Gaza war crime claims gather pace !
This may be a blessing in disguise for future operations.........................
Fresh allegations have come to light that gung-ho leadership inculcated a culture of disregard for Palestinian casualties
Peter Beaumont The Observer, Sunday 22 March 2009
An investigation by a group of former Israeli soldiers has uncovered new evidence of the military's conduct during the assault on Gaza two months ago. According to the group Breaking the Silence, the witness statements of the 15 soldiers who have come forward to describe their concerns over Operation Cast Lead appear to corroborate claims of random killings and vandalism carried out during the operation made by a separate group of anonymous servicemen during a seminar at a military college.
Although Breaking the Silence's report is not due to be published for several months, the testimony it has received already suggests widespread abuses stemming from orders originating with the Israeli military chain of command.
"This is not a military that we recognise," said Mikhael Manekin, one of the former soldiers involved with the group. "This is in a different category to things we have seen before. We have spoken to a lot of different people who served in different places in Gaza, including officers. We are not talking about some units being more aggressive than others, but underlying policy. So much so that we are talking to soldiers who said that they were having to restrain the orders given."
Manekin described how soldiers had reported their units being specifically warned by officers not to discuss what they had seen and done in Gaza.
The outlines of the evidence gathered comes hard on the heels of the disclosure by the Oranim Academy's pre-military course last week of devastating witness accounts supplied by soldiers involved in the fighting, including the "unjustified" shooting of civilians.
The claims appear to add credence to widespread claims of Israeli soldiers firing on civilians, made by Palestinians to journalists and international investigators and lawyers who entered Gaza at the end of the conflict and in its aftermath.
With Israeli newspapers threatening new disclosures, the New York Times has weighed in with an interview with a reservist describing the rules of engagement for the Gaza operation. Amir Marmor, a 33-year-old military reservist, told the newspaper that he was stunned to discover the way civilian casualties were discussed in training talks before his tank unit entered Gaza in January.
"Shoot and don't worry about the consequences" was the message from commanders, said Marmor. Describing the behaviour of a lieutenant-colonel who briefed the troops, Marmor added: "His whole demeanour was extremely gung-ho. This is very, very different from my usual experience. I have been doing reserve duty for 12 years, and it was always an issue how to avoid causing civilian injuries. He said that in this operation, we are not taking any chances. Morality aside, we have to do our job. We will cry about it later."
These are not the first allegations of war crimes levelled at the Israeli military. Last Thursday, the special rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council, Richard Falk, said that the assault on Gaza appeared to be a "war crime of the greatest magnitude" and called on the UN to establish an experts' group to investigate potential violations.
Attempts by the Israeli media to publish the rules of engagement for the Gaza campaign have been blocked by the military censor, but in the past couple of weeks the contents of those rules have begun to to emerge in anecdotal evidence - suggesting strongly that soldiers were told to avoid Israeli casualties at all costs by means of the massive use of firepower in a densely populated urban environment.
Worrying new questions have also been raised about the culture of the Israeli military, indicating a high level of dehumanisation and disregard for Palestinians among the chain of command and even among the military rabbinate.
An investigation by reporter Uri Blau, published on Friday in Haaretz, disclosed how Israeli soldiers were ordering T-shirts to mark the end of operations, featuring grotesque images including dead babies, mothers weeping by their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques.
Another T-shirt designed for infantry snipers bears the inscription "Better use Durex" next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A shirt designed for the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion depicts a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, "1 shot, 2 kills".
The claims have sparked a bitter debate within Israel's defence forces and wider society over the "morality" of the IDF and its behaviour in Gaza.
Since the first claims appeared, other Israeli media have run articles criticising the head of the military academy who revealed the soldiers' testimony, while others have run interviews with soldiers denying that the IDF had been involved in any wrong-doing and questioning the motives of those who had come forward.
"I don't believe there were soldiers who were looking to kill [Palestinians] for no reason," 21-year-old Givati Brigade soldier Assaf Danziger was quoted by Yedioth Aharonot. "What happened there was not enjoyable for anyone; we wanted it to end as soon as possible and tried to avoid contact with innocent civilians."
The Observer
Yes, the article in Ha'aretz is about disturbing and disgusting people. BUT it was published in Ha'aretz, one of Israel's two newspapers with a very negative view of these activities. And out of the over 300 comments by Israeli readers I only saw a four or five who commented in favor. The rest were as appalled as we are by this display. So my hope is that although there are crazies and those who make money off of crazies there are still sane people in the majority in this world.
Mandi
Link http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html
Boycott Israel Campaign
"War Crime"...its not the first isralei one.
Armageddon is coming. Let's be patient. Justice will be made in this life.
War crimes are as old as war itself. Knowing about it should not surprise anybody but keeping such criminals without punishment is a worse crime.
What really did and is still shocking me is the scene of Israeli children signing bombs fired towards Lebanon during 2006 war. Involving innocent children in such war and implanting in their head the concept of killing and making it fun is a much much worse crime.
Here is a link for those who did not see the pics:
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2006/07/israeli-children-sign-their-missiles_18.html
===================================== http://www.qatarliving.com/node/58409
I agree completely, fubar, but I'm just glad these things are coming to light. Sometimes publicity is the best we can do until we find a way forward with prosecution.
Mandi
I agree with Brit. It's the superiors at fault. On the same note however, how is what the superiors are doing any different then what the Palestinians are teaching their "soldiers"
Atrocities occur in war. Soldiers are human and when the sh1t is flying and the adrenaline is flowing, humans can get carried away.
However, for superiors to condone and encourage such behaviour is unacceptable.
As long as Israel has the total, uncritical support of the US it can commit as many war crimes and crimes against humanity (e.g. cutting off food, water and medical supplies) as it likes, as it knows very well.
When you have a state founded on the basis of having God-given racial superiority, a God-given right to possess what belongs to others, a superpower guarantee that you will not be defeated militarily and complete immunity for your actions, what sort of consequences does anybody expect?
The fact that the Israeli State allows organisations like B'tselem and Ha'aretz to report its atrocities while doing nothing whatsoever to mitigate them shows just how little it cares about what anybody thinks of it. The only bright spot is the B'tselem and Haaretz do show that there are some Israelis who genuinely want peace.
It could possibly be done, yes. I'm not making an argument that it SHOULDN'T be done, but I am saying that it will prove very difficult.
Jurisdiction is the first sticking point. When Palestinian groups petitioned the ICC this month, its prosecutor said that it was unable to take the case because it had no jurisdiction over Israel, a nonsignatory to the court.
Palestinians are trying to argue that since the crimes took place in Palestine, then the PA should be able to move the case to court. However it remains to be seen whether, for the purposes of this argument, Palestine is a state, de-facto state, or not a state at all.
The UN Security Council could possibly refer the case to court, but it would be a surprise if the US didn't veto such a resolution as you would normally expect.
The Israelis could also prevent such a case by holding their own internal investigation domestically and prosecuting any offenders.
As much as I want to see such a case reach the ICC, I just doubt it ever will do so.
It happened after the Vietnam war and many of the soldiers that did the inhumane acts were made accountable for their actions.
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the main difference between a dog and man.
-Mark Twain-
seriously looked into and those responsible for such heinous deeds are severely punished. I know that things like this happen in wars but to let them go unpunished would be such a horrible injustice and open it up to happen again all over the world.
Why is it that some people take it upon themselves to go into "murder mode" when they are in a position of power? Its never the entire forces, but only a handful of seriously mentally ill people who do that...surely they could have some sort of testing to have an inkling of mental disturbances BEFORE they are admitted into the armed forces and allowed to handle a weapon. It happens in every military also..not just the Israeli army. Makes you wonder about the mental status of some people and how they could be so horribly cruel...actually some of the horrendous acts reminded me of what happened to the Jewish people before(and during) WWII began...and here they are doing the same to others...how quickly we forget history...
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the main difference between a dog and man.
-Mark Twain-
I think the headline for this article is a little misleading. No matter how much evidence exists that a war crime took place in Gaza, it will be almost impossible for such a case to make it to the ICC. There are so many diplomatic, legal and practical hurdles to overcome.
The same allegations were made after the 2006 operation in Lebanon, with accusations of war crimes being thrown (justifiably) at Israel. But just because you commit a war crime doesn't mean you will be prosecuted for doing so.