Dive into the archives.
- Pursuing Justice
The residents of Gaza are not waiting on the Goldstone Report to take action. The Defense Ministry and the Tel Aviv Prosecution have reportedly received some 1,500 notices of future civil lawsuits against the IDF over damage caused during Operation Cast Lead. (full article…)
- More Human Rights Abusers Terrified of any Precedent
China will oppose discussing the Goldstone report at the United Nations Security Council, Chinese members of parliament told a delegation of visiting Israeli officials in Beijing on Wednesday. (full article…)
- Zionist PR
While the IDF has expressed objection to the formation of an external inquiry committee to probe Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, a top General Staff official told Ynet on Wednesday that more could be done on the PR front. (full article…)
- Richard Goldstone: My Mission – and Motivation
I sincerely believed that because of my own record and the terms of the mission’s mandate we would receive the cooperation of the Israeli government. Its refusal to cooperate was a grave error. My plea for cooperation was repeated before and during the investigation and it sits, plain as day, in the appendices of the [...]
- Don’t Worry, We Never Doubted It
American officials say Washington will likely exercise its veto power if report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza is brought to a Security Council vote. (full article…)
- The NYT Always Gives Israel the Final Word
By the Israeli military’s count, 1,166 people were killed in the war: 295 noncombatants, 709 of what it called Hamas terrorist operatives, and 162 men whose affiliations remain undetermined. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza said 1,417 died: 926 civilians, 236 combatants and 255 police officers. Israel says about 400 Gazans die of [...]
- I Forgive All But Japan, Norway and Belgium – What Gives?
The abstaining countries included: Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. (full article…)
- Zionist Outbursts
MK Danny Danon attacked the Goldstone report during a speech in Knesset Wednesday and ripped up a synopsis of it. (full article…)
- Zionists are Scared
The political echelon in Jerusalem has decided to use the explosion that occurred at the Hezbollah member’s house in Tyre this week to divert international attention from the Gaza war report to be debated in the UN starting Wednesday. Israel is hoping to put the spotlight on Hezbollah’s violation of Resolution 1701 that ended the [...]
- Zionist Realpolitik
Israeli defence officials told the Jerusalem Post they were rethinking arms sales to Turkey and would end support for Turkey in its efforts to stop the US Congress voting to declare the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks a genocide. (full article…)
- I Wonder
How does Obama’s suppression of Israeli war crimes in the Goldstone Report factor into his silly prize?
- If the NYT Were Honest…
In Gaza, posters appeared on walls on Wednesday calling Mr. Abbas a traitor and saying he should be consigned to “the trash heap of history.” Gaza is controlled by Hamas, the militant Islamic group that is the Palestinian Authority’s main rival. (full article…) …then they would mention that resentment of the Mahmoud Abbas and the [...]
- We Need More Swedens
Stockholm’s foreign minister urges UN human rights council to discuss report probing Gaza war despite expressed reservations as to its credibility (full article…)
- Calls Obeying U.S. Masters “Mistake”
A member of President Mahmoud Abbas’ inner circle says the Palestinian leadership made a mistake by suspending action on a Gaza war crimes report . (full article…) This entire episode makes we wonder if the U.S. is opening a way for Mohammed Dahlan to push Abbas aside.
- Zionists Are Concerned
After Ehud Barak nearly arrested in London, Minister Ya’alon cancels his trip to Britain ‘in light of legal recommendation.’ However, together with Mazuz, only two lawyers handling some 1,000 foreign lawsuits against politicians and military officers. ‘Situation intolerable,’ said a senior official in Jerusalem (full article…)
- U.S. Pressure & the Lousy Palestinian Authority
In a startling shift, the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council dropped its efforts to forward a report accusing Israel of possible war crimes to the Security Council, under pressure from the United States, diplomats said Thursday. (full article…)
- And Israelis Have Fired Rockets At Palestine For 42 Years
It was misleading for the commission to examine only the 13 months from June 2008 to July 2009, she said. Palestinians in Gaza had fired rockets into Israel for eight years. (full article…)
- Culture of Impunity
“A culture of impunity in the region has existed for too long,” Goldstone, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, told the UN Human Rights Council. “The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible war crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point; the ongoing lack of justice is undermining any hope for a successful [...]
- Diplomatic Immunity For War Crimes
“No arrest warrant has been issued, and in any event, he has immunity due to his being a minister in the government,” the bureau said in a statement. “Therefore, his program will continue without disturbance.” (full article…)
- Capable… But Willing?
Ms. Rice denied a double standard. The report had a lopsided focus on Israel, which is capable of investigating possible war crimes, while Sudan is not, she said. (full article…)
- The Israeli “Left”
Tel Aviv is, in fact, the most politically liberal city in Israel and offers a sharp contrast to the spirit of religious conservatism that informs Jerusalem. It votes to the left and looks to Europe. Many inhabitants yearn for nothing more than to live the life of a hot Mediterranean city, to be, say, the [...]
- We Thought We Could Get Away With It
They expected the military operation to be condemned as grossly disproportionate. They expected Israel to be lambasted for not taking sufficient care to avoid civilian casualties. But they never imagined that the report would accuse the Jewish state of intentionally aiming at civilians. (full article…)
- Disgrace in the Hague
Perhaps next time we set out to wage another vain and miserable war, we will take into account not only the number of fatalities we are likely to sustain, but also the heavy political damage such wars cause. On the eve of the Jewish New Year, Israel, deservedly, is becoming an outcast and detested country. [...]
- Unbalanced, One-Sided & Basically Unacceptable
We have long expressed our very serious concern with the mandate that was given (to Goldstone’s team) by the Human Rights Council prior to our joining the Council, which we viewed as unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable. (full article…) Strange, the same adjectives have been used to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza.
- Good.
Israel is concerned that officers, and even senior government officials and ministers who were involved in approving the operation, would be at risk of being arrested in any country that is a signatory to the treaty recognizing the ICC in The Hague and is therefore obligated to respect its arrest warrants. (full article…)
- Routine Condemnation – For Routine Atrocities
“The mandate of the Goldstone Commission was one-sided from the outset. The initiative to establish the commission came from the UN Human Rights Council which is known for its routine condemnation of Israel.” (full article…)
- Joke of the Day
“Any comparison of Israel’s fight on terror with recent conflicts in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. immediately shows that Israel holds itself to the highest ethical standard.” (full article…)
- My Lords…
My Lords, I think it is important and is a reflection of the fact that there are people of good will on all sides of this who, whatever their views about the conflict and its origins or long-term peace, recognise that in today%u2019s world these kinds of crimes, whether they occur in Gaza, northern Sri [...]
- I Agree With Israel (Perhaps For Different Reasons)
Israel called the Goldstone Commission Report “nauseating” on Tuesday … (more…)
- Israeli War Crimes and the United Nations
The United Nations’ investigation into Israel’s recent massacre in Gaza has now concluded. In general I think the release of their 500+ page report is an important step forward in the process of holding Israel accountable for its horrendous actions earlier this year. Judge Richard Goldstone (whom I met at a talk in San Diego [...]
- Zionist (Lack of) Methodology
PCHR and B’Tselem based their tallies on painstaking field research. (There are some small discrepancies between them. But most can be explained by differences in the definitions used.) The Israeli government, by contrast, has not revealed the methodology by which – without having any access at all to surviving family members or local officials on [...]
- Obama’s War
The prosecutor of the international criminal court is collecting information on alleged war crimes committed by Nato and the Taliban in Afghanistan. (more…)
- Every Crime Recorded
According to the B’Tselem data, 773 of those killed did not take part in the hostilities, 320 of whom were minors under the age of 18 and 109 were women (above the age of 18). The rest of those killed were 330 armed combatants, 245 Palestinian policemen – most of whom were killed in aerial [...]
- Every Crime Recorded
The first detailed casualty figures from an Israeli human rights organisation since the war ended puts the number of children under 16 killed in the offensive at 252 as opposed to the 89 cited by the military. B’Tselem says its fieldworkers gathered death certificates, photos, and testimonies relating to all 252 of the children. (more…)
- Zionists Are Scared
Political, legal assault against Israel is just beginning (more…)
- Israel’s Crimes
Though Mr Deeb, 40, is not the self-pitying type, the reaction of his colleagues was understandable. For among the many thousands of Gazans bereaved by the war, few lives can have been as shattered as his. Alerted by phone, he had rushed back from work on the afternoon of 6 January to find the family [...]
- Zionist Demotion
Former Gaza Division Commander Brig.-Gen Moshe “Chico” Tamir plans to appeal a military court decision on Thursday to demote him to the rank of colonel for permitting his underage son to drive an IDF dune buggy and attempting to cover-up a subsequent accident. (more…) But for participating in the massacre of 1,400 Palestinians—now that’s a [...]
- Refusing To Cooperate
Israel has refused to cooperate with investigation of its conduct during an offensive on Gaza earlier this year, depriving Judge Richard Goldstone and his team access to military sources and victims of ongoing rocket attacks. (more…) Israel consistently complains that the UN fails to investigate rocket attacks against Israeli civilians while it unduly criticizes the [...]
- Israeli War Crimes
Amer al-Dayah, 28, is the only member of a family of 23 who survived the bombardment of his parents’ house. The dead included his parents, three brothers, three sisters-in-law, two sisters and 12 nieces and nephews. Al-Alami shows some of the photos in the files. One depicts a child’s head in the rubble, eyes wide [...]
- This is Zionism
Carrying a white flag, Rawhiyya led a group of women and children out of the compound and into the village in the early hours of 13 January, according to residents and human rights groups. She was shot in the head with a single bullet, independent testimonies confirm, and took 12 hours to die after a [...]
- Covering Up Israel’s Gaza Crimes
Such investigations, the summary states, should be carried out by an “impartial inquiry mandated, and adequately resourced, to investigate allegations of violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and southern Israel by the [Israeli army] and by Hamas and other Palestinian militants.” The board of inquiry corroborated the already existing masses of evidence collected by [...]
- The Israeli “Peace” Camp
Poll: 58% of Israeli Jews back two-state solution (more…) Oh yeah… and 82% of Israelis think Israel should have killed more Palestinians in Gaza during the slaughter there earlier this year.
- Victims of Zionism
As soon as the Israeli troops pulled out of Gaza in mid-to-late January the Khader family went home—to find a pile of rubble. Even their chicken pen had been bulldozed. It had been their sole source of income since Mr Khader, along with thousands of other Gazan men, lost his permit to work in Israel [...]
- On Leonard Cohen
“You will perform in a state whose propaganda services will extract every ounce of mileage from your presence. They will use it to whitewash their war crimes.” (more…)
- Branded anti-Semitic
The country’s gates were closed to the UN fact-finding mission headed by Jewish South African Richard Goldstone, as if it were Zimbabwe or North Korea, as if it had much to hide. The president brusquely rebuked the UN’s Ban Ki-moon and suggested he visits Auschwitz, until eventually the secretary general was forced to shrink from [...]
- Political Cowardice
But in a covering letter attached to his own 27-page summary of the report, leaked last night, the secretary-general bluntly rejected [the UN report's] recommendations for further investigations into whether Israel had breached international law during the offensive, including by its use of white phosphorus. (more…)
- Israeli War Crimes
A Spanish judge said Monday he will continue to investigate seven current and former Israeli officials over an Air Force bombing in Gaza in 2002 that killed a Hamas militant and 14 civilians.(more…)
- Struggling in the Aftermath
“Someone who had a wall knocked down had it rebuilt at the absolute minimum cost,” a Palestinian resident of Khan Younis told Ynet, “but anyone who received compensation for broken windows prefers to close the windows off with nylon instead of installing new ones, in order to use the money received for daily living.” (more…)
- Immunity for War Crimes
A federal appeals court says a former Israeli security chief cannot be sued in the United States for 15 deaths in a Gaza City bombing. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling Thursday in New York. The court said Avraham Dichter was immune under common law from being held responsible for the [...]
- Custodians of Israeli Oppression
Three months after the end of the war, much of the aid has either rotted or been irreparably damaged as a result of both rain and sunshine, and Egypt’s refusal to open the Rafah crossing. “To be honest, most of this aid will never make it to Gaza,” a local government official told IPS on [...]
- They Will Not Forget What You Have Done
The Ministry of Social Affairs in the Gaza Strip reported that the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip left 1346 children orphaned, 437 dead and 1872 wounded. (more…)
- Noam Chomsky: “Exterminate All the Brutes”
On Saturday December 27, the latest US-Israeli attack on helpless Palestinians was launched. The attack had been meticulously planned, for over 6 months according to the Israeli press. The planning had two components: military and propaganda. It was based on the lessons of Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon, which was considered to be poorly planned [...]
- Chomsky on the Upcoming Khmer Rouge Trials
“It [the trial] shouldn’t be limited to the Cambodians,” said Chomsky in an interview that appeared on the weekend. “An international trial that doesn’t take into account Henry Kissinger or other authors of the American bombings and the support of the KR [Khmer Rouge] after they were kicked out of the country, that’s just a [...]
- Case Closed?
Israel was very quick to close the case on allegations of “serious misconduct” during its recent massacre in Gaza. Earlier this month, several Israeli soldiers revealed the permissive atmosphere towards killing Palestinian civilians during Israel’s invasion. Among other shocking revelations, one soldier recounted the intentional shooting of an unarmed woman and her two children. Commenting [...]
- Israeli War Crimes
When Israeli soldiers expelled Abir Hijeh, her five children and their neighbors from homes in a Gaza war zone, she said they warned her in broken Arabic: Go south or you might get shot. The group went the wrong way and came under fire from Israeli soldiers. Hijeh was wounded and her 2-year-old daughter was [...]
- Zionist Moral Relativism: We Only Killed 295 Civilians
The tally says 295 civilians lost their lives — about a third of the figure of 926 reported by Gaza’s Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (www.pchrgaza.org), which published a full list of names earlier this month. (more…)
- Israeli War Crimes
I just flew into Brussels last night after my aborted attempt at getting into Gaza – and today the online community is all abuzz about Israeli war crimes, thanks to a report just published by the U.S. organization, Human Rights Watch. According to the report: Israel “deliberately and recklessly” fired white phosphorus shells in densely [...]
- Israel is Sick
The Israeli military was quick to point out that, ‘This type of humour is unbecoming and should be condemned.’ This isn’t very convincing when you consider the graffiti left by Israeli soldiers who recently occupied houses across the northern Gaza Strip: ‘Death will find you … soon’ scrawled on the bedroom wall of Majeda Abu [...]
- Victims of Zionism
Witness reports taken by HRW describe the killing of a bank manager, his wife and two of their children in their car during white phosphorus shelling in the Tel-el-Hawa area of Gaza City on 15 January. According to a Palestinian journalist, Fathi Sabbah, whose own building in the area came under attack, when ambulances came [...]
- The Most Moral Army in the World
“800 terrorists and 300 civilians, who we did not want to harm, were killed in the last operation,” Galant said. “This ratio of almost a quarter [of the individuals] uninvolved [in the fighting] is an achievement unmatched in the history of this kind of combat,” he added. (more…) Israel includes police officers in this tally [...]
- This is Zionism
Medics and ambulance drivers said they were targeted when they tried to tend to the wounded. Sixteen of them were killed. According to the World Health Organisation, more than half of Gaza’s 27 hospitals and 44 clinics were damaged by Israeli bombs. Two clinics were destroyed. In one incident, paramedics were fired on by a [...]
- Standards of the IDF
‘My impression is that IDF behaved ethically and morally. If there were incidents, they were limited,’ says Gabi Ashkenazi in his first response to soldiers’ testimonies on wrong doings in Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead. (more…) Limited? 960 of 1,434 dead?
- Human Shield
Israel Defense Forces soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield during the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a group of UN human rights experts said Monday. (more…)
- The Brave Work of “Breaking the Silence”
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 [...]
- Attacking Ambulances
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR) said Israel attacked 34 medical care facilities and prevented Palestinian medical teams from reaching the wounded during the offensive in December and January. (more…)
- Zionism Defined
“Rules of Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue,” was handwritten in Hebrew on a sheet of paper found in one of the Palestinian homes the Israel Defense Forces took over during Operation Cast Lead. A reservist officer who did not take part in the Gaza offensive believes that the note is part of orders a [...]
- Not Welcome in Britain
London will not push through changes in legislation that permits the arrest of Israel Defense Forces officers visiting Britain on war crimes, as previously promised, Jerusalem has learned. (more…)
- Israeli War Crimes
They taught us to dread zarchan [from the Hebrew root to shine or glow]. They taught us, as medics, that if we treated a phosphorous wound, prepare for the worst. It doesn’t merely burn, they taught us, it burns first through the skin, then through the soft tissue, until it reaches bone. They taught us [...]
- Victims of Zionism
“We all put our hands up and yelled, ‘We’re women and children. We’re not the resistance,’ ” recalled Sherine Helw, Fuad’s daughter-in-law. The soldiers opened fire on Fuad, said Sherine, and he died in front of his family. (more…)
- Morality of the IDF
“I do not know of any military that is more moral, fair and sensitive to civilians’ lives than the IDF,” he said. (more…) They had just gone a little distance when there was an explosion. We were hit. We fell down, and I couldn’t see or hear anything. Then I started hearing again. I heard [...]
- Only Israel Is Allowed To Conduct Mass Slaughter
Israel is a small country living in a permanent state of siege, highly security-conscious and surrounded by forces hostile to it; India is a giant country whose borders are notoriously permeable, an open society known for its lax and easygoing ways. (more…)
- Victims of Zionism
Amira Qirm lay on a hospital bed today with her right leg in plaster, and held together by a line of steel pins dug deep into her skin. For several days after her operation Amira, 15, was unable to speak, and even now talks only in a low whisper. In her past are bitter memories: [...]
- Back to School in Gaza
Schools in the Gaza Strip operated by the United Nations have reopened for the first time since the Israeli offensive against Hamas militants. (more…)
- Change? Not So Much.
The Obama administration is reluctant to turn over too many rocks in the Bush administration’s conduct in the War on Terror. Obama has pledged to reach a post-partisan nirvana, and Republicans could condemn any investigation of Bush administration abuse of the republic as a partisan witch-hunt. Also, the Obama administration has a conflict of interest [...]
- Gaza in Ruins
Through the hole in the wall of his house, Sadala sees a landscape in gray and brown. This is where a neighbourhood had stood, his neighbourhood. Now there is a snake of sand around the bomb crater. It is impossible to tell where the streets once stood. Family houses have turned into piles of debris. [...]
- C’était Comme Un Jeu Pour Les Soldats
Zahwa, la veuve d’Atiyeh, raconte en détail, les larmes aux yeux, le drame qu’elle a vécu. “C’était comme un jeu pour les soldats. Ils riaient”, affirme-t-elle. Zeinab, 12 ans, qui a perdu son père, sa mère, deux frères et des cousins. Shiffa, 19 ans a également enterré son père, sa mère, sa tante et son [...]
- Victims of Zionism
But the devastation of war is everywhere, the terrifying memory of it still raw. Sitting in the ruins of Zeitun, a district almost completely destroyed, Arafat Samouni painfully recounts the events that ended in the death of 30 members of his extended family in one of the war’s most publicised tragedies. Still in shock, he [...]
- Signs of Devastation
In the aftermath of the war, there are scenes of devastation at nearly every turn in Gaza. Whole blocks are pockmarked by bullet holes. The earth craters where tall buildings once stood. Mourning tents line the roadways. (more…)
