Jan. 3, 2009 (World News Trust) -- Lie
#1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking
to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.
The
Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in
the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does
not, under international law, deprive that population of their
protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the
guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.
Moreover,
the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas,
which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been
responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely
inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets
within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza
kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.
Hamas
has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military
organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the
democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people.
Dozens of these elected leaders have been kidnapped and held in Israeli
prisons without charge. Others have been targeted for assassination,
such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official. To kill Rayan, Israel
targeted a residential apartment building. The strike not only killed
Rayan but two of his wives and four of his children, along with six
others. There is no justification for such an attack under
international law. This was a war crime.
Other
of Israel’s bombardment with protected status under international law
have included a mosque, a prison, police stations, and a university, in
addition to residential buildings.
Moreover,
Israel has long held Gaza under siege, allowing only the most minimal
amounts of humanitarian supplies to enter. Israel is bombing and
killing Palestinian civilians. Countless more have been wounded, and
cannot receive medical attention. Hospitals running on generators have
little or no fuel. Doctors have no proper equipment or medical supplies
to treat the injured. These people, too, are the victims of Israeli
policies targeted not at Hamas or legitimate military targets, but
directly designed to punish the civilian population.
Lie
#2) Hamas violated the cease-fire. The Israeli bombardment is a
response to Palestinian rocket fire and is designed to end such rocket
attacks.
Israel never observed the cease-fire to begin with. From the beginning, it announced a “special security zone” within the
Gaza Strip and announced that Palestinians who enter this zone will be
fired upon. In other words, Israel announced its intention that Israeli
soldiers would shoot at farmers and other individuals attempting to
reach their own land in direct violation of not only the cease-fire but
international law.
Despite
shooting incidents, including ones resulting in Palestinians getting
injured, Hamas still held to the cease-fire from the time it went into
effect June 19 until Israel effectively ended the truce Nov.
4 by launching an airstrike into Gaza that killed five persons and injured
several persons.
Israel’s
violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in retaliation from
militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in response. The
increased barrage of rocket fire at the end of December is being used
as justification for the continued Israeli bombardment, but is a direct
response by militants to the Israeli attacks.
Israel's actions, including its violation of the cease-fire, predictably resulted in an escalation of rocket attacks against its own population.
Lie #3) Hamas is using human shields, a war crime.
There
has been no evidence that Hamas has used human shields. The fact is, as
previously noted, Gaza is a small piece of property that is densely
populated. Israel engages in indiscriminate warfare such as the
assassination of Nizar Rayan, in which members of his family were also
murdered. It is victims like his dead children that Israel defines as
“human shields” in its propaganda. There is no legitimacy for this
interpretation under international law. In circumstances such as these,
Hamas is not using human shields, Israel is committing war crimes in
violation of the Geneva Conventions and other applicable international
law.
Lie #4) Arab nations have not condemned Israel’s actions because they understand Israel’s justification for its assault.
The
populations of those Arab countries are outraged at Israel’s actions
and at their own governments for not condemning Israel’s assault and
acting to end the violence. Simply stated, the Arab governments do not
represent their respective Arab populations. The populations of the
Arab nations have staged mass protests in opposition to not only
Israel's actions but also the inaction of their own governments and
what they view as either complacency or complicity in Israel's crimes.
Moreover,
the refusal of Arab nations to take action to come to the aid of the
Palestinians is not because they agree with Israel’s actions, but
because they are submissive to the will of the United States, which fully supports
Israel. Egypt, for instance, which refused to open the border to allow
Palestinians wounded in the attacks to get medical treatment in
Egyptian hospitals, is heavily dependent upon U.S. aid, and is being
widely criticized within the population of the Arab countries for what
is viewed as an absolute betrayal of the Gaza Palestinians.
Even
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been regarded as a traitor to
his own people for blaming Hamas for the suffering of the people of
Gaza. Palestinians are also well aware of Abbas' past perceived
betrayals in conniving with Israel and the United States to sideline the
democratically elected Hamas government, culminating in a counter-coup
by Hamas in which it expelled Fatah (the military wing of Abbas'
Palestine Authority) from the Gaza Strip. While his apparent goal was
to weaken Hamas and strengthen his own position, the Palestinians and
other Arabs in the Middle East are so outraged at Abbas that it is
unlikely he will be able to govern effectively.
Lie
#5) Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it warned the
Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted.
Israel
claims it sent radio and telephone text messages to residents of Gaza
warning them to flee from the coming bombardment. But the people of
Gaza have nowhere to flee to. They are trapped within the Gaza Strip.
It is by Israeli design that they cannot escape across the border. It
is by Israeli design that they have no food, water, or fuel by which to
survive. It is by Israeli design that hospitals in Gaza have no
electricity and few medical supplies with which to treat the injured
and save lives. And Israel has bombed vast areas of Gaza, targeting
civilian infrastructure and other sites with protected status under
international law. No place is safe within the Gaza Strip.
Jeremy R. Hammond is the editor of Foreign Policy Journal,
a website dedicated to providing news, critical analysis, and opinion
commentary on U.S. foreign policy from outside of the standard
framework offered by government officials and the mainstream corporate
media, particularly with regard to the "war on terrorism" and events in
the Middle East. He has also written for numerous other online
publications. You can contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..