On 16 Septemer 2009, a special UN committee issued a 575 page report regarding Israel’s three-week invasion and bombardment of Gaza at the end of 2008. The report states that both Israel’s military and Palestinian militants violated international laws on warfare, however, the bulk of the report was a laundry list of Israeli violations, including Israeli troops using Palestinian civilians as human sheilds, killing civilians waving white flags, targeting civilians, needlessly demoslishing civilian homes, and recklessly using white phosphorous in populated areas.
Israel replied by calling the UN, it’s report, and the committee that created it “anti-semitic”.
Hamas killed 17 Israelis for all of 2008. In response, Israel bombed and invaded Gaza, killing 1400 palestinians, of which about 900 were civilians.
Israel kills hundreds of palestinian civilians to show the palestinians just how wrong it is to kill Israeli civilians. And Israel sees no moral problem with this. No violation of international laws regarding the conduct of war.
And when the UN issues a mammoth, 575 page report, that documents numerous examples of war crimes, Israel completely ignores the facts and plays the “anti-semite!” card to halt all criticism of Israel.
The report suggests that if Israel does not conduct a serious and independent investigation into war crimes, then UN should pursue a war crimes tria in the International Criminal Court.
I’m trying to imagine how the US, the Israel-can-do-no-wrong defender of Israel, would ever allow such a case to proceed, but maybe the UN could pursue it in a manner that does not allow the US to veto it.
At the moment, it seems that Israel has absolutely no intention of going ahead with any kind of peace deal with the Palestinians. Israel continues to slowly invade Palestinian land with settlement expansions. Israel continues to list all manner of demands that the Palestinians must meet before Israel will do anything to move towards peace.
It might be that a war crimes trial and a conviction might be the tipping point to cast light on the extremists and militants in Israel and show them for what they are: militant fascists who view Palestinians as sub-human. Maybe that would swing the pendulum in Israel enough to actually support a real, long-term peace deal with the palestinians, maybe even get a palestinian state going.
Obama might want to consider using this as the stick to get Israel moving in the direction of peace.
But I won’t hold my breath. If the UN really wants to pursue Israeli war crimes in Israel, then they’ll have to figure out a way to do it in a way that avoids US intervention and obstructionism.
http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/jerusalem/2009/09/un-finds-gaza-war-crimes-israel-declares-war-on-un.html
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