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Israel Committed War Crimes in White Phosphorus Strike, Says UN
A UN fact-finding mission has accused Israel of committing war crimes by using white phosphorus in built-up areas in the Gaza War, and called for the weapon to be banned in urban warfare.
Palestinians run for cover during the Israeli phosphorus strike over the UN Relief and Works Agency HQ in Gaza in January (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
The investigation, set up by the controversial UN Human Rights Council, concluded that Israeli forces were "systematically reckless" in the use of white phosphorus in the conflict.
"The Mission believes that serious consideration should be given to banning the use of white phosphorus in built-up areas," the 575-page report said.
It singled out three Israeli attacks using white phosphorus, which is deployed as a smokescreen, that it considered disproportionate or excessive under international law.
The report said Israel failed to take "all feasible precautions" in using white phosphorus shells in the attack on the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Gaza City on Jaunary 15 despite the presence of up to 700 civilians.
"Given the evident threat of substantial damage to several hundred civilian lives and to civilian property in using white phosphorus in that particular line of fire, the advantage gained from using white phosphorus to screen Israeli armed forces' tanks from anti-tank fire from armed opposition groups could not be deemed proportionate," the report said.
It also criticised the use of white phosphorus in attacks on Al Quds hospital and the Al Wafa hospital. The UN investigation accused Israel of breaking international law by deliberately attacking civilians, using Palestinians as "human shields" and torturing detainees. The continuing Israeli blockade of Gaza could constitute "persecution", a crime against humanity, it added.
The UN team said war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity were also committed by "Palestinian armed groups" by indiscriminately firing rockets at civilians in southern Israel. He said Hamas would bear responsibility if it failed to take "necessary measures" to prevent the rocket firings.
The report urged the UN Security Council to give both sides six months to investigate and prosecute offenders before turning the matter over the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, a recommendation that is unlikely to be followed by the 15-nation council.
The UN fact-finding mission was set up in April by the UN Human Rights Council, a body that has a record of criticising Israel.
The team was led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who headed a commission on political violence in his homeland and served as the international prosecutor for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Israel refused to cooperate with the UN investigation and dismissed its findings as "prejudged."
Mr Goldstone is a Jew whose mother was involved in the Zionist movement in South Africa before the creation of Israel. He said:"As a Jew, I have an affiliation, and I have had an affiliation, and have made many visits to Isreal. Speaking from that point of view, it's obviously a great disappointment, putting it mildly, that Israelis have behaved in the way described in the report. I think it's grossly wrong to label a report that is critical of Israel as anti-Israeli. To accuse me of being anti-Israel is ridiculous."
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18 Comments so far
Show AllTypical New York Times headline claims both sides committed war crimes as to diffuse Israeli culpability. 900 Gazan civilians were killed by the IDF.
How many Israeli's were killed during this invasion, 10-12?
Bear in mind that just last week a rocket launcher with multiple rockets attached and ready to fire was found just over the border in Lebanon, with a timer attached to it.
The rockets were pointed into Israel.
The launcher was found by Lebanese Defence forces.
And the deliberate and calculated use of white phosphorus on purely civilian targets is a war crime in anyone's books.
Well, except for maybe the US law books...
Walk in peace.
EVERYBODY knew this back in January.
EVERYBODY posted it here.
Along with the disgusting info on those IDF tee shirts with the pregnant Palestinian in the crosshairs and the slogan: ONE SHOT; TWO KILLS.
Nobody did squat.
The US is still kissing Israel's ass.
Israel does not only "commit" war crimes, Israel IS a war crime, incarnate.
It's success and pride in apotheosizing itself as such, is that language has long lost its efficacy to describe it in terms able to represent its true horror. Israel's only solace is that it is by no means a solitary example of being such a malefic, capacious practitioner of unrepentant evil and state terror; it is in good, solid company, with the certainty of even more monstrousness to come.
It is no mean feat indeed–when words themselves become superannuated relics–rendered impotent, when confronting such willed, unashamed barbarism. Surely this is why Israel remains so popular with Americans: The 'mirror effect.'–(Jill Bains)
"Our Business is Killing, and business is good." (Inscription on U.S. Helicopter, Vietnam 1967?)
Hear, hear!
De-countrify Israel. NOW!
Hear, hear!
· Yr Obd't Servant
"Our Business is Killing, and business is good." (Inscription on U.S. Helicopter, Vietnam 1967?)"
I'm sure sorry you weren't there to wash it off.
Wash it off?
That would not have been enough.
Amfortas - Good comment of the mirror effect...
...But a country can't be a war crime. Most countries as they exist now are the result of conflict. What makes Israel unique is the cynical interference/support of erstwhile colonial powers.
Perhaps Israel is the world's un-healing wound. Perhaps the benighted Parsifal (US) should work harder to ask the right questions to end the Nakba.
That's anti-semitic slander!...
That's anti-Isreali slander!...
That's anti-Jewish slander!...
...
...That's old news, who cares?!
When one kills another, it as if the entire human race were extinguished.
All death and suffering affect and impact all of us,
… although some have provided themselves with an effective sonic buffer, by having an inverted cranial anal posture. The Karmic message still gets through all the crap.
_||_
For Hama's crimes of sending rockets into Israel that killed no one, Israel arrested and killed Hamas members, and destroyed Gaza.
For Israel's crimes of killing hundreds of civilians, nobody has been held responsible.
It is not a crime for occupied people to use force against their oppressors. Those rockets from Gaza have a range of no more than twenty five miles. Twenty five miles from Gaza is Palestine---not Israel. Where are the borders of Israel? Now they are claiming 'greater Israel'. And all the carnage afflicted on the Palestinians is paid for by your tax funds. We must attempt to get our corrupt Congress to use our tax funds for our domestic programs and not send billion to Isreal to kill Palestinians and steal their land. STOP U.S. FUNDING OF ISRAEL!
burning Palistinians..the only thing missing are the ovens.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
...doesn't being "chosen" make it OK ?
*Note: This posting is an expanded revision of the same posting on this thread which amplifies my thinking on the article and incorporates criticism of my original posting.
Israel does not only "commit" war crimes, Israel IS a war crime incarnate.
Israel's success and pride in apotheosizing itself as a totalized 'war crime' has now come full circle; the role of the colonial powers who created it and its current patron, have ceded in defining what Israel has become for itself, and in itself. For years it could be said that Israel's material dependency on the United States for military sustenance, made it little more than an a de facto American military base in the Middle East. While this reciprocity continues unabated, Israel has now assumed its own psychology, and excised anything that has influenced it, subsuming external 'influence' in its own identity.
Articles like this one on the use of White Phosphorous munitions by the IDF have become so routine that they point to a larger malaise: It is that language itself has long lost its power to describe– in terms commensurate with reality– the true horror of what Israel has become. The horror has overmatched, if not smashed and disarmed, any moral opposition able to be articulated against it by the suasion of language; neither treaties, diplomacy, negotiations or high minded criticism can effect the adamantine will of what is 'soulless' on its own terms.
That the U.N. has found evidence of war criminality means nothing.This is not news. Everyone knew this the moment the Gaza atrocity was launched. Nothing will be done or ever can be done against Israel, (short of successful military action)–which has become for itself alone– what it now is. This would be true even if the United States refused to underwrite its rapacious military, which will never happen. What is critical is that the psychology of Israel has been personalized. It no longer sees the necessity for redemption from the evil it wills. The period of 'becoming' has come to an end; cognizance has been crystalized incarnate and internalization is complete. Gaza is no longer an aberrant anomaly, but the very catharsis of the Israeli state. Atrocity is Israel. That is what Israel does and all it can do. Expiation is not an option.
Israel's only solace is that it is by no means a solitary example of being such a malefic, capaciously efficient practitioner of unrepentant evil and state terror; it is in good, solid company, with the certainty of even more monstrousness to come.
It is no mean feat indeed–when words themselves become superannuated relics–rendered impotent, when confronting such willed, unashamed barbarism. Surely this is why Israel remains so popular with Americans: The 'mirror effect.'–(Jill Bains)
"Our Business is Killing, and business is good." (Inscription on U.S. Helicopter, Vietnam 1967?)
"One shot, two kills." (IDF Tee Shirt in Gaza with Palestinian women in the cross-hairs, Occupied Palestine 2008)
The problem of unguided Palestinian rockets going into civilian areas is easily solved. Equip them with guided weapons, and train them to maintain and shoot them.
However, I do note, that poorly guided weapons used by Hezbollah against Israel during the last major invasion of Lebanon most likely had a lower fraction of "collateral" casualties than the Israeli weapons used against Lebanon. Part of that was luck, part of that is due to the fact that Israel deliberately makes sure "collateral" casualties are high. (US policy is the same.)
A trenchant and biting comment.
Even when the 'pop gun' rocketry of Hezbollah or Hamas –wind like children's firecrackers harmlessly into the Israeli desert– maximal Israeli murder and state terror via ultra modern American war technology is deemed a justified and 'balanced' response. One can only wish it were a fair fight. The world waits.
The spectral 'psychic' shadow of Nazism haunts Israel, becoming knowingly internalized, appropriated –then projected externally onto others in reverse. There is revenge, without expiation.When a people have learned so well what has been done unto them, that becomes all they know.–(Jill Bains)