy of creeping annexation. Now that
they’ve collapsed yet again, the strategic asset that is American public opinion may start asking why Congress is more loyal to
Netanyahu than the Israeli Knesset is. Kerry had been serious about reaching a comprehensive agreement: he adopted almost all of
Israel’s core positions and successfully rammed most of them down Abbas’s throat – yet Netanyahu still balked. Refusing even to
specify future Israeli-Palestinian borders during nine months of negotiations, Israeli leaders instead levelled a series of accusations at
Washington so outlandish – encouraging extremism, giving succour to terrorists – that one could be forgiven for concluding Congress
was funding Hamas, rather than Israel, to the tune of $3 billion a year.
Israel received another blow on 2 June, when a new Palestinian Authority government was inaugurated, following the April
reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas endorsed the new government even though it was given no cabinet posts
and the government’s composition and political programme were virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor’s. With barely a protest
from the Islamists, Abbas repeatedly and loudly proclaimed that the government accepted the Middle East Quartet’s demands: that it
recognise Israel, renounce violence and adhere to past agreements. He also announced that Palestinian security forces in the West
Bank would continue their security collaboration with Israel. When both Washington and Brussels signalled their intention to co-operate
with the new government, alarm bells went off in Israel. Its usual assertions that Palestinian negotiators spoke only for themselves –
and would therefore prove incapable of implementing any agreement – had begun to look shaky: the Palestinian leadership could now
claim not only to represent both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but also to have co-opted Hamas into supporting a negotiated twostate settlement, if not the Oslo framework as a whole. There might soon be increased international pressure on Israel to negotiate
seriously with Abbas. The formaldehyde was beginning to evaporate.
At this point Netanyahu seized on the 12 June disappearance of three young Israelis in the West Bank like a drowning man thrown a
lifebelt. Despite clear evidence presented to him by the Israeli security forces that the three teenagers were already dead, and no
evidence to date that Hamas was involved, he held Hamas directly responsible and launched a ‘hostage rescue operation’ throughout
the West Bank. It was really an organised military rampage. It included the killing of at least six Palestinians, none of whom was
accused of involvement in the disappearances; mass arrests, including the arrest of Hamas parliamentarians and the re-arrest of
detainees released in 2011; the demolition of a number of houses and the looting of others; and a variety of other depredations of the
kind Israel’s finest have honed to perfection during decades of occupation. Netanyahu whipped up a demagogic firestorm against the
Palestinians, and the subsequent abduction and burning alive of a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem cannot and should not be
separated from this incitement.
For his part, Abbas failed to stand up to the Israeli operation and ordered his security forces to continue to co-operate with Israel
against Hamas. The reconciliation agreement was being put under serious pressure. On the night of 6 July, an Israeli air raid resulted in
the death of seven Hamas militants. Hamas responded with sustained missile attacks deep into Israel, escalating further as Israel
launched its full-scale onslaught. For the past year Hamas had been in a precarious position: it had lost its headquarters in Damascus
and preferential status in Iran as a result of its refusal to give open support to the Syrian regime, and faced unprecedented levels of
hostility from Egypt’s new military ruler. The underground tunnel economy between Egypt and Gaza had been systematically
dismantled by the Egyptians, and for the first time since seizing control of the territory in 2007 it was no longer able regularly to pay the
salaries of tens of thousands of government employees. The reconciliation agreement with Fatah was its way of bartering its political
programme in exchange for its own survival: in return for conceding the political arena to Abbas, Hamas would retain control of the
Gaza Strip indefinitely, have its public sector placed on the PA payroll and see the border crossing with Egypt reopened.
In the event, the quid pro quo Hamas hoped for was not permitted to materialise and, according to Nathan Thrall of the International
Crisis Group, ‘life in Gaza became worse’: ‘The current escalation,’ he wrote, ‘is a direct result of the choice by Israel and the West to
obstruct the implementation of the April 2014 Palestinian reconciliation agreement.’ To put it differently, those within Hamas who saw
the crisis as an opportunity to put an end toWeissglass’s regime gained the upper hand. So far, they appear to have the majority of the
population with them, because they seem to prefer death by F-16 to death by formaldehyde.
Among all the sanctimonious howls – this time including a lily-livered Cameron’s – about Israel’s right to self-defence, and in the face of
the categorical rejection of the Palestinians’ equivalent right, the fundamental point that this is an illegitimate attack is often lost. As the
lawyer Noura Erakat has cogently argued, ‘Israel does not have the right to self-defence in international law against occupied
Palestinian territory.’ Its argument that it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip has been dismissed by Lisa Hajjar of the University of
California as a self-generated ‘licence to kill’.
Once again, Israel is ‘mowing the lawn’ with impunity, targeting civilian non-combatants and civilian infrastructure. Given its continual
insistence that it uses the most precise weapons available and chooses its targets carefully, it is impossible to conclude that the
targeting is not deliberate. According to UN agencies, more than three-quarters of the more than 260 Palestinians killed so far have
been civilians, and more than a quarter of them children. Most were targeted in their own homes: they cannot be described as collateral
damage under any definition of the term. Of course Palestinian militants have also been recklessly targeting Israeli population centres,
though their attacks have resulted in just a single death: a man handing out sweets to the soldiers pulverising the Gaza Strip. Human
Rights Watch has criticised both sides but, true to form, has accused only the Palestinians of war crimes.
Mouin Rabbani is a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut and co-editor of Jadaliyya
18 July London Review of Books Vol 36 No15 31 July 2014
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