ASSOCIATE OF PALESTINIAN PRES. ABBAS CRITICIZES HIM FOR YIELDING ON GOLDSTONE REPORT

Even a high-ranking associate of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is criticizing Abbas' decision to withdraw support for letting the UN General Assembly consider the Goldstone Report on Israel's conduct during the three-week war last January against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Rory McCarthy reports in the guardian.co.uk:

"A senior Palestinian official admitted today it was a "mistake" to drop support for a UN human rights council resolution that called for investigations into Israel's conduct in the Gaza war.

"Frustration and anger has been mounting against Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, for his surprise decision not to endorse a highly critical UN inquiry into the January war. The inquiry, by the South African judge Richard Goldstone, accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity."

South African Judge Goldstone has a reputation for fairness and lack of bias. His report put most of the onus on the IDF for its indiscriminate shelling and shooting of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Since the report was published several weeks ago, Israel and the Israeli government under PM Netanyahu have been putting pressure on countries to ask the U.N. to postpone dealing with the explosive report. For some reason, Abbas went along.

Palestinian groups and human rights organizations have condemned the postponement and Abbas' involvement in it.

Writes McCarthy:

"There have been several demonstrations against the decision in the West Bank, as well as protests from human rights organisations. Syria cancelled an official visit by Abbas, criticising the Palestinians for backing down.

"In a joint statement, 17 Palestinian human rights groups "strongly condemned" the decision, saying the justification for delaying the vote was "inappropriate" and that accountability was needed as part of a peace process. "Justice delayed is justice denied. All victims have a legitimate right to an effective judicial remedy, and the equal protection of the law," it said.

"Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian MP, said the decision was a "grave and horrible mistake" that had damaged the Palestinian Authority's credibility. "The only beneficiary of this postponement was Israel and it happened at a time when there was an opening to hold Israel accountable." He added that it left the Palestinians in a weaker position in peace talks with the Israelis."

AMNESTY INTL. CONDEMNS BOTH ISRAEL & HAMAS FOR WAR CRIMES

The BBC reports that Amnesty International has condemned both the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas for targeting civilians, in flagrant violations of the humanitarian laws of war.

Writes the BBC:

"The human rights group said it had evidence both Israel and Hamas had used weapons sourced from overseas to carry out attacks on civilians.

"It called for the UN Security Council to impose the embargo on all parties.

"Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the conclusions of the report, in which Amnesty accuses each of war crimes."

Amnesty specifically cites Israel's use of shells containing white phosphorous which causes severe and deep burns once it attaches to human flesh. And Amnesty condemns Hamas for allowing rockets to be fired indiscriminately at Israeli towns and villages, thereby causing civilian deaths and casualties.

Reports the BBC:

"Donatella Rovera, the head of an Amnesty fact-finding mission to southern Israel and Gaza, said: "Israeli forces used white phosphorus and other weapons supplied by the USA to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes.

""Their attacks resulted in the death of hundreds of children and other civilians and massive destruction of homes and infrastructure.

""At the same time, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups fired hundreds of rockets that had been smuggled in or made of components from abroad at civilian areas in Israel.

""Though far less lethal than the weaponry used by Israel, such rocket firing also constitutes a war crime and caused several civilian deaths.""

Many politicians in Israel as well as AIPAC here in the U.S. are always blaming Iran for supporting Hamas as well as Hezbollah. But almost all of the weapons used by Israel and the IDF come from the United States. And when they are used with such devastating effect against people, especially children, in Gaza, the Palestinians must believe that America and Americans hate them and stand with Israel in trying to eradicate them from the homeland.

The BBC reports:

"The [Amnesty] report said fragments and components of artillery, tank shells, fins from mortar rounds and aircraft-launched missiles and bombs were found in school playgrounds, hospitals and homes in Gaza.

"Israel's weaponry predominantly came from the US, the report said.

"About 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died in 22 days of fighting last month."

BOGUS ARGUMENT: CRITICIZING ISRAEL FOR GAZA DESTRUCTION MEANS DENYING HOLOCAUST

So Walter Reich writing in The Washington Post would have us believe that anyone who criticizes Israel's war crimes in Gaza is an anti-Semite and a denier of the Holocaust. A good way to silence criticism of Israel's cruelty to civilians and children in Gaza who were shot, bombed, incinerated by the IDF. No, we must resist the charge of being anti-Semitic and continue to decry Israel's inhumanity towards the Palestinians in Gaza.
1/31/2009 10:05:19 AM

BRITISH LAWYERS/ACADEMICS CONDEMN ISRAEL FOR WAR CRIMES IN GAZA

Here's a letter appearing in The Times Online (The Sunday Times) from lawyers and academics in the U.K. that considers Israel's attack on Palestinians in Gaza to constitute war crimes. Thanks to Juan Cole of Informed Comment for bringing it to my attention.

"ISRAEL has sought to justify its military attacks on Gaza by stating that it amounts to an act of “self-defence” as recognised by Article 51, United Nations Charter. We categorically reject this contention.

"The rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas deplorable as they are, do not, in terms of scale and effect amount to an armed attack entitling Israel to rely on self-defence. Under international law self-defence is an act of last resort and is subject to the customary rules of proportionality and necessity.

"The killing of almost 800 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and more than 3,000 injuries, accompanied by the destruction of schools, mosques, houses, UN compounds and government buildings, which Israel has a responsibility to protect under the Fourth Geneva Convention, is not commensurate to the deaths caused by Hamas rocket fire.

"For 18 months Israel had imposed an unlawful blockade on the coastal strip that brought Gazan society to the brink of collapse. In the three years after Israel’s redeployment from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. And yet in 2005-8, according to the UN, the Israeli army killed about 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children. Throughout this time the Gaza Strip remained occupied territory under international law because Israel maintained effective control over it.

"Israel’s actions amount to aggression, not self-defence, not least because its assault on Gaza was unnecessary. Israel could have agreed to renew the truce with Hamas. Instead it killed 225 Palestinians on the first day of its attack. As things stand, its invasion and bombardment of Gaza amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s 1.5m inhabitants contrary to international humanitarian and human rights law. In addition, the blockade of humanitarian relief, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and preventing access to basic necessities such as food and fuel, are prima facie war crimes.

"We condemn the firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel and suicide bombings which are also contrary to international humanitarian law and are war crimes. Israel has a right to take reasonable and proportionate means to protect its civilian population from such attacks. However, the manner and scale of its operations in Gaza amount to an act of aggression and is contrary to international law, notwithstanding the rocket attacks by Hamas."

Ian Brownlie QC, Blackstone Chambers

Mark Muller QC, Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales

Michael Mansfield QC and Joel Bennathan QC, Tooks Chambers

Sir Geoffrey Bindman, University College, London

Professor Richard Falk, Princeton University

Professor M Cherif Bassiouni, DePaul University, Chicago

Professor Christine Chinkin, LSE

Professor John B Quigley, Ohio State University

Professor Iain Scobbie and Victor Kattan, School of Oriental and African Studies

Professor Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva

Professor Said Mahmoudi, Stockholm University

Professor Max du Plessis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban

Professor Bill Bowring, Birkbeck College

Professor Joshua Castellino, Middlesex University

Professor Thomas Skouteris and Professor Michael Kagan, American University of Cairo

Professor Javaid Rehman, Brunel University

Daniel Machover, Chairman, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights

Dr Phoebe Okawa, Queen Mary University

John Strawson, University of East London

Dr Nisrine Abiad, British Institute of International and Comparative Law

Dr Michael Kearney, University of York

Dr Shane Darcy, National University of Ireland, Galway

Dr Michelle Burgis, University of St Andrews

Dr Niaz Shah, University of Hull

Liz Davies, Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyer

Prof Michael Lynk, The University of Western Ontario

Steve Kamlish QC and Michael Topolski QC, Tooks Chambers

ISRAELIS -- IT'S ALL THE FAULT OF HAMAS USING PALESTINIANS AS "SHIELDS" IN GAZA

The government of Israel is always trying to blame Hamas for deaths and injuries caused to Palestinian civilians, many of them children. In fact, even Israeli citizens adopt this line and spin.

Griff Witte writes in today's The Washington Post:

"Unlike in 2006, when Israelis grew bitterly split over the war in Lebanon, the invasion of Gaza has produced a rare consensus here. In newspapers and on television, commentators approvingly note that the Israeli military has sown devastation in Gaza without a high toll in Israeli lives. If Palestinians are dying, they say, it is Hamas's fault."

Doctors are reporting horrific injuries to civilians, including burns and lung damage, not to mention many who need amputation of legs and arms.

It is pure spin to claim that the Hamas fighters are using Palestinian civilians as shields. Israel and its army knew full well that any shelling of homes or buildings in Gaza was sure to cause huge numbers of civilian deaths. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas, and there are numerous multi-story apartment buildings.

Israel and Israelis cannot escape liability and condemnation for war crimes by claiming that they don't "intend" to call or target civilians. The very act of bombing Gaza structures has a necessary and proximate connection to the deaths of the Palestinians who just happen to live there.