NEWS MIDDLE EAST
Israeli army faces fresh criticism

Among the offences listed by the PHR are Israel's attacks on medical personnel and facilities [EPA]

Israel's army violated codes of ethics and international law during the war in Gaza by attacking medics and refusing to allow the treatment of wounded, a human-rights group says.

In a report published on Monday, the group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) calls for an independent body to investigate the military's conduct during its 22-day war on Gaza, which ended on January 18.

The actions reflect a "demonisation of Palestinians [which] bears a heavy price for Israeli society".

In its defence, the Israeli army said it had not yet concluded its investigation, but that fighters from Gaza's ruling Hamas had fought under the cover of ambulances and medical facilities.

'Indiscriminate attacks'

Among the offences listed by PHR are "attacks on medical personnel; damage to medical facilities and indiscriminate attacks on civilians not involved in the fighting".

The report further says: "Israel placed numerous obstacles in the course of the operation that impeded emergency medical evacuation of the sick and wounded and also caused families to be trapped for days without food, water and medications.

In depth

Analysis and features from after the war

"The actions ... violate directives of international law which forbid attacks on medical centres and medical teams during fighting" and "blatantly violated codes of ethics."

The PHR report is the latest in a string of accusations relating to the conduct of the Israeli army during the Gaza offensive.

Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel's army chief of staff, dismissed on Monday allegations that civilians were killed during the assault, based on soldiers' testimonies published last week.

"I do not believe that IDF troops hurt Palestinian civilians in cold blood," he said in a speech.

"We will wait the outcome of an investigation, but my impression is that the IDF acted morally and if such cases did take place they were isolated."

Family tragedy

During the offensive, Israeli fire killed 16 Palestinian medical personnel and wounded 25 others while eight hospitals and 26 primary care clinics were attacked, according to figures from the United Nations and the PHR.

Among the specific incidents cited by the PHR report is that of a "Mr Shurrab" whose two sons were shot by Israeli forces while they drove towards the southern city of Khan Younis on January 16.

Gaza medic distraught after Israel's war

"One of the sons died immediately, the other bled to death for 12 hours," PHR said.
"All that time the Israeli soldiers were within a short distance from the Shurrabs but did not provide any assistance despite the father's repeated requests."

PHR condemned the Israeli army, which it said "flaunts its morality", for "declining to help evacuate injured civilians and trapped families, when soldiers acted in a trigger-happy manner as they opened fire on ambulances, medical installations and medical personnel".

Dani Filc, PHR's chairman, said: "We have noticed a stark decline in IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] morals concerning the Palestinian population of Gaza, which in reality amounts to a contempt for Palestinian lives.

"It is critical that the investigation of Operation Cast Lead is completed by a neutral, external investigator without ties to the IDF."

The Israeli army said it was investigating the claims in a "thorough" manner. It insisted that soldiers were instructed to "act with the utmost caution in order not to cause harm to medical vehicles and medical facilities".

Hamas blamed

In a statement, the Israeli army blamed Hamas for putting health personnel and medical facilities in harm's way.

"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"

Dani Filc
chairman, PHR

"Throughout the fighting, Hamas methodically made use of medical vehicles, facilities and uniforms in order to conceal and camouflage terrorist activity, and in general used ambulances to carry terror activists and weapons," it said.
"Hamas used ambulances to "rescue" terror activists from the battlefield and used hospitals and medical facilities as hiding places".

Such actions "greatly complicated the co-ordination of rescue and medical evacuation", the army said.

"It must be emphasised that under international law, the protections afforded to medical teams or "protected institutions" ... cease to exist when these medical teams or institutions are not used for humanitarian purposes rather for carrying out actions intended to harm the state of Israel".

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/04/200946114911670191.html

abuayisha wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6X5qBeg4Gg&feature=player_embedded   Israel Rejects Alleged War Crimes

Shasta'sAunt wrote: abuayisha wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6X5qBeg4Gg&feature=player_embedded   Israel Rejects Alleged War Crimes     I'm shocked!

S'A
If you paid attention to what Dr. Mads Gilbert quoted from his friend" The right of lying belong to only them have power not justice on their side" Said it all...

And now the following news would really shock you...I just can't believe with Zionist/Neocon monetary control & final rip off the Americans' have lost all they worked for centuries, the freedom of expression...It is really a sorry state beyond any redemption...

May 7, 2009

The End of Free Speech?

Criminalizing Criticism of Israel

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

On October 16, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Israel Lobby�s bill, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act.  This legislation requires the US Department of State to monitor anti-semitism world wide.

To monitor anti-semitism, it has to be defined.  What is the definition?  Basically, as defined by the Israel Lobby and Abe Foxman, it boils down to any criticism of Israel or Jews. 

Rahm Israel Emanuel hasn�t been mopping floors at the White House.
As soon as he gets the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passed, it will become a crime for any American to tell the truth about Israel�s treatment of Palestinians and theft of their lands.  

It will be a crime for Christians to acknowledge the New Testament�s account of Jews demanding the crucifixion of Jesus.

It will be a crime to report the extraordinary influence of the Israel Lobby on the White House and Congress, such as the AIPAC-written resolutions praising Israel for its war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza that were endorsed by 100 per cent  of the US Senate and 99 per cent  of the House of Representatives, while the rest of the world condemned Israel for its barbarity. 

It will be a crime to doubt the Holocaust.  

It will become a crime to note the disproportionate representation of Jews in the media, finance, and foreign policy.

In other words, it means the end of free speech, free inquiry, and the First Amendment to the Constitution. Any facts or truths that cast aspersion upon Israel will simply be banned. 

Given the hubris of the US government, which leads Washington to apply US law to every country and organization, what will happen to the International Red Cross, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and the various human rights organizations that have demanded investigations of Israel�s military assault on Gaza�s civilian population?  Will they all be arrested for the hate crime of �excessive� criticism of Israel?

This is a serious question. 

A recent UN report, which is yet to be released in its entirety, blames Israel for the deaths and injuries that occurred within the United Nations premises in Gaza.  The Israeli government has responded by charging that the UN report is �tendentious, patently biased,�  which puts the UN report into the State Department�s category of excessive criticism and strong anti-Israel sentiment.

Israel is getting away with its blatant use of the American government to silence its critics despite the fact that the Israeli press and Israeli soldiers have exposed the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the premeditated murder of women and children urged upon the Israeli invaders by rabbis.  These acts are clearly war crimes.  

It was the Israeli press that published the pictures of the Israeli soldiers� T-shirts that  indicate that the willful murder of women and children is now the culture of the Israeli army.  The T-shirts are horrific expressions of barbarity.  For example, one shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a crosshairs over her stomach and the slogan, �One shot, two kills.�  These T-shirts are an indication that Israel�s policy toward the Palestinians is one of extermination.

It has been true for years that the most potent criticism of Israel�s mistreatment of the Palestinians comes from the Israeli press and Israeli peace groups.  For example, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Jeff Halper of ICAHD have shown a moral conscience that apparently does not exist in the Western democracies where Israel�s crimes are covered up and even praised.

Will the American hate crime bill be applied to Haaretz and Jeff Halper?  Will American commentators who say nothing themselves but simply report what Haaretz and Halper have said be arrested for �spreading hatred of Israel, an anti-semitic act�?

Many Americans have been brainwashed by the propaganda that Palestinians are terrorists who threaten innocent Israel.  These Americans will see the censorship as merely part of the necessary war on terror.  They will accept the demonization of fellow citizens who report unpalatable facts about Israel and agree that such people should be punished for aiding and abetting terrorists.

A massive push is underway to criminalize criticism of Israel.  American university professors have fallen victim to the well organized attempt to eliminate all criticism of Israel.  Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure at a Catholic university because of the power of the Israel Lobby.  Now the Israel Lobby is after University of California  (at Santa Barbara,) professor Wiliam Robinson.  Robinson�s crime:  his course on global affairs included some reading assignments critical of Israel�s invasion of Gaza.

The Israel Lobby apparently succeeded in convincing the Obama Justice (sic) Department that it is anti-semitic to accuse two Jewish AIPAC officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, of spying.  The Israel Lobby succeeded in getting their trial delayed for four years, and now Attorney General Eric Holder has dropped charges.  Yet, Larry Franklin, the DOD official accused of giving secret material to Rosen and Weissman, is serving 12 years and 7 months in prison.

The absurdity is extraordinary.  The two Israeli agents are not guilty of receiving secrets, but the American official is guilty of giving secrets to them!  If there is no spy in the story, how was Franklin convicted of giving secrets to a spy?

Criminalizing criticism of Israel destroys any hope of America having an independent foreign policy in the Middle East that serves American rather than Israeli interests.  It eliminates  any prospect of Americans escaping from their enculturation with Israeli propaganda. 

To keep American minds captive, the Lobby is working to ban as anti-semitic any truth or disagreeable fact that pertains to Israel.  It is permissible to criticize every other country in the world, but it is anti-semitic to criticize Israel, and anti-semitism will soon be a universal hate-crime in the Western world.

Most of Europe has already criminalized doubting the Holocaust.  It is a crime even to confirm that it happened but to conclude that less than 6 million Jews were murdered.  

Why is the Holocaust  a subject that is off limits to examination? How could a case buttressed by hard facts possibly be endangered by kooks and anti-semitics?  Surely the case doesn�t need to be protected by thought control.  

Imprisoning people for doubts is the antithesis of modernity.  

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: [email protected]

 We are way past 1984..................God help us...........

Israeli soldiers say reckless force used in Gaza