Stories have been relayed from U.N. officers like the Secretary General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict:
"In one, she said, Israeli soldiers shot a father after ordering him out of his house and then opened fire into the room where the rest of the family was sheltering, wounding the mother and three brothers and killing a fourth.
In another, on January 15, at Tal al Hawa south-west of Gaza City, Israeli soldiers forced an 11-year-old boy to walk in front of them for several hours as they moved through the town, even after they had been shot at."
The first story is one of torture and terrorism. What justification can there be for spraying bullets into a small room of a few unarmed family members? Why would they need to shoot a man who they detained? To have been removed from the situation and been outnumbered by soldiers, he could not have posed a significant threat to anyone. Even if accused of a crime, don't all people deserve the right to a trial and to defend themselves? This is an abuse of force. Imagine if police officers in America were allowed to shoot suspects after they are detained.
Regarding the second story, it is a crime to use human shields but it is elevated to another level of criminality when the human is merely a child. I dare anyone to defend this action to me.
"Palestinian officials say 1,434 people in Gaza -- 960 of them civilians -- were killed in the fighting, a figure Israel contests. The report from the nine gave the total as 1,440, saying of these 431 were children and 114 women.
The overall report was criticized in the 47-nation Council by Israel's ambassador Aharon Leshno Yar, who said it "wilfully ignores and downplays the terrorist and other threats we face," and the use by Hamas of human shields.
Leshno Yar said the 43-page document was part of a pattern of "demonizing Israel" in the Council -- where an informal bloc of Islamic and African nations usually backed by Russia, China and Cuba has a built-in majority."
So, Israel thinks the Palestinian death toll was inflated. The U.N. says it was slightly underestimated. Which of the three entities has the most non-biased opinion in the Palestine-Israeli conflict: Palestine, Israel, or the United Nations?
Israel is playing the victim again. "Yeah, we killed 1,440 people in three weeks but we had a reason. We were threatened." Threatened by homemade bombs that rarely strike populated areas and by defenseless refugees who are landlocked and deprived of food, healthcare, and even jobs? Even if a threat was present, it was not significant enough to warrant the actions of Israel's "Defense" Force. The death toll of Israelis during the conflict was close to only 1% of the number of Palestinians who lost their lives. Can you say disproportionate? However, since Israel and its "most moral army in the world" is being discredited, it is being "demonized" by a leading international organization. Yes, that's right, Israel, the whole world is out to get you. If you were really that afraid of it, then why not stop what you are being accused of? End the illegal occupation, the genocide, and the violation of scores of U.N. resolutions, and the world will let you be.
"Another report presented to the Council on Monday came from Robert Falk, a U.S. academic and the body's special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Falk, whom Israel barred from entry last year after accusing him of bias and prejudice, said Israel had subjected civilians in Gaza to 'an inhuman form of warfare that kills, maims and inflicts mental harm.'"
Israel and America are forever conjoined in foreign policy, right? Israel will criticize American officials, though; when the American criticizes Israel. So much for a professional, respectful relationship which exhibits maturity. This should signal to the U.S. that Israel can cause trouble for the U.S. if interests conflict. America is setting itself up for opposition and hatred around the world due, in part, to this government's undying devotion to an entity recognized worldwide as a racist nation (a.k.a. Israel, in reference to the U.N. statement that Zionism is racism). While America is sacrificing national security and good relations with other countries, Israel could cut ties at the first sight of disagreement. Most people familiar with the situation would contest that Israel would never do such a thing because it relies too heavily upon American support. However, most people are not familiar with the way American citizens are treated by the Israeli authority. I am not only referring to Palestinian Americans who go to visit their families, but I also mean non-Palestinian Americans who go to stand up for human rights in Palestine (like Rachel Corrie who I remembered as the sixth anniversary of her murder by the I."D".F. passed recently in a post below).
To read the full article from Reuters on Yahoo! News, follow this link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090323/wl_nm/us_un_rights_israel_1
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment