Tragedies all

The latest from B'Tselem: Tragedies all:

Palestinian kills a 13 year-old boy and injures a 7 year-old boy
B'Tselem strongly condemnss [sic] the killing of a 13 year-old boy and the injuring of a 7 year-old boy by a Palestinian in the settlement of Bat Ayin in the Bethlehem district. Deliberate attacks against civilians are immoral and illegal. Wilful killing of civilians is defined as a "grave breach" of international humanitarian law and is a war crime.*


Phosphorous victim from Gaza dies
Ghada Abu Halima, 21, a Gazan mother of two, died on 29 March. Abu Halima was wounded and 5 of her relatives, among them 4 children, were killed, when the military shelled their house with white phosphorus during "Operation Cast Lead". In her testimony of 9 January, she described the attack.


Punishment of policeman who killed Palestinian increased
The Israeli Supreme Court has increased the prison sentence of border policeman Yanai Lazla for the killing of 18-year-old Imran Abu Hamdiya in 2002. Lazla and three other policemen threw Abu Hamdiya from a jeep moving at high speed after they had abducted, beaten, and abused him. B'Tselem and the Palestinian human rights organization al-Haq exposed the affair.

*3rd April: The following has just been brought to my attention regarding the Israeli boy who was murdered, and the one who was injured, by axe in the occupied territories yesterday (see the opening paragraph of this post), and, as my commenter says, it is neither an explanation, nor an excuse, but it does provide more information. Emphasis is mine.:

Ofer Gamliel, the jailed father of Yair Gamliel, who was wounded in the Bat Ayin terror attack, on Thursday refused to visit his son in the hospital accompanied by prison guards.

The Prison Service on Thursday said it would allow Gamliel to visit his son with wardens chaperoning him and without handcuffs. Gamliel who was sentenced seven years ago for participating in a plot to attack a Palestinian girls' school demanded to be released temporarily in order to visit his son.

. . .

The second victim, a 13-year-old who was killed in the attack, has been identified as Shlomo Nativ, the son of Haim and Ravital Nativ, one of the original settlers who founded Bat Ayin, a community of secular-cum-religious Jews.

Ofer Gamliel is currently serving a prison sentence for his involvement in the 'Bat Ayin underground,' which had planned to carry out an attack several years ago at a girls' school in the A-Tor neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

The 'Bat Ayin underground' was active in the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the early years of the Second Intifada.

In April 2002, police arrested Shlomo Dvir, Yarden Morag and Ofer Gamliel, 'Bat Ayin underground' members, who were later convicted of attempting to place an explosive device near the East Jerusalem school.

There is more information in the news article. I wonder if the background will be printed in the Western papers which cover the story. You might also like to look at the Alison Weir documentary on the evident disparity between reporting the deaths of Palestinian children and Israeli children. Both are tragic, of course, therefore both should be equally reported.

infected by a climate of impunity

"The Israeli military and government is repeatedly blaming Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza. Now, do we have something to say about Hamas' behavior in Gaza? Yes, we do ... This is the first in a series of reports we will be issuing. Its rocket attacks in Israel ... are a war crime. In the cases of this report ... we did not find evidence of Hamas using civilians as human shields. Now, were they in the area at the time of these attacks? In some cases, we believe they were, and that is documented in the report. We state very clearly where we believe Hamas was, and where it was not. The bottom line, and the crucial point, is even if enemy forces -- from the Israeli perspective, Hamas fighters -- are in the area, white phosphorus should not be used in civilian neighborhoods. And that's the bottom line."

"In our view, the Israeli military has been infected by a climate of impunity, going back over since 2005, the disengagement [Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza]. There is an attitude that soldiers can do what and how they want in Gaza, and this has had a direct impact on civilian lives. It has caused civilians to die. That's because soldiers believe they can get away with what they want -- no one is watching. And that's why investigations are so important, to break this climate of impunity."

Human Rights Watch, a report on Israel's Unlawful use of White Phosphorous (March 25, 2009), summarised in this article, Report excoriates Israel's use of white phosphorous in Gaza (April 1st, 2009).
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3rd April: There is a good article at Anti-War, Israel is changing the rules of war, a point that Julia Irwin made, and which does not, ultimately, bode well for anyone.

Red Cross did not comment publicly on the legality of phosphorous weapons in Gaza

It still seems to be getting reported that the International Red Cross and Human Rights Watch stated that the use of white phosphorous in Gaza was lawful. From my readings, these claims have been repudiated by the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch. Could be that there is an update that I am not aware of, however, the following is what I have read:

Peter Herby's comments on the 17th of January on the ICRC's homepage:

"If ICRC delegates in the field gather credible and precise evidence of violations, or if ICRC medical personnel corroborate reports by others, the ICRC would begin by discussing this with the party concerned – rather than speaking publicly – in keeping with our standard practices. We have not commented publicly on the legality of the current use of phosphorous weapons by Israel, contrary to what has been attributed to us in recent media reports."

Within the article linked to above, he also outlines the the rules of international humanitarian law applicable to the use of phosphorous weapons and intended to spare civilians.

Peter Herby is Coordinator of the Mines-Arms Unit in the Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Human Rights Watch (Kenneth Roth, "The Incendiary IDF", 22 January, 2009) and Amnesty International ( The conflict in Gaza; A briefing on applicable law, investigations, and accountability, January 2009) are more forthright in their discussion of the illegality.
2nd April, 2009: Also refer here.

not seen since agent orange

Amnesty International and other Human Rights bodies have been pushing hard to get the war crimes committed against the people of Gaza investigated, and when you read the following reports, you will understand why. The first report is from Sonja Karkar from Australians for Palestine, and Women for Palestine.

The second is the report that she refers to in full. The types of weapons being used on populations nowadays are truly terrifying. Within Australia, Amnesty International is aiming to get 10,000 letters sent to Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to urge him to pressure an investigation of these crimes against humanity. Last seen they had about 6,700 signatures. Over the ten days I wasn't blogging, they didn't gain too many more. If you are Australian, or know any Australians, and have not sent this letter to your interested friends, please do so.

I am working on a friend's computer at present, and it doesn't have the software I need to include the pictures with the Lancet article, so please refer to the original if you wish to see them.
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Sonja Karkar's email:

On 5 March 2009, a series on Palestinian health under occupation will be published by the highly-regarded scientific medical and public health journal, The Lancet. Although access to the journal is free, one must register first http://www.thelancet.com/series/ Last month, The Lancet released the preliminary findings of two clinicians from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang who had managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Their findings reveal an atrocity greater than any image can possibly convey and are a shocking revelation of just what was used by Israel in those fateful 22 days of precision bombing on Gaza. While there is plenty of evidence that white phosphorous was used, both doctors believe that the massive liver necrosis seen in patients cannot have been caused by white phosphorous alone. Furthermore, there is a real likelihood of toxic fumes from the white phosphorous residues that litter the entire Gaza Strip contaminating the air once it rains.

They also found evidence of Tungsten DIME which truncates peoples’ limbs without bleeding and the possibility of experimental weapons like the silent bombs that vaporise everything and everyone in the vicinity of where they explode. The use of such weapons would constitute crimes against humanity not seen since Agent Orange was used by the US during its war on Vietnam. These weapons do not just kill and maim people, but their effects are felt in the bodies of survivors and the environment long after the attacks have ceased with no known end time. Israel’s targeting of Palestinians with such weapons is certainly contrary to the Geneva Convention, but also contrary to how we would expect a civilised army to behave, let alone the whole moral issue of subjecting any people to such atrocities.

There are calls now, and actions being taken around the world, for prosecuting Israeli officials for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Already lawyers in France, Spain, Belgium, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon as well as international organisations are beginning to file complaints against Israeli officials.

Amongst the names submitted to the International Criminal Court in the Hague to stand trial are Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, former IDF Chiefs of Staff Moshe Yaalon and Dan Halutz, former GOC Southern Command Doron Almog, former National Security Council Head Giora Eiland and Brigadier-General (Res.) Mike Herzog.

US international law expert Francis Boyle has called for an Israeli War Crimes Tribunal (ICT) and has asked the UN General Assembly to "immediately establish an (ICTI) as a 'subsidiary organ' under UN Charter Article 22" similar to the Security Council's ICTY for Yugoslavia. Its purpose "would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine." Legal proceedings are also being brought against the UK government over a breach of legal obligations in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

As the evidence mounts, more petitions are likely to be filed.A fact-finding mission of the League of Arab Nations to investigate war crimes committed by Israel has just concluded. It consisted of 6 international experts, including John Dugard, former UN Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and it has gathered evidence and eyewitnesses’ testimonies for a report that will be submitted to the League.

NOTE: Below we include some photos that will be distressing to many people, but we do so for the purpose of underscoring the crimes of which Israel is accused. - SK
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The Wounds of Gaza

by Drs Ghassan Abu Sittah and Swee Ang
2 February 2009


The wounds of Gaza are deep and multi-layered. Are we talking about the Khan Younis massacre of 5,000 in 1956 or the execution of 35,000 prisoners of war by Israel in 1967? Yet more wounds of the First Intifada, when civil disobedience by an occupied people against the occupiers resulted in massive wounded and hundreds dead? We also cannot discount the 5,420 wounded in southern Gaza alone since 2000. Hence what we are referring to below are only that of the invasion as of 27 December 2008, Over the period of 27 December 2008 to the ceasefire of 18 Jan 2009, it was estimated that a million and a half tons of explosives were dropped on Gaza Strip. Gaza is 25 miles by 5 miles and home to 1.5 million people. This makes it the most crowded area in the whole world. Prior to this Gaza has been completely blockaded and starved for 50 days. In fact since the Palestinian election Gaza has been under total or partial blockade for several years.

On the first day of the invasion, 250 persons were killed. Every single police station in Gaza was bombed killing large numbers of police officers. Having wiped out the police force attention was turned to non government targets. Gaza was bombed from the air by F16 and Apache helicopters, shelled from the sea by Israeli gunboats and from the land by tank artillery. Many schools were reduced to rubble, including the American School of Gaza, 40 mosques, hospitals, UN buildings, and of course 21,000 homes, 4,000 of which were demolished completely. It is estimated that 100,000 people are now homeless.

Israeli weapons

The weapons used apart from conventional bombs and high explosives also include unconventional weapons of which at least 4 categories could be identified. Phosphorus Shells and bombs:

The bombs dropped were described by eye witnesses as exploding at high altitude scattering a large canopy of phosphorus bomblets which cover a large area.During the land invasion, eyewitnesses describe the tanks shelling into homes first with a conventional shell. Once the walls are destroyed, a second shell - a phosphorus shell is then shot into the homes. Used in this manner the phosphorus explodes and burns the families and the homes. Many charred bodies were found among burning phosphorus particles.One area of concern is the phosphorus seems to be in a special stabilizing agent. This results in the phosphorus being more stable and not completely burning out. Residues still cover the fields, playground and compounds. They ignite when picked up by curious kids, or produce fumes when farmers return to water their fields. One returning farming family on watering their field met with clouds of fumes producing epistaxis. Thus the phosphorus residues probably treated with a stabilizer also act as anti-personnel weapons against children and make the return to normal life difficult without certain hazards.

Surgeons from hospitals are also reporting cases where after primary laparotomy for relatively small wounds with minimal contamination find on second look laparotomy increasing areas of tissue necrosis at about 3 days. Patients then become gravely ill and by about 10 days those patients needing a third relook encounter massive liver necrosis. This may or may not be accompanied by generalized bleeding , kidney failure and heart failure and death. Although acidosis, liver necrosis and sudden cardiac arrest due to hypocalcemia are known to be a complication of white phosphorus it is not possible to attribute these complications as being due to phosphorus alone.There is real urgency to analyze and identify the real nature of this modified phosphorus as to its long term effect on the people of Gaza. There is also urgency in collecting and disposing of the phosphorus residues littering the entire Gaza Strip. As they give off toxic fumes when coming into contact with water, once the rain falls the whole area would be polluted with acid phosphorus fumes. Children should be warned not to handle and play with these phosphorus residues.

Heavy Bombs

The use of DIME (dense inert material explosives) were evident, though it is unsure whether depleted uranium were used in the south. In the civilian areas, surviving patients were found to have limbs truncated by DIME, since the stumps apart from being characteristically cut off in guillotine fashion also fail to bleed.
Bomb casing and shrapnel are extremely heavy.
Fuel Air Explosives Bunker busters and implosion bombs have been used . There are buildings especially the 8 storey Science and Technology Building of the Islamic University of Gaza which had been reduced to a pile of rubble no higher than 5-6 feet.*

Silent Bombs: People in Gaza described a silent bomb which is extremely destructive. The bomb arrives as a silent projectile at most with a whistling sound and creates a large area where all objects and living things are vaporized with minimal trace. We are unable to fit this into conventional weapons but the possibility of new particle weapons being tested should be suspected.

Executions: Survivors describe Israeli tanks arriving in front of homes asking residents to come out. Children, old people and women would come forward and as they were lined up they were just fired on and killed. Families have lost tens of their members through such executions. The deliberate targeting of unarmed children and women is well documented by human right groups in the Gaza Strip over the past month.

Targeting of ambulances: Thirteen ambulances had been fired upon killing drivers and first aid personnel in the process of rescue and evacuation of the wounded.

Cluster bombs: The first patients wounded by cluster were brought into Abu Yusef Najjar Hospital.

Since more than 50% of the tunnels have been destroyed, Gaza has lost part of her lifeline. These tunnels contrary to popular belief are not for weapons, though small light weapons could have been smuggled through them. However they are the main stay of food and fuel for Gaza. Palestinians are beginning to tunnel again. However it became clear that cluster bombs were dropped on to the Rafah border and the first was accidentally set of by tunneling. Five burns patients were brought in after setting off a booby trap kind of device.

Death toll as of 25 January 2009: the death toll was estimated at 1,350 with the numbers increasing daily. This is due to the severely wounded continuing to die in hospitals. 60% of those killed were children.

Severe injuries: The severely injured numbered 5,450, with 40% being children. These are mainly large burns and polytrauma patients. Single limb fractures and walking wounded are not included in these figures.Through our conversations with doctors and nurses the word holocaust and catastrophe were repeatedly used. The medical staff all bear the psychological trauma of the past month living though the situation and dealing with mass casualties which swamped their casualties and operating rooms. Many patients died in the Accident and Emergency Department while awaiting treatment. In a district hospital, the orthopaedic surgeon carried out 13 external fixations in less than a day. It is estimated that of the severely injured, 1,600 will suffer permanently disabilities. These include amputations, spinal cord injuries, head injuries, large burns with crippling contractures.(This photo gives some indication of the horrors that were visited on the Palestinians in Gaza. Much more gruesome photos of burnt flesh, gaping wounds, limbless torsos, scattered body parts are too traumatising for most people to see,, so they have not been included, but they certainly exist.[If you go to the original article, you can see the photo referred to above]).

Special factors: The death and injury toll is especially high in this recent assault due to several factors: No escape: As Gaza is sealed by Israeli troops, no one can escape the bombardment and the land invasion. There is simply no escape. Even within the Gaza Strip itself, movement from north to south is impossible as Israeli tanks had cut the northern half of Gaza from the south. Compare this with the situation in Lebanon 1982 and 2006, when it was possible for people to escape from an area of heavy bombardment to an area of relative calm - there was no such is option for Gaza.*

Gaza is very densely populated. It is eerie to see that the bombs used by Israel have been precision bombs. They have a hundred percent hit rate on buildings which are crowded with people. Examples are the central market, police stations. Schools, the UN compounds used as a safety shelter from bombardment, mosques (40 of them destroyed), and the homes of families who thought they were safe as there were no combatants in them and high rise flats where a single implosion bomb would destroy multiple families. This pattern of consistent targeting of civilians makes one suspect that the military targets are but collateral damage, while civilians are the primary targets.There is no escaping the utter destruction of a single bomb.

The quantity and quality of the ammunition being used as described above. Gaza’s lack of defense against the modern weapons of Israel. She has no tanks, no planes, no anti-aircraft missiles against the invading army. We experienced that first hand in a minor clash of Israeli tank shells versus Palestinian AK47 return fire. The forces were simply unmatched.

Absence of well constructed bomb shelters for civilians. Unfortunately these will also be no match for bunker busters possessed by the Israeli Army.

Conclusion: Taking the above points into consideration, the next assault on Gaza would be just as disastrous. The people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack. If the International Community is serious about preventing such a large scale of deaths and injuries in the future, it will have to develop a some sort of defense force for Gaza. Otherwise, many more vulnerable civilans will continue to die.

Update:1. Dr Swee Ang Says: February 2nd, 2009 at 7:57 pmSince we wrote this account, we have spoken to senior Palestinian surgeons who described to us strange “penetrating wounds without shrapnels”. The wound track in such patients also has clean sharp margins. Some of them treated the wounds as clean wounds but after several days - mostly 3 days onwards there is necrosis of tissue around the wound track. In the case of skin, it can take the form of abscesses. In the abdomen there are extension of organ necrosis around the track such as liver necrosis, gangrenous bowel and kidney damage. We suspect these wounds are caused by Tungsten DIME explosives.In experimental animals, tungsten is highly carcinogenic, malignant tumours appearing around 5-7 months. However the long term carcinogenic effect on human is not known yet.The Ministry of Health in Gaza is calling for any one who has shrapnel wounds which are unusual or does not heal to present themselves to any Health clinic.

Update:2. Dr Swee Ang Says: February 2nd, 2009 at 8:15 pm. The lesson from these wounds without shrapnel is that Tungsten toxicity should always be suspected and primary wide excision of the wound track is mandatory to minimise tissue reaction to it. They must not be confused with what is traditionally thought to be clean cut wounds and merely washed out and closed.Tissue biopsies are crucial if we are to understand more about these wounds. There is a pressing urgency given that there is a potential carcinogenic effect. DIME as an explosive is highly anti-personnel and can be used safely by an invading neighbouring army without the fear of the side effect of radioactive fallout which other radioactive warheads might carry. Its effect is localised to the target population only - in this case the people of Gaza, with no danger to its neighbour, cf nuclear weapons.

I'll make my point very sanely

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Sanity in motion



From Channel 4.

Part of the problem was the IDF's expansive definition of a military target. It attacked a range of civilian facilities, from government offices to police stations, on the theory that they all provided at least indirect support to Hamas militants. But by that theory, Hamas would have been entitled to target virtually any government building in Israel on the ground that its office workers indirectly supported the IDF. That would make a mockery of the distinction between civilians and combatants that lies at the heart of the laws of war, which require direct support to military activity before civilians become legitimate military targets. Behind the unsupportable legal claim seemed to lie a determination to make Gazans suffer for the presence of Hamas--a prohibited purpose for using military force.

The IDF's credibility probably took the biggest hit on the issue of its use of white phosphorous. A typical artillery shell of white phosphorous releases 116 phosphorus-soaked wedges which, upon contact with oxygen, burn intensely, releasing a distinctive plume of smoke. That smoke can be used legitimately to obscure troop movements, but white phosphorous can be devastating when used in urban areas, igniting civilian structures and causing people horrific burns. Its use by the IDF in densely populated sections of Gaza violated the legal requirement to take all feasible precautions during military operations to avoid harming civilians. It never should have been deployed.

The IDF has tried to defend itself with denial and obfuscation. It first denied using white phosphorous at all. Then, when that proved untenable, it claimed that use was limited to unpopulated areas of Gaza. Neither claim is true. On Jan. 9, 10 and 15, a Human Rights Watch military expert personally observed white phosphorous being fired from an artillery battery and air burst over Gaza City and the Jabalya refugee camp. Its telltale jellyfish-like plume was a dead giveaway, as can be seen from many photographs that are now emerging from Gaza of white phosphorous raining down on civilian areas.
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Predictably, the IDF holds Hamas wholly responsible for civilian casualties in Gaza, alleging that Hamas combatants stored weapons in mosques and fought from among civilians. Those allegations may or may not be true. Long experience, as during the 2006 war in Lebanon, shows that we must take such ritual IDF pronouncements with a grain of salt. We will not know exactly how Hamas waged the war until human rights monitors can conclude the on-the-ground investigations that they are only just beginning because of the IDF's earlier refusal to let them into Gaza.

Israelis seem dismayed that the world has not embraced the justness of its latest war in Gaza. Of course Israel is entitled to defend itself from Hamas' rocket attacks, but when it does so in violation of its duty to spare civilians, and with so massive a civilian toll, public outrage is entirely predictable. Meanwhile, the IDF does itself no favor when it resorts to censorship, PR techniques and misrepresentation rather than subject its conduct to the open and independent scrutiny that should characterize any military that is genuinely committed to respecting the laws of war.

"The Incendiary IDF", Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch, 22 January, 2009. Kenneth Roth is the executive director of Human Rights Watch.
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BBC vs Disasters Emergency Committee

Well, Channel 4 shows that it can go for the jugular, but the BBC's approach is a little more mixed.(Pressure still on BBC in Gaza row, BBC News, UK, 25 January, 2009).

They have come under flak for so far deciding not to show a charity fund raising appeal for the people of Gaza. The BBC feels that it would compromise its impartiality in an ongoing story by airing the appeal. However:

The BBC has given free air time to previous appeals by the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella for groups including the Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children. The appeals have raised millions of pounds (dollars) for victims of war and natural disaster in Congo, Myanmar and elsewhere (BBC slammed for not airing gaza appeal, Ninemsn, January 24, 2009).

From the first link above, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the British public could "distinguish between support for humanitarian aid and perceived partiality in a conflict".

There is quite a lot of governmental pressure on BBC to run the appeal, and 2000 people protested the fact that they have, so far, decided not to. Of course the governmental pressure is worrying for any news group, but as BBC has supported other appeals, as detailed above, which were also surely dealing with ongoing news stories, the reasons given for not showing the appeal do not necessarily stand up, unless of course, by showing the appeal they are somehow limited in their access to Gaza and Israel. Within the articles I have read, that does not seem to be the case.

From the Ninemsn article (the second one linked above):

International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said the BBC had made the wrong decision. He called on the BBC to reconsider, "to recognise the immense human suffering and to address the concern which I think otherwise may develop that somehow the suffering of people in Gaza is not taken as seriously as the suffering of people in other conflicts."

Health minister Ben Bradshaw called the BBC's decision inexplicable and accused the publicly funded broadcaster of being cowed by the Israeli government.

"I am afraid the BBC has to stand up to the Israeli authorities occasionally," Bradshaw said.

ITV, Channel 4 and Five are going to broadcast the appeal, though ITV had said earlier that it would not.

It is interesting that 2000 people protested the BBC's decision. I wonder if in Australia

a) there would be or is a similar appeal , and

b) whether 2000 people would care enough to protest (somehow I think everyone is thinking of Australia Day tomorrow).
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Rubber Bullets and Boycotts

On Wednesday, 21 January 2009, at 12.30, residents of Ni’lin, along with International and Israeli solidarity activists, gathered to demonstrate against the construction of the Apartheid Wall. The demonstration began in the olive fields but was forced back when the Israeli army shot teargas and threw sound bombs. After the demonstration began, the army invaded the town from the fields and the checkpoint at the entrance of the village, firing tear gas canisters, rubber coated steel bullets and plastic coated steel bullets. The army proceeded towards the centre of the town, shooting at houses and cars. Israeli forces arrested three Ni’lin residents who were not participating in the demonstration and injured nine individuals.

This is a peaceful demonstration, as can be read here, and the demonstrations are held regularly, with Palestinian people, ISM volunteers and Israeli volunteers.

All the above is very worrying, of course, but the thing that most worries me is this:
This is the second invasion of Ni’lin in one week. The Occupation is collectively punishing the Palestinians of Ni’lin for their resistance to the Apartheid Wall. When completed, the Apartheid Wall will annex land belonging to villagers. Furthermore, the simultaneous establishment of the Apartheid Wall and a tunnel will allow the Israeli army to bar all but one connection leading to complete control over movement for Ni’lin residents.

There has just been an update posted on the town, too.

Israel is often cited as the "only democracy in the Middle East". But these practices seem pretty undemocratic to me. Once people are finally and completely hemmed in. What then? Further stories and statistics can be found at B'tselem. Australia currently has United Nations security sanctions on Sudan and Congo. It supported the security sanctions on Rwanda, which have recently finished. It has autonomous sanctions on Zimbabwe.

I assume that these sanctions are mostly in place due to the practices of genocide and human rights abuse. So, again, to the people who say why not look at the problems of these countries instead of Israel and Palestine, well, my government seems to be concerned about the injustice that occurs there, and I think, at the very, very least, my government could follow Malcolm Fraser's following suggestion of . . .support[ing] the appeal for the Australian Parliament to pass a resolution recognising the hardships of the Palestinian people and committing Australia to work for a fair and peaceful resolution and the establishment of a viable independent state for Palestinians. At the very least. So much more could be done. ( Balanced policy the only way to peace, Malcolm Fraser, The Age, May 10, 2008) such as the following moves:
Both Oxford City council and Quebec Colleges and Universities are endorsing and calling for extensive boycotts of Israel. Maybe it's time for the "culpably ignorant" to ask ourselves why.
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Essential reading

Because she says far more than I ever can.
The last two entries from Eva Bartlett's blog:

Beneath the surface and

It's a ceasefire, just not on the beach, not in your home. Children are still getting injured by Israeli fire, by the way. A 'siege-fire' as one commenter put it.

Further interesting reading (not from Eva) is as follows, if you are up to it:
Gaza crisis: Regimes react with routine repression, January 21, 2009; Human Rights Watch and,
Newsweek:, Feb 2nd, 2009 and,
Francis A. Boyle,, 30 December, 2008.

Depressingly, but not suprisingly, fundamentalism is further on the rise and has a focus as articles from this site can attest. And a big shout out to it for a lot of the material presented above, though it can readily be found on the Net also. Also to the other blogs I visit and friends who send me things they think I might be interested in.

If you've stuck with me this far, Gong Xi Fa Cai‏ ! for the 26th (two hours away for my side of the world), and Happy Australia Day.

Another letter to President Obama

If we can kill them, we can talk to them.

Another letter to President Obama: In the Mideast equation, settler outposts are the Qassams of the Jews (Mr Obama, grant Hamas the freedom to fail, Ha'aretz, Bradley Burston, 21 January, 2009). I guess the title says it all, though the article explains further. Maybe Burston's letter is not as moving as this one, but is very interesting with good links giving lots of background. Especially this one (Hamas - If we can kill them, we can talk to them,17/12/2007,Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz), which suggests negotiation as a option, not yet tried and perhaps the most viable one, the one least likely to shed blood, you would think.

One of our ex-prime ministers, Malcolm Fraser, in contrast to our current prime minister, also endorses that not too radical an idea, as he talks about Australia's policy towards Israel (which changed in March of last year), and about the work that Jimmy Carter has done towards trying to achieve peace (Balanced policy the only way to peace, The Age, May 10, 2008).

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Aid needs and delays.

Meanwhile, aid is delayed all over the place as leaders squabble about who and where to send it.

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon toured Gaza's rubble-strewn streets on Tuesday and described the destruction he witnessed as heartbreaking.
He estimated that £240 million [ approx $507 million AUD, $330 million USD] is needed for urgent aid in the coastal enclave and reconstruction may cost close to £1.5 billion [approx $3 billion AUD, $2billion USD], according to Palestinian and international estimates.

Although aid agencies said they planned a massive inflow of supplies through Israeli crossings, help will be complicated by the Western boycott of Hamas as a terrorist organisation and an Israeli blockade on many items, including building materials, that can be used to make weapons (Israel completes Gaza withdrawal, ITN, 21 January, 2009).

The Arab countries are muddling along, undecided where they should send their contributions, too (Gaza agreement eludes Arab leaders, Al Jazeera, 20 January, 2009).

Well, Israel's always willing to help (Western diplomats: Israel seeks to control reconstruction of war-torn Gaza, Ha'aretz, 19 January, 2009) rebuild infrastructure it tore down.

As an aside, Moon, who is obviously in the area, was reported to say the following on the 19th of January when he attended the Kuwait Economic Summit:

In his speech in Kuwait, Ban reiterated that Israel must reopen border crossings with Gaza, allow humanitarian aid in and withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Likewise, he urged Hamas to stop firing rockets at southern Israel.

But a permanent solution, he said, would require a return to the stalled Middle East peace process.

"A true end to violence, and lasting security for both Palestinians and Israelis, will only come through a just and comprehensive settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict," he said. "The (Israeli) occupation that began in 1967 must end." (Y-net.news.com, Ban urges Arabs to back Abbas in Gaza crisis).

Well the article was from the 19th, so the (short-term) withdrawal has been completed. In theory.

There is further here about Ban's visit, too. (UN chief pays 'heartbreak' visit to Gaza, SBS World News, 21 January, 2009). Funny how the word 'heartbreak' was hardly used in a headline in Australia while the war on Gaza was in process.

Back to aid: The World Health Organization has this to say:

"Right now, we very sadly see ideal conditions for outbreaks of disease," WHO director general Margaret Chan said at the opening of the executive board's annual meeting.

"Densely packed and displaced populations are weakened by hunger, little power for cooking and heating, and severe psychological trauma. Drinking water is scarce, sewage lines have been broken, and garbage is piling up," she said.

"Immunization, along with most routine health services, has been interrupted for more than three weeks. An outbreak under such conditions would be another health crisis that should not happen," Chan said.

"Medical staff, including surgical teams, are exhausted," she said, noting that there are only 2,000 hospital beds in Gaza. And might I add, more than 5000 injured people, many seriously so.

Not only that, but hospitals, ambulances, medical centres and so on were targeted during the attacks by Israeli forces, so that basic infrastructure is missing too. Photos of the destruction uploaded by the Israeli Human Rights Group, B'Tselem, can be seen here.

There are problems with sewage, too, as forewarned here (Amira Hass, Officials warn: Gaza infrastructures near breaking point, Ha'aretz, 6 January, 2009). Also, not to forget,that the UN compound which stored all the UN food for the area, and supplies was targeted by IDF forces and burnt to the ground. Gaza has been under Israeli and western-backed sanctions since 2006, and is, accordingly, largely dependent upon aid. As Australian labor MP Julia Irwin foretold in her pro-Palestinian piece:

And who will pick up the pieces when the bloodshed has finally stopped? The rest of the world will, of course. Through the world's contributions to the UN, its largest budget item is the UN Relief and Works Agency. With an annual $700 million budget going to support Palestinian refugees, the biggest component is being spent on Gaza (Getting away with murder, SMH, Jan 11, 2009).

Let's hope the rest of the world can get its act together to get some aid through to Gaza, pronto.

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War Crimes

And Israel think they might have, kind of, could have, maybe used white phosphorous (Israeli phosphorus use 'clear and undeniable', SBS World Australia, 20 January, 2009 - another heading it seems Australia hardly ever got near to using during the onslaught). As for the tricky Dime weapons, no word on them yet.

From the Guardian, 21 January, 2009. Israel admits troops may have used phosphorus shells in Gaza:

Palestinian doctors have reported treating dozens of cases of suspected phosphorus burns.

According to senior IDF officers, quoted today in the Ha'aretz newspaper, the Israeli military made use of two different types of phosphorus munitions.

The first, they insisted, was contained in 155mm artillery shells, and contained "almost no phosphorus" except for a trace to ignite the smoke screen.

The second munitions, at the centre of the inquiry by Col Alkalai, are standard phosphorus shells – both 88mm and 120mm – fired from mortars.

About 200 of these shells were fired during Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, and of these – say the IDF – 180 were fired on Hamas fighters and rocket launch crews in northern Gaza.

Alkalai is investigating the circumstances in which the remaining 20 shells were fired, amid compelling evidence on the ground that phosphorus munitions were involved in the attack on a UN warehouse and a UN school.

The mortar system is guided by GPS and according to Israel a failure of the targeting system may have been responsible for civilian deaths. However, critics point out the same explanation was used for mis-targeting deaths in Beit Hanoun in Gaza in 2006.

The brigade's officers, however, added that the shells were fired only at places that had been positively identified as sources of enemy fire.

The use of phosphorus as an incendiary weapon as it now appears to have been used against Hamas fighters – as opposed to a smoke screen – is covered by the Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons to which Israel in not a signatory.

However, Israel also is obliged under the Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law to give due care to protecting the civilian population when deciding on appropriate military targeting and response to hostile fire, particularly in heavily built up areas with a strict prohibition on the use of indiscriminate force.

"They obviously could not have gone on denying the use of phosphorus," Donatella Rovera, Amnesty researcher for Israel and the Occupied Territories, told the Guardian yesterday.

"There are still phosphorus wedges burning all over Gaza including at the UN compound and at the school.

"It is clear they are not using it as smoke screen as they claimed. They used it in areas where they had no forces, and there are much less problematic smoke screens that they could have used."


Did you take note of that small piece of information?: The mortar system is guided by GPS.

The IDF had the GPS of the schools they shelled, of the compound they shelled, and of the press offices they shelled (and hospitals and so on). As for the claim above that the shells were fired only at places that had been positively identified as sources of enemy fire... Remember these words from Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UN refugee agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after 40 civilians died whilst sheltering in a UN run school which was bombed (No militants in bombed gaza school, The Age, Jan 7, 2009)?

"Following an initial investigation, we are 99.9 percent sure that there were no militants or militant activities in the school and the school compound" (Israel to halt bombings as diplomacy steps up, SBS World News Australia, 7 January, 2009).

Israel at first had said there were militants in the school, then outside the school, and then finally said no there were no militants, or it was all a terrible mistake, and human shield, human shield! The school Gunness was at is not the school in question, but the same excuses were used for shelling both, and for destroying the compound. At least four schools were attacked by Israeli forces throughout the onslaught on Gaza (these should have been safe houses for civilians, and the IDF had their GPS).

To re-quote the article, critics point out the same explanation was used for mis-targeting deaths in Beit Hanoun in Gaza in 2006, and as detailed in this article .

Well, as Al Jazeera said January 19, 2009 ( Outcry over weapons used in Gaza): The likelihood of either side being subject to a war-crimes action seems remote as the International Criminal Court (ICC) has no jurisdiction to investigate because the Gaza Strip is not a state.

In addition [as stated above], Israel has not signed the Rome Statute that enshrined the ICC so any investigation would require a UN Security mandate - likely to be vetoed by Israel's ally, the US.

Human rights groups will try, let's hope. And I suppose there are other crimes,such as these , and these which will never see the light of day as they are testimonies. (*Edited, 22 January, 2009).
____________________________________________________________________
Which I guess brings us to this (UN chief pays heartbreak visit to Gaza, SBS World, Australia, January 21, 2009):

Palestinians doubt Obama will bring change in the Middle East

Gazans say the tide of global hope that has surged with Obama's election victory has not washed over their homeland."Obama won't bring my husband back to life," said Leila Khalil. "He was martyred and left me with six children to feed on my own. And Obama won't repair our house that was damaged in the (air) raids."

For Khalil, Obama, who has been inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, will not alter the historically pro-Israel US policy on the Middle East. "No one cares about us," she said. "If we can't even count on Arab presidents, what can we hope for from an American president when they've always supported Israel?" The Palestinian bureau of statistics reported 4,100 homes totally destroyed and 17,000 others damaged in the offensive.

Let's hope they are wrong, and that Obama leans more towards Carter than Bush, despite indications to the contrary, regarding relations with Israel and Palestine.

*Note: 22 January, 2009. Well, things seem to be moving on Guantanamo, and a radio report just heard indicated that Clinton does not seem to be so strident in her foreign policy outlook as she was a couple of weeks ago, looking at "principles and pragmatism, not rigid ideology." Ooh, those news reports were from the 13th. Oh, I see why I missed it, because of this diplomatic stance from the same day (Clinton rules out Hamas negotiations, SBS World News, 14 January, 2009). Anyway, fingers crossed, wait and see.

White phosphorous

From Eva Bartlett, a freelancer and volunteer for ISM in Gaza: Read the rest here, including photos.

At 4 pm on January 4th, Lada and her family were inside their house when it was shelled 4 times by Israeli tanks. The shell which landed inside her home hit the area closest to Lada. At the time, she was sitting with Mara, her 3 year old daughter, who survived the blast with equally disfiguring and painful burns. A swirl of angry red burn beards Mara’s face, dots her nose, ears and forehead, and cuts into 22% of her tiny body’s surface area.

Ali, 4, Yusef, 17, and their mother (name and age not given) also all suffered facial and bodily burns from the shelling and the chemicals.

“The whole house was filled with fire and black smoke, different than normal smoke from a fire. It was hard to breathe and swelled our throats,” a brother, uninjured, recounted.

The shells which seared the skin of 4 members of the family killed a further 5, including Lada’s father (44), three younger brothers (10, 11, 13), and a baby sister (1.5) who the mother was holding at the time.

Ambulances were called, and were prevented from arriving. Surviving family members loaded onto a tractor, driven by one of Lada’s cousins. He and another cousin, both 18, were targeted by Israeli soldiers, said the mother, shot dead. The remaining family members had no option but to walk half an hour before they were able to get transportation to a hospital for treatment for their many serious injuries.


And here, from the Guardian, the news we just do not get

The Palestinians say: "This is a war of extermination." They describe bombs which break into 16 parts, each part splintering into 116 fragments, the white phosphorus which water cannot put out; which seems to die and then flares up again.

No one I spoke to has any doubt that the Israelis are committing war crimes. According to the medics here, to reports from doctors inside the Gaza Strip and to Palestinian eye-witnesses, more than 95% of the dead and injured are civilians. Many more will probably be found when the siege is lifted and the rubble is cleared. The doctors speak of a disproportionate number of head injuries - specifically of shrapnel lodged in the brain.

They also speak of the extensive burns of white phosphorus. These injuries are, as they put it, 'incompatible with life'. They are also receiving large numbers of amputees. This is because the damage done to the bone by explosive bullets is so extensive that the only way the doctors in Gaza can save lives is by amputating.

One of the nurses said to me that the nurses and paramedics were horrified by what they were seeing. "We deal with cases all the time," she said. "But what we're seeing these days we've never seen before or imagined."

Upstairs a professor of economics, accompanying his brother, sees me staring at my notes and says: "Exaggerate. Whatever you write will not be as bad as the truth."

In the silence that followed someone put a mobile in my hand.

"Look!" On a rubble-strewn street lay the body of a roasted and charred child. Two bones were sticking out where her thighs had been. "The dogs ate her legs," he explains. For a moment I put a hand over my eyes. The phone goes round the table, each man gravely contemplating the burned child on the screen. Then someone asks: "What will it take to make the Israelis stop?"

• Ahdaf Soueif is a writer whose novel The Map of Love was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker prize

Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, breaks his vow of silence

from room 101 - the blog of a foreign aid worker in Gaza.

Well, Mr. Smith, I see you found your voice, (Civilian casualties 'horrify' Australia) and I know it is difficult to speak out in Australia; you might lose your career over it, so I do take some solace in the fact that you did at least speak out. What you said was, "I think it's true to make this point, that when Australians see civilian casualties, whether they are casualties from Gaza, whether they are casualties from Israel itself, Australians are horrified by those casualties."

Now, don't get me wrong. The 3 civilians killed in Israel due to rocket attacks is a dreadful loss of life and my heart does go out to the families who have lost dear ones. However the 900 casualties in Gaza, including 350 children, 160 women, and who knows how many civilian men, and the way they have died: bombed in schools, bombed with white phosphorous (which burns to the bone), allegedly through Dense Inert Metal Explosives, through being sheperded into houses and then shelled or maybe just from having aid denied to them - that's what horrifies me. That, and my government's complicity in the whole shebang.

By the way, now the Israelis are saying that the school in which 40 civilians died was bombed by a stray mortar, despite initially claiming that the school was teeming with militants .

cut off

The thing is that people are going to die terribly one way or the other. Whether it is through the illegal use of phosphorous bombs on a civilian population, or schools set up as civilian refuges being targeted, or incidental and directed fire, or by the inevitable lack of food, resources and sickness. When people are told to leave their homes because they are going to be bombed, where do they go? And if they go to a U.N. run school, set up as a place that the Israeli army knows houses civilians, they are likely to get bombed anyway. In addition, medics and ambulances are often targeted and many medics have died. The ambulances are not always allowed to get through, and with hardly any power left, who will be able to call them anyway?

*Note, as of 12 January, 2009 SBS Australia has removed video footage of the phosphorous bombs from its site, as well as the interview with Benjamin Rutland, as detailed below. Therefore the video above is from January, 11 from Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera have a good reputation for balanced reporting, and have reporters in Gaza. And here is news story from the day I wrote this story regarding the phosphorous.


By the way, the official explanations given by the Israeli forces on its use of phosphorous bombs in that SBS Australia video above (no longer available*), ring hollow. You might want to watch the video following the one posted above (no longer available*). It seems that the IDF still thinks that the United Nations are liars regarding their bombing of civilians in schools set up as refuges from the bombing. It seems Australian-Israeli, Captain Benjamin Rutland, is reading from an auto-cue. I think the expression on the journalist's face says it all.

* Note, SBS no longer has this video on their news site as of January 12, 2009. It's original address was http://player.sbs.com.au/naca/#/naca/wna/Latest/playlist/Benjamin-Rutland-speaks/ In fact a lot of its videos do not seem to be availabale any more.Whether that is due to time passed or some other reason I do not know.

People were already starving, medical sources were already scarce as detailed many times over. Hamas keeps saying that a condition of any agreement is that the sanctions should be lifted. Actually, it was agreed that they would be with the last negotiations, but they never were. I wonder, if you and your children were eating grass whether you would not try to fight for your life. Now the tunnels are to be bombed, or have been bombed. Weapons do get smuggled through them, but obviously not in the numbers that Israel has painted, or we would surely be seeing the death of more Israeli forces. They are also the only way that many Gazans can actually get food and vital resources. The Vatican, who have been very conservative on this issue, have said that Gaza has been turned into a big concentration camp.

I believe it to be true. From this blog from a Palestinian journalist who is doing his best to get news out to the world. Remember, foreign journalists have been expelled from Gaza:

Mob: 00972599306096
Landline: 0097282802825
E-mail: Sam_hab@hotmail.com
Sameh.habeeb@gmail.com
Skype: Gazatoday, Facebook: Sameh A. habeeb
Web: http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/
Daily Photos:http://picasaweb.google.com/sameh.habeeb

He has a list of 34 events which he reported on yesterday. Here are a few of them.

14-Around 80 trucks and vans of medical and food areas allowed by Israel into Gaza.
The trucks not enough at all as Gaza needs thousands of trucks to respond for
Humanitarian crisis. In the normal day Gaza was having 6-7 hundreds of all
commodities!


15-Around 450 thousand liters of Solar get into Gaza though Gaza crossings. Gaza
needs. Gaza needs over a million liter a day for the key power planet!

27-Medical sector is completely paralyzed.

29-All Gaza strip with 90% percent in deep darkness now.

Did you see 27 and 29? The medical sector is completely paralyzed and 90% of the Gaza strip is without electricity. The tunnels are being and have been blown up. I guess once people like Sameh cannot post any more, once doctors cannot operate any more (not that they seem to be able to effectively at all anyway, through no fault of their own), well, you can draw your own conclusions. On Tuesday, only five of 75 people killed were confirmed militants. The death toll as of my Thursday stands at more than 700, and a large percentage are civilians. And under international law, policemen do not count as militants (one of the first targets was a police graduation ceremony. Hamas run - but civilian nonetheless, and the building in place a long time before Hamas was elected. Hamas is the elected government, after all).

I think if someone looks at the death toll on either side of the equation, they really must have to do some serious thinking. Amongst the Israelis, four people have died from Hamas missiles, and "dozens have been wounded", apparently six Israeli soldiers have also been killed in combat. Most of the soldier's deaths have been from "friendly fire ".

Oh, and this little snippet by the way from Sameh's blog:

26- Funeral of 45 victims of United Nations massacre perpetrated by Israel exposed
to Israeli fire during time of ceasefire and many people wounded.

I recently read of a Labor minister in Australia, Julia Irwin and a Liberal minister, Sussan Ley, both who have spoken out against Israeli actions at other times, both going against their own parties' official lines. Currently, there has also been a group of Australian Jews who held a counter demonstration to the official Australian line. There is this petition also, and there are outraged voices out there, which means there are people who can recognise injustice when they see it. Is it really so hard for more of us to speak? Or do we feel that even if we speak, we probably will not be heard. Our governments and mainstream media are certainly silent.

children