Guardian investigation uncovers evidence of alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza
(The Guardian has posted three powerful videos on the page linked below illustrating this report. Highly recommended viewing. -rep.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/23/israel-gaza-war-crimes-guardian
Palestinians claim children were used as human shields and hospitals targeted during 23-day conflict
The Guardian has compiled detailed evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the 23-day offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields and the targeting of medics and hospitals.
A month-long investigation also obtained evidence of civilians being hit by fire from unmanned drone aircraft said to be so accurate that their operators can tell the colour of the clothes worn by a target.
The testimonies form the basis of three Guardian films which add weight to calls this week for a full inquiry into the events surrounding Operation Cast Lead, which was aimed at Hamas but left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including more than 300 children.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) refused to respond directly to the allegations made against its troops, but issued statements denying the charges and insisted international law had been observed.
The latest disclosures follow soldiers' evidence published in the Israeli press about the killing of Palestinian civilians and complaints by soldiers involved in the military operation that the rules of engagement were too lax.
Amnesty International has said Hamas should be investigated for executing at least two dozen Palestinian men in an apparent bout of score-settling with rivals and alleged collaborators while Operation Cast Lead was under way.
Human rights groups say the vast majority of offences were committed by Israel, and that the Gaza offensive was a disproportionate response to Hamas rocket attacks. Since 2002, there have been 21 Israeli deaths by Hamas rockets fired from Gaza, and during Operation Cast Lead there were three Israeli civilian deaths, six Israeli soldiers killed by Palestinian fire and four killed by friendly fire.
"Only an investigation mandated by the UN security council can ensure Israel's co-operation, and it's the only body that can secure some kind of prosecution," said Amnesty's Donatella Rovera, who spent two weeks in Gaza investigating war crime allegations. "Without a proper investigation there is no deterrent. The message remains the same: 'It's OK to do these things, there won't be any real consequences'."
Some of the most dramatic testimony gathered by the Guardian came from three teenage brothers in the al-Attar family. They describe how they were taken from home at gunpoint, made to kneel in front of Israeli tanks to deter Hamas fighters from firing, and sent by Israeli soldiers into Palestinian houses to clear them. "They would make us go first so if any fighters shot at them the bullets would hit us, not them," 14-year-old Al'a al-Attar said.
Medics and ambulance drivers said they were targeted when they tried to tend to the wounded; sixteen were killed. According to the World Health Organisation, more than half of Gaza's 27 hospitals and 44 clinics were damaged by Israeli bombs.
In a report released today, a medical human rights group said there was "certainty" that Israel violated international humanitarian law during the war, with attacks on medics, damage to medical buildings, indiscriminate attacks on civilians and delays in medical treatment for the injured.
"We have noticed a stark decline in IDF morals concerning the Palestinian population of Gaza, which in reality amounts to a contempt for Palestinian lives," said Dani Filc, chairman of Physicians for Human Rights Israel. The Guardian gathered testimony on missile attacks by Israeli drones against clearly distinguishable civilian targets. In one case a family of six was killed when a missile hit the courtyard of their house. Israel has not admitted using drones but experts say their optical equipment is good enough to identify individual items of clothing worn by targets. The Geneva convention makes it clear medical staff and hospitals are not legitimate targets and forbids involuntary human shields.
The army responded to the claims. "The IDF operated in accordance with rules of war and did the utmost to minimise harm to civilians uninvolved in combat. The IDF's use of weapons conforms to international law," it said. The IDF said an investigation was under way into allegations hospitals were targeted. It said Israeli soldiers were under orders to avoid harming medics, but: "However, in light of the difficult reality of warfare in the Gaza Strip carried out in urban and densely populated areas, medics who operate in the area take the risk upon themselves."
Use of human shields was outlawed by Israel's supreme court in 2005 after a string of incidents. The IDF said only Hamas used human shields by launching attacks from civilian areas. An Israeli embassy spokesman said any claims were suspect because of Hamas pressure on witnesses. "Anyone who understands the realities of Gaza will know these people are not free to speak the truth. Those that wish to speak out cannot for fear of beatings, torture or execution at the hands of Hamas," the spokesman said in a written statement.
However, the accounts gathered by the Guardian are supported by the findings of human rights organisations and soldiers' testimony published in the Israeli press.
An IDF squad leader is quoted in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz as saying his soldiers interpreted the rules to mean "we should kill everyone there [in the centre of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist."
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I'm ashamed of the relationship my country has with Israel. I don't hate Israel. I don't hate the people in Israel. If their Government has criminals in it that do horrible things, then those individuals need to be held accountable... just like if OUR Government has criminals in it that do horrible things.
There needs to be accountability.
Do these people deserve to know how and why their loved ones were murdered? Do we deserve to know how and why 9/11 happened?
We certainly have not lost faith zmzmzm !
I’m running an add this week in our main English language weekly newspaper “The Bulletin” about my “9/11 Truth Garage Sale” I’m holding this weekend. I will also be on the "Radio Campus" radio today, announcing the "9/11 Truth Garage Sale", and explaining more about the conference that will be held on April 15th.
It is a “teasing” Happening, in the run-up to our “9/11: Time for a Second Look” conference for 650 people coming to hear Prof. David Ray Griffin: we also need the money generated! (See our announcement: www.vigli.org/news.htm )
I feel this above article is totally relevant to our cause, and it warmed my heart to discover through it the Blog of "Physicians for Human Rights - Israel", who display: "I will keep them from harm and injustice" Hippocratic Oath
www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=671&catid=41&pcat=41&lang=ENG
The very same principle holds true for the Medical Professionals who join www.mp911Truth.org .
We are ONE !
Dr Beeth
www.mp911truth.org/#Beeth
"unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory. If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us - the dignity of man." (Harold Pinter)
Just wondering
Great work Dr. Beeth.
Your energy is inspirational.
Having gone to a link that you provided, has caused me to wonder:
Do these organizations publically question the 9/11 Official Conspiracy Theory?
Do they even know about the work of Richard Gage, Steven Jones, Kevin Ryan, David Ray Griffin,
Graeme McQueen, David Chandler etc. etc.
Do they even know who Barry Jennings was?
Just wondering.
"Physicians For Human Rights-Israel works in co-operation and in solidarity with other organizations, Israeli, Palestinian and foreign.
Physicians For Human Rights-Israel is a member of the IFHHRO (the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations)."
What does this have to do with 911?
While Israeli atrocities certainly should be better covered in US media, this has nothing to do with 911. Reports of known or reasonably suspected Israeli false flag ops (or those of any other nation) should get a prominent place at 911blogger. That is because viewing 911 as a false flag is difficult for many people, because of their utter ignorance of false flags, in general. But this report is of a "standard" (if you will) atrocity. Why not headline atrocities in Darfur? Iraq? Afghanistan? Pakistan?
http://www.therealnews.com
http://www.pdamerica.org
http://www.change-congress.org
My observation also
Thank you metamars. You did a better job of stating what I felt. (which so far has "earned" my post a minus 3).
I have noticed a drifting away from 9/11 into other issues.
I believe 9/11Truth is the key to unmasking a whole range of atrocities the world over - by exposing the fact that main stream media the world over lie, lie, lie ----- inflame hatreds, and set people against one another.
Israel...
Has earned the title of suspect for the crimes of 9/11, to a lesser extent than elements within the U.S. Government, but have earned it nevertheless. This story is relevant in that it shows just what people in Israel's Government are capable of. It's like showing a story having to do with some of the atrocities we take part in... to show people just what elements within our Government are capable of. And... we do show certain things having to do with Pakistan. Or I do at least.
In my opinion, the term "false flag" is one of those "crazy" terms that people look at us and think "crazy" when they hear it.
Do these people deserve to know how and why their loved ones were murdered? Do we deserve to know how and why 9/11 happened?
The taboo puts us all in bondage.
How does this relate to Israel more than other parties mentioned by responders in this thread? We are dealing with a broad taboo here, and the Israelis are more than aware of this and have taken advantage of such for decades. Theirs is the only small (westernized) nation which can defy international law, commit massacres, war crimes, use banned weapons, flout UNSC resolutions on a serial basis, even attack a US Navy ship, or spy on US interests, with absolute and total impunity. The short films presented by the Guardian highlight standard practice re. Israel's general conduct, and the US' ongoing denial and duplicity.
As I am not a politician, I am not under massive pressure to conform to "acceptable" areas of inquiry. But, like most people, I do feel a certain reticence to discuss such, as do most people; the merest mention of Israel in a negative context tends to bring on an overwhelmingly negative, often kneejerk or infantile type of response... "Jew hater", "antisemite", even the dreaded "Holocaust Denier" label. This mass psychological factor, the ongoing refusal to link Israel with anything "bad", even when the facts are plain and undeniable, may have been preemptively factored in by the planners and executors of the attacks... lets call it "space to maneuver, allowances for error". It was former Israeli PM Netanyahu who said on the day of 9/11, that "the attacks were a good thing for Israel", then rephrased the statement having realized his gaffe. But it didn't matter: In just two hours, the entire global muslim community, Israel's sworn enemy, had become the #1 target of the world's preeminent military and economic power, and her allies. And with the Bush Administration at the time stacked with dual US-Israeli citizens, and US foreign policy crafted by the disproportionately massive influence of the Israeli lobby, they had their ducks in a line. It was the PNAC, again stacked with a hardline right wing Zionist contingent, which had the arrogance and confidence to state their aims and its necessary justification in their notorious "Rebuilding America's Defenses" essay, issued exactly one year prior to the attacks.
The Israel issue is a huge one for 9/11 Truth, but one that people are unwilling to discuss, for the reasons given above, and more. I recall recently asking a prominent figure in the 9/11 Truth movement about a certain incident that directly linked the government of Israel with the 9/11 attacks: this incident was revealed in the blatant admission, on an Israeli TV talk show by agents of Mossad, that they had "been sent by their bosses to record the event". (These were the same people who were arrested in NJ by FBI agents on the morning of 9/11 while filming the attack on the Twin Towers, and who were in possession of maps with the Twin Towers ringed by marker pen, $1000s in cash stuffed in socks, etc). The glaring inference, is that these mens' bosses, the Israeli government, knew *in advance*, the location, date, time and nature of the attacks. This constitutes the crime of "accessory before the fact", punishable in US law by sentences as severe as that applicable to the perpetrators themselves. So, what happened? These guys were quietly sent back to Israel, no charges filed, because they had link to al Qaeda", similar to how the UA and AA put options issue was dismissed as "irrelevant" by the 9/11 "Commission" because those who profited had "no link to al Qaeda" (!!!!).
If the US government had anything to do with making (or letting) 9/11 happen, which looks the likeliest of scenarios, one can be pretty damn sure that if any foreign power also knew anything in advance, or worse, aided, abetted or even co-planned the attacks, then a group within the Israel government is surely the most likely candidate: After all, the US and Israel have been "joined at the hip" for decades, as well as having the common motivation for bringing about the attacks. As a thought experiment, just imagine that the four men arrested on 9/11 had been Palestinians, for example. I don't think I need to elaborate on how the US Government would have reacted! When I referred to the "Mossad agents" point in my conversation with the gentleman in question, a 9/11 researcher for whom I have the utmost respect, he was reluctant to "go there". I fully understand his dilemma: his awareness of the pressing need for mass acceptance of the concept that 9/11 was, in whole or in part, an inside job, in whole or in part, while on the other hand, the need to not break the taboo of bringing up anything less than spotlessness, concerning Israeli links with 9/11. And there are many of them, for those of us who have taken the trouble to look.
This dilemma affects us all, but the discussion remains "inappropriate" in the US mainstream media, perhaps more so now than ever before. If discussing Israeli actions becomes becomes similarly taboo in the alternative media, as a factor in a rational attempt to get to the bottom of the "who and how" of 9/11, then the need for political correctness will have hijacked our aim, and the terrorists can chalk up yet another victory.
"What happened" comes first - then comes "who" and "how"
"What" happened? comes first. Then comes "who" did it ? and "how" did they do it?
If you believe that the victim died of "suffocation," you don't have to look for bullet holes or stab wounds nor do you have to look for a gunman or a bloody knife.
As long as people believe the NIST lies that the WTC buildings were brought down by gravitational collapses initiated by office fires weakening steel - there is no incentive for these people to look for "who" planted the explosives or "how" did they gain access?
Our FIRST job is to demonstrate AND CONVINCE as many people as possible that the WTC buildings were brought down by explosives. THEN - once that is established in their minds as incontrovertible fact, they will be motivated to find out "who" planted the explosives, and "how" did they get access.
National identites, racial identies, gender etc. are diversions that enable people to get sidetracked from facing the material physical facts of what actually happened.
If people on this site pointed out that Shayam Sunder of NIST is brown skinned, or Hindu or Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist or aetheist - it would be A DIVERSION. It doesn't matter if his father was Adolph Hitler or if his mother was Mother Theresa. The ONLY thing that matters (with respect to Shayam Sunder) is the credibility of the investigations he headed.
So. Let's PROVE the material facts of WHAT actually happened. Then we will have allies in investigating who did it, and how they did it.
Any adult with a clear head realizes that both "good" and "evil" people reside in every nation, race, and political or religious persuasion ------- bar NONE !!!
Please explain disagreement
Please explain disagreement with my post above.
What have I said that does not make sense?
I cannot speak for Metamars, but I can ask, "What did he say that does not
make sense?"
Why the minuses?
Thanks.
Agreed... BUT
I understand. However.. conclusive evidence for the explosive demolitions of WTC 1,2 and 7 has already been written up by numerous parties, including Dr. Steven Jones, whose 3 year old paper on the subject was favorably peer reviewed by several dozen scientists, and then peer-reviewed *again*, because of the highly controversial nature of the subject. Dr. Jones has analyzed WTC steel and found the unmistakable traces of thermate/thermite, which could not have been there unless the buildings were pre-rigged. Dr. Jones was asked to resign from Brigham Young University because he did some real, genuine science, as opposed to kowtowing to the pressure to conform to the Bush Administration's neatly parceled pack of pabulum.
Then we have the admission by Larry Silverstein, on a very public forum, that he "pulled" WTC 7 (see my note below on that). Then we have a large body of video evidence where we can actually see and hear explosions; not only that, but there are massive numbers of reports from the news channels on the day of 9/11, where correspondents and spokespeople, including the FBI, talk about bombs/explosions going off in the buildings. Then we have evidence of police and firefighters, all reliable observers, who talk about the same. Then there's the countdown to WTC7's implosion, recorded on video. Then we have the seismic waveform evidence, and the audio recordings from that business meeting in the N. Tower that revealed two impacts that conform to what William Rodriguez described. Then we have the testimony of Felipe David, severely injured by a huge explosion in the basement before the first plane hit the N. Tower. Then we have NIST engaging in a blatantly fraudulent, bogus "analysis" of WTC7's collapse, which was hastily modified when challenged by a physics teacher (!).The laws of classical physics are immutable and fixed, and without a sequence of explosions rapidly taking out the floors below the "region of failure", there is no way that the buildings could have come down in the way they did, not in *this*universe anyway. The way that those buildings went down conformed to *only* what was probably the most professionally executed demolition job, anywhere, in history..... and so on, and so on. This is all well known material within the 9/11 Truth community....
What is my point? It has been already *proven* without a shadow of a doubt, over and over, that the Twin Towers and WTC7 were deliberately demolished. What more evidence do we need? Currently, we have a large fat boulder sitting squarely in the roadway of reason... and that is the corporate media weasel brigade which requires a lot more than merely good science to get on our side. What can we now get, in this line of inquiry, that can win the rest of the public over, and enrage enough people into spontaneous activity? We need something like a first hand account from someone close to the operation, perhaps someone who cant sleep at night, or has a guilty conscience, or has proof of others' involvement, to come forward and sing, loudly and clearly. That is the kind of material that *might* just light that much-needed fire under the fat asses of the lazy, complicit, cowardly corporate media and our alleged "representatives" ,and as a result, a real, no holds barred inquiry into 9/11 is authorized. The entire Bush2001 Cabinet/senior officials/Pentagon/FAA/NORAD/NEADS/NIST etc etc folks need to get subpoenaed and cross examined vigorously. etc etc. in the public arena of a courtroom.
So far, we have seen a lot of good science done by solid professionals in various fields that have not just indicated, but *proven* controlled demolitions beyond all reasonable doubt. However, has this effort been sufficient to break the case open, as regards the mainstream? We all know the answer to that: A frustrating, and resounding *NO*. Until the day comes when there *IS* a huge break in the case, and things start to fall over by themselves, as regards the official "crock of sh¡t", then the 9/11 Truth Community is compelled to take advantage of publicizing *anything* and *everything* that points to official complicity, from all angles that we cam muster. We are up against the clock here, as well as evil, psychopathic people with bottomless resources and access to limitless publicity and media. And, IMHO, we should not exclude the large body of incriminating evidence against certain Israeli parties. We cannot fall victim to the vagaries of political correctness, and embrace double standards, just because we might feel some awkwardness about some very evil and ugly events that happened over 60 years ago.
****
("Pulling it", *in professional demolition terms*, does NOT mean "using explosives to take down a building". It means "attaching ropes/wires etc to a building and taking it down using such". But we all know that WTC7 was taken down with explosives, not ropes and wires. Larry Silverstein's statement was probably used as general layperson's vernacular... where "pulling" something, such as an event, or contract, for example, means canceling or terminating it. It is unfortunate that there has been this misinterpretation of what Mr. Silverstein said... and this misunderstanding has caused some damage to our case as a result).
the large fat boulder in the roadway of reason
First of all, bloggulator - thank you for your thoughtful response. It is much better that just a plus or minus sign.
"Currently, we have a large fat boulder sitting squarely in the roadway of reason.."
Well said ---- Very well said.
Why is reason losing the battle with fear? That, I believe, is the question we have to focus on.
That is the problem we need to solve. Until we solve that, we will go on butchering one another.
Just my opinion.