UN Report: Israel Violations of Gazan Human Rights "Too Numerous to Count"

Full Text: UN Human Rights Council Report on Israel's Human Rights Violations in Gaza
Related Post: Flashback - How Israel Denied Civilian Casualties in Gaza

A United Nations Human Rights Council report has concluded that "there are strong and credible reports of war crimes and other violations of international norms" in Israel's recent military operations in Gaza.

The report documents incidents "too numerous to count" of human rights violations by Israeli troops during the 22-day war in December/January. The report cites the killing of unarmed civilians, sometimes without warning (in other words, in cold blood), and the use of Gazan children as human shields.

The report also cited "credible reports" of Hamas' use of human shields and putting civilians at risk, however, it focuses on a "disproportionate" Israeli military operation, putting the number of Gazan deaths at 1440 and those of Israelis at 13.

Israeli attacks have brought "a dramatic deterioration of the living conditions of the civilian population", with "targeted and indiscriminate" attacks on hospitals and clinics, water and sewage treatment facilities, government buildings, utilities and farms. The assault "intensified the already catastrophic humanitarian situation of the Palestinian people", damaging more than 200 schools and left more than 70,000 people homeless.

The inevitable response from those supporting Tel Aviv will be that the Human Rights Council is dominated by "anti-Israeli" and "undemocratic" states who have their own human rights issues. Indeed, the omnipresent Mark Regev, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman, has already jumped in: This is "another example of the one-sided and unfair attitude of the rapporteur of the Human Rights Council, a council that has been criticized by current and previous secretaries-general for its unbalanced attitudes toward Israel".

This response will ignore the fact that the report was not compiled by the states on the HRC but by nine investigators independent of any Government, including Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. It will also ignore the release of another report on Monday from Physicians for Human Rights, which cited cases where Israeli forces did not evacuate injured civilians for days and prevented Palestinian teams from reaching the wounded, leading to further deaths.

It should also be noted that the cases cited in the UN report corroborate the "Oranim" testimonies of Israeli Defense Force soldiers, which revealed in detail the abuse and killing of civilians.

Comments

[don mac namara]

Whether an allegation of war crimes is made against Israel by the UN the Eu , Russia or ( least likely) by the USA, the stock answer of the Israeli military and any putative government , will be that the allegations are unbalanced , that Israel retains the right to defend her citizens , that Israel displayed exemplary caution and restraint during the invasion of Gaza.
An inkling as to the sincerity of this position can be gleaned from the fact that Omert had arranged a legal defence for the army well before any allegations were made.
That he should have deemed it necessary to have made provisions for layers for the army in this manner suggests that there was an ethos of complicity in the perpetration of war crimes hard wired into the military campaign at an early stage in the campaign.
Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary , Mark Regev is already parroting the same victimhood lines to the world press.
Where the Israelis have blocked supply lines from the International Red Cross for days on end , and where international reporters stood with these Red Cross workers Regev has and will continue to deny that it happened.
His recent interview with a BBC interviewer , who pilloried his feeble defenses , left him not in the slightest way even embarrassed . Regev is either the ultimate zealot or the most capable liar and appeaser of a genocidal policy within Israel.
When the Palestinians were refused to remove their dead Mr Regev will have another equaly assinine defense -' we cooperate fully with the international Red Cross at all times.- is a line he resorts to quite frequently.
That the Isrealis have targeted clinics , hospitals , schools water and sewage facilities and that it legitimizes these targets while still denying access to Palestinians within Gaza , and only allows trucks containing aid in on a selective basis is further evidence of Israel's determination to perpetuate their manifest ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
Admittedly , under the scrutiny of the world press, they have strategically allowed the convoy led bu Mr G Galloway through.Not to have done so would have been deemed to a strategic gaffe.
But there are sufficient gaffes coming from within the Israeli military now. The admission that the soldiers used depraved and deadly tactics not just to kill the innocent Gazan civilians - one quarter of whom are children , and that these admissions include tactice designed and calculated to demean an already overwhelmed and fenced in population on non combatants ; - these may prove difficult even for the Israelis to defend .
They may well resort to the Bart Simpson defence - I didnt do it - You cant prove that I did it, - and even if I did it - no one saw me do it.

Is it likely that Israeli soldiers will be allowed even if they wished , to do so, to give evidence against one another.
That the Israeli army should be allowed to investigate their own atrocities should and will not be countenanced by the world court.

But will the Army subject themselves to prosecution by the ICHR - or UNCHR.

And what does Mr Mitchell , who so painstakingly sought peace in Northern Ireland - or Ms Clinton - where will these stand when the evidence stacks up in such a disproportionate manner .
Yes of course there are war crimes to be investigated on the Palestinian side also; the use of human shields, the relentless bombardment with quassam rockets.the targeting of civilian populations . These must be investigated with no less degree of scrutiny and without the yokel of the ' victimhood ' emasculation .

Finally , If we reflect on Operation Grapes of Wrath , whereby the Israeli army killed over one hundred civilians seeking refuge in a UN compound in Qana , Southern Lebanon , we must not expect any revelations from the Army in this more recent and much more barbaric case .
- but we will again hear the Holocaust argument - I can hear the drumbeat already .