Will Any Line Be Drawn On Israeli War Crimes?

Jul 22, 2014

Will Any Line Be Drawn On Israeli War Crimes?

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Does it count as a democracy when a clear majority of citizens hold one position on a subject while all 3 major political party leaders and almost every major media outlet are answering to highly funded lobbyists working aggressively to bully, marginalize and silence that position? 

The size of the demonstrations is one sign. Notice, with most of the media and the mainstream party leaders on their side, trying desperately to create the false impression that most people support Israel,  and all the money for organizing and advertising that powerful pro-Israeli lobby groups like the JDL and the Simon Weisenthal Centers, groups whose anti-racism work often draws immense public support and event turnout, can barely manage a trickle of supporters at their rallies while low funded and often inexperienced organizers, with help from mosques and small grassroots peace groups see their pro-palestine events surging in massive numbers responding en masse to the horror that Israel, and it's western allies, have tried very hard but failed to hide, and failing that, have attempted to justify. 

The boys playing soccer on the beach before being murdered could not be hid, and the New York Times decision to change the headline regarding the incident, to make it more 'neutral', was visible. 

 Then the reports as Al-Aqsa hospital, in the central Gaza Strip, was shelled by tanks. The shells hit the third floor, which housed an intensive care unit and operating theaters, killing 4 and wounding more than 70.

A man inspects damages at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, after the building was shelled by the Israeli army on July 21, 2014, killing at least four people. (Photo: AFP - Mohammed Abed)

 

 

 

United Nations Relief and Works Agency is the UN body responsible for the welfare of Palestine refugees. They serve around five million Palestine refugees,  providing education, health care, food and a variety of social services, plus arranging microfinance for Palestinian trade efforts, as well as keeping camp infrastructure working.

They also help with emergency response during armed conflict, as they are doing now during Israel's current campaign of horrific violence. Through that work, there are trained, professional objective witnesses to what is happening. They have objectively reported what they have witnessed while working in the occupied territories, and this is portrayed in many western media outlets as a 'strong anti-Israel bias' and in Israeli media as 'support for terrorists'. 
 
Recently, UNRWA officials found, and immediately responded publicly to finding, rockets hidden in the Gaza school that was targetted by Israeli tanks. Israeli media have already began using this to insinuate UN involvement with Hamas militants. It should be noted that heavily armed occupying Israeli soldiers have had as much access to the school as anyone from Hamas, and also that Israel have used false accusations to undermine the UNRWA's work many times in the past. 
 
The blatant, deliberate targetting of the hospital, followed closely by the deliberate shelling of the United Nations school, which has become the main refuge for children in the area, should rightfully be the final straw that pushes the international community to overturn the concept of veto power, because the United States has used it's veto power against every UN resolution condemning Israel's ongoing crimes against Palestinians, and this veto power has served to sustain Israel's continued use of violence and political manipulation to steal more and more land from Palestinians without any consequence whatsoever.
 
The UN has to treat Israel no differently than any other regime doing the same thing to any group of citizens within it's borders. If the US and other countries insist on obstructing international law, the special powers that allow them to do so need to be taken away so that war criminals can be punished regardless of which flag they committed their crimes under. 
 
 

A Palestinian man cleans up after a UN food distribution center was badly damaged in an Israeli airstrike on Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip in 2012.

 (Majdi Fathi / APA images)

In the meantime, Israel has the support of our tax dollars and media, as well as companies that profit from the conflict, like Boeing, Elbitt Systems, Hewlett Packard, General Electric, General Dynamic,Lockhead Martin, Northrop Grumman, The Raytheon Company and United Technologies.  

Resources: 
 
Al-Jazeera English, Gaza Live Blog: http://live.aljazeera.com/Event/Gaza_Blog
 
Al-Akhbar News, Gaza Toll At 573 As Israel Bombs Homes, Hospital, July 21, 2014:
 

UNRWA Homepage: http://www.unrwa.org/

Fairness And Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), NYT Re-Writes Gaza Headline: Was It Too Accurate? http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/07/17/nyt-rewrites-gaza-headline-was-it-too-accurate/

Electronic Antifada, UNRWA condemns Israeli “creation” of footage, tweets falsely claiming Gaza schools used to launch rockets.                                                         http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/unrwa-condemns-israeli-creation-footage-tweets-falsely-claiming-gaza-schools-used

American Friends Service Committee, US Corporations Complicit In Current Attacks On Gaza, http://afsc.org/resource/us-corporations-complicit-current-attacks-gaza