Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

good questions.
it is very hard for people to separate out a government from the state or nation; and in this case, also, to separate jews from israel. not all jews are israelites or supporters of its govt, not all israelites voted for netanyahu or favor policies of building settlements or squeezing gaza.
but in europe all jews are subject to attacks, now, because they are presumed to be supporters of israel and enemies of hamas.
hamas's armory consists of a bunch of useless rockets and guns; israel has all the modern armaments of a powerful state. so what is this policy of attacking and crushing gaza supposed to accomplish? it turns 1.7 million gazans into inveterate enemies, with young men willing to commit suicide to kill israelis.
what kind of long-term stupid policy can that be? you are right, ogugua, to ask if the israeli govt and its supporters aren't doing themselves more harm by their policies than hamas could ever do.
ken

On 8/2/14 12:50 AM, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:

Israeli’s case for her onslaught in Gaza is that Hamas fires rockets into Israel, and attacks Israelis through underground tunnels. The same government says that its missile defense system (MDS) destroys over 85 percent of the Hamas rockets in the air. Israel’s invasion of Gaza has cost many innocent Palestinian lives. It has also cost more Israeli lives than Hamas’ primitive, unguided rockets, and tunnel attacks have.  Is Israel a penny wise and a pound foolish? Is Israel a greater threat to her people, and their long term peace and security that Hamas is?  

There must be a more efficient and effective way to seek, find, and have peace.

 

oa

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2014 11:12 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

 

hamas was put in an impossible position by the israeli blockade. the people in gaza were dying and miserable due to israeli pressure. yet you blame them for striking back. instead, you would have them lie on their back and  be squashed, their people dying from lack of good water, food, medicine, jobs. incredible. they hated the israelis for oppressing them, and that hatred was "their fault." and when their youth were ready to die to strike back, you blame them.
there are lots of good reasons for criticizing hamas. but you whitewash israel's crimes, putting the blame on the victim.
that's not "true and courageous," it's immoral and supports an illegal blockade that lies at the root of the conflict. if israel had treated gaza as it did the west bank, we would not have had this situation.
ken

On 8/1/14 5:54 AM, 'Ifedioramma E. Nwana' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:

This is the first time I have read something true and courageous.  Yes, if Hamas does not continue to provoke Israel,lsrael would not have need to protect her citizens and there would not be what people regard as violations of International Law. Our elders advise that we should never pull the leopard by the tail whether alive or dead! 

I blame the international communities more.  If they do not go on massaging Hamas in their idiotic acts, Hamas may have long reallised the futility of its present stand and the need to live in peace with Israel in a 'Two State' arrangement. 

Who would rightly blame Israel if it has a 'sieged mentality'. It would be damned insessible to argue that after 66 years the effects of that horrible holocaust should have been forgotten! Indeed, some of the survivours of that horrendous experience are still alive and must be singing daily, even to the hearing of their offspring "Never Again"!

I think there is a simple solution to the Middle East problem: Hamas and its sponsors should accept, genuinely and in practice, the Right of Israel to live under a "Two State" arrangement.  I am convinced that once this is settled, Israel being the civilised community that I know, would stop even the errection of settlements in the West Bank.  By the way who, except Israel, thought Israel would abandon the settlements it had built in Gaza!

Unless this (Two State settlement) is done, whenever Hamas provokes Israel, Israel will try, not only to retaliate, but will endeavour to ensure that Hamas is incapacitated to the extent that it does not attemp to provoke her again.  Unfortunately, whenever this happens, those who misslead Hamas go behind to re-arm it and it thinks it can attack Israel!

I advice the UN and all its agencies to have the courage to tell Hamas to know itself and find wisdom.  

IEM Nwana

 

On Friday, 1 August 2014, 1:32, olakassimmd via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

 

 

 

Dear All

 

There is no doubt that Israel is breaking international laws

and that she is getting away with it under the leadership

of Benjamin Nettanyau who is as much as war monger as any

Hamas leader could be.

 

However there would have been no need

for Israel to break international laws if the

Hamas had not kept on provoking Israel in the first

instance.

 

The state of Israel has no other choice but to protect her citizens.

 

If the Hamas keeps on using its civilians as sacrificial lambs to shield its troops

from Israel's superior firepower, one can hardly blame only the state of Israel

for the thousands of civilians including infants and school children

who have been either  killed or wounded

during the ongoing Israeli counter-offensive.

The leadership of the Hamas are  fully aware that that Israel's war doctrine

 is to deploy overwhelming disproportionate

force in retaliation for any attacks by Hamas on Israeli citizens,

 

The Hamas must learn the lesson that it is suicidal to keep

on provoking wars it knows it cannot win and that if by chance

it ever appears it might be winning, such an anticipated victory would be truncated

by the increase in supplies of ammunitions and logistics to Israel by the USA and other western countres

to bolster the Israeli efforts.

 

Only ruthless religious ideologues keep on year in and year out using its peoples

as guinea pigs for the testing of the

latest weaponry from Israel, the USA and other western countries,

 

The rest of the world must tell the Hamas and her dwindling number of Arab supporters that

it must learn to live and let live.

 

The only solution to the Palestinian-Isreali dispute is a two state solution!

The state of Israel is here to stay; it is not going anywhere.

 

Nettanyau and the rest of  the Israeli leadership must also realize that her citizens

would know no lasting peace until it agrees to meet the Palestinians in the middle.

israel must stop building settlements on Palestinian lands!

 

Bye,

 

Ola--a strong supporter of Palestinian rights who is currently fed up with Hamas tactics.

---- Original Message ----
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Jul 31, 2014 6:17 pm
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

this is completely true
here is the amnesty international report that details these violations: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelgaza-conflict-questions-and-answers-2014-07-25

ken

On 7/31/14 4:35 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:

In Gaza, International Law Is Up in Flames

In a flagrant violation of international law, Israel's assault on Gaza has killed hundreds of civilians and devastated civilian infrastructure.

By Phyllis Bennis<http://fpif.org/authors/phyllis-bennis/>, July 30, 2014. Originally published in OtherWords<http://otherwords.org/israel-violates-international-law-in-gaza/>.

Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, schools, and power stations.

As Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip rages on, ceasefires come and go. Most last just long enough for Palestinians to dig out the dead from beneath their collapsed houses, get the injured to overcrowded and under-resourced hospitals, and seek enough food and water to last through the next round of airstrikes.

"There is nothing left but stones," Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer quoted an old woman saying as she searched desperately through the rubble of what had been her home.

Casualties are soaring. By late July, Israel had killed more than 1,100 Palestinians<http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/29/world/meast/mideast-crisis/> -- at least 73 percent of them civilians<http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/28/336000847/conflict-in-gaza-heres-what-you-need-to-know-today>, including hundreds of children. Fifty-six Israelis, almost all of them soldiers, have died too.

A July 28 poll<http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Poll-865-percent-of-Israelis-oppose-cease-fire-369064> shows that 86.5 percent of Israelis oppose a ceasefire. Yet we continue to hear that Israelis want peace.

It's true that at least some of them do. An Israeli protest in Tel Aviv brought 5,000 people into the street. That's good -- though a far cry from the 400,000 who poured into the streets to protest Israel's invasion of Lebanon back in 1982.

And when a young Palestinian teenager was kidnapped and tortured to death -- burned alive -- in Jerusalem after the bodies of the three kidnapped young Israeli settlers were found, many Israelis tried to distance themselves from the horrific crime. "In our society, the society of Israel, there is no place for such murderers," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed.

But in fact, there is a place for those who call for murder -- at the highest political and military levels of Israeli society.

Meet Ayelet Shaked<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/07/israeli-politician-declares-war-on-the-palestinian-people.html>, a member of the Knesset -- Israel's parliament. She belongs to Israel Home, a far-right party in Netanyahu's governing coalition. She issued on Facebook what amounts to a call to commit genocide, by deliberately killing Palestinians, including women, children, and old people.

"The entire Palestinian people is the enemy," Shaked posted. "In wars, the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure."

The Knesset member went on to say that the mothers of Palestinians killed should follow their dead sons to Hell: "They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there."

Her language reminds me of a chapter in our own history -- the genocidal Indian Wars. U.S. military leaders had called on their troops to wipe out all the Native American. Col. John Chivington<http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/four/whois.htm> was asked on the eve of the Sand Creek Massacre about killing Cheyenne children. "Kill and scalp all, big and little -- nits make lice," he replied.

Shaked's comments also echo the words of an Israeli colonel<http://www.hrw.org/de/news/2010/09/24/yes-war-does-have-rules> who testified under oath at the wrongful death trial of Rachel Corrie, a young U.S. peace activist killed by an Israeli soldier driving an armored bulldozer in Gaza. "In a war zone there are no civilians," said the military officer -- who was responsible for training Israeli soldiers to serve in the occupied territories.

There's no question that Hamas' primitive rockets violate international law. They can't be accurately aimed at military targets. But that doesn't justify Israel's violation of its own obligations under international law as the occupying power in Gaza.

Israel has the region's strongest military, the only nuclear weapons arsenal in the Middle East, and the unconditional backing of the United States. Its assault on Gaza violates the Geneva Conventions<http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelgaza-conflict-questions-and-answers-2014-07-25>. Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, and using disproportionate force.

Israeli officials know full well that the best way to protect their citizens is to implement a real ceasefire -- a breakthrough that would require opening Gaza's borders. Some of them also know the best way to keep their citizens safe long term is by ending the occupation altogether. Problem is, not enough of them will admit it.

U.S. taxpayers also have a stake in this conflict because Washington keeps sending Israel billions of our tax dollars<http://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf> and refuses to push Tel Aviv<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/israel-us-aid-hamas-harry-reid-109452.html> to stop violating international law.

For real peace, both of those things must change.

Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies<http://www.ips-dc.org/>.

Israel Once Again Unconcerned With Prosecution for War Crimes

The United Nations Human Rights Council announced a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

By Russ Wellen<http://fpif.org/authors/russ-wellen/>, July 31, 2014., www.fpif.com

[https://webmail.ccsu.edu/owa/attachment.ashx?id=RgAAAACIR4fP8%2fDSEaNAAAD4YBApBwDd9LcDLkTSEaMkAKDJ4RrzAAAA7%2f1AAACG0aK%2bn4McSrUVwdL4l7nbAFCXmYIvAAAJ&attcnt=1&attid0=EAC%2bgFzwds%2f2SqpJErRA8bBs]

With UNRWA schools under attack by the IDF, Palestinians don't know where to hide..

On Tuesday, July 29, Ibrahim Barzou and Yousur Alhlou of the Associated Press<http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/29/4260379/israel-target-symbols-of-hamas.html> reported on that deadly day in Gaza:

Israel unleashed its heaviest air and artillery assault of the Gaza war on Tuesday, destroying key symbols of Hamas control, shutting down the territory's only power plant and leaving at least 128 Palestinians dead on the bloodiest day of the 22-day conflict.

On Tuesday, multiple members of at least five families were pulled from the rubble after airstrikes and tank shells struck their homes, including the mayor of the Bureij refugee camp, his 70-year-old father and three relatives, according to Palestinian health officials.

In all, at least 1,229 Palestinians have been killed, including 128 on Tuesday, making it the single deadliest day since the start of fighting on July 8, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra. More than 7,000 have been wounded, he said.

That sounds suspiciously like, as Rashid Khaliki writes in the New Yorker "Collective Punishment in Gaza<http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/collective-punishment-gaza>."

It's worth listening carefully when Netanyahu speaks to the Israeli people. What is going on in Palestine today is not really about Hamas. It is not about rockets. It is not about "human shields" or terrorism or tunnels. It is about Israel's permanent control over Palestinian land and Palestinian lives.

... What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment for Gaza's refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in responding to Israel's siege and its provocations with resistance.

Back to Barzou and Alhlou:

The Israeli military has said it is targeting Hamas command centers, along with rocket launchers and weapons arsenals, but has not provided explanations when asked about specific strikes in which many members of a single family were killed.

Perhaps because they know that no justification exists. Yesterday at Foreign Policy in Focus, Phyllis Bennis<http://fpif.org/violating-international-law-gaza/> mirrored Khaliki.

There's no question that Hamas' primitive rockets violate international law. They can't be accurately aimed at military targets. But that doesn't justify Israel's violation of its own obligations under international law as the occupying power in Gaza.

Israel has the region's strongest military, the only nuclear weapons arsenal in the Middle East, and the unconditional backing of the United States. Its assault on Gaza violates the Geneva Conventions. Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, and using disproportionate force.

Operation and operation, Israel and the IDF (Israel Defense Force) act with absolute impunity. For instance, after Israeli tanks shelled the school in Jabaliya on Tuesday, BBC reported<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28558433>:

[Chris] Gunness from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told the BBC that Israel had been told 17 times that the school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was housing the displaced. ... [He] said "the world stands disgraced" by the attack, in which 15 died and dozens were hurt.

Ms. Bennis again:

Meet Ayelet Shaked, a member of the Knesset -- Israel's parliament. She belongs to Israel Home, a far-right party in Netanyahu's governing coalition. She issued on Facebook what amounts to a call to commit genocide, by deliberately killing Palestinians, including women, children, and old people.

"The entire Palestinian people is the enemy," Shaked posted. "In wars, the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure."

Ms. Shaked ventures into rabble-rousing that greases the skids to genocide, such as in Rwanda where the Tutsis were called cockroaches:

The Knesset member went on to say that the mothers of Palestinians killed should follow their dead sons to Hell: "They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there."

A quick Google search reveals that Israel has only been taken to task for war crimes in an official capacity by the Goldstone Report<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf> and one occasion when they were charged with war crimes<http://www.globalresearch.ca/state-of-israel-charged-for-crime-of-genocide-and-war-crimes-kuala-lumpur-tribunal/5346375> in August 2013:

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) will be hearing war crimes and genocide charges against Amos Yaron, a retired Israeli army general and the State of Israel from 21 to 24 August in Kuala Lumpur.

This is the first time that war crimes charges will be heard against the retired general and the State of Israel in compliance with due legal process. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), having received complaints from victims from Palestine (Gaza and West Bank) and the Sabra - Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, in 2012, investigated these complaints resulting in the institution of formal charges on war crimes against the accused.

But, Haaretz reported (behind a paywall) on June 14,

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday launched a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in its current Gaza offensive, backing Palestinian efforts to have Israel held up to international scrutiny.

Meeting in Geneva, the 46-member council backed a Palestinian-drafted resolution by 29 votes, with supports from Arab and Muslim countries, China, Russia, Latin American and African nations.

Naturally:

The United States was the only member to vote against the resolution, while European countries abstained.

Naturally again:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office fiercely condemned the UN council's decision as a "travesty and should be rejected by decent people everywhere."

We'll give the last word to Khaliki, just because it's a trenchant quote:

... the United States puts its thumb on the scales in favor of the stronger party. In this surreal, upside-down vision of the world, it almost seems as if it is the Israelis who are occupied by the Palestinians, and not the other way around. In this skewed universe, the inmates of an open-air prison are besieging a nuclear-armed power with one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world.

 

-- 

kenneth w. harrow 

faculty excellence advocate

professor of english

michigan state university

department of english

619 red cedar road

room C-614 wells hall

east lansing, mi 48824

ph. 517 803 8839

harrow@msu.edu

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kenneth w. harrow 

faculty excellence advocate

professor of english

michigan state university

department of english

619 red cedar road

room C-614 wells hall

east lansing, mi 48824

ph. 517 803 8839

harrow@msu.edu

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--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu