Israel raid 'could be war crime'

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Friday September 19, 2008 15:25

by pat c

Yes, it was a War Crime but I won't hold my breath waiting for NATO to bomb Tel Aviv. Full text at link.

A report to the UN Human Rights Council on Israel's shelling of Beit Hanoun in Gaza almost two years ago says it may have been a war crime. The report compiled by Archbishop Desmond Tutu casts doubt on Israel's explanation that the shelling resulted from a flawed artillery firing system. It calls on Israel to pay compensation to the victims, 19 of whom were killed. Archbishop Tutu went to Beit Hanoun in May, after objections by Israel delayed his mission several times.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the report contains horrific testimony from survivors of the shelling. It speaks of the dead lying in the streets, of local hospitals overwhelmed, and of the injured having to hand over cash to get through Israeli checkpoints for treatment in Israel itself.

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Comments (4 of 4)

Double Standards?

by Perplexed

Sat Sep 20, 2008 08:59

The Israeli IDF artillery shells which killed 19 and wounded dozens more were fired in response to Palestinian terrorists firing Qassam rockets from an area approximately a kilometer away.
The naccuracy was clearly an honest mistake.
There is no hint whatsoever that the collatoral damage was deliberate or that it was a "war crime" committed by the IDF

There can be NO doubt that the Qassam rocket bombardment of Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorists is a brutal and deliberate campaign to destroy the state of Israel and forcing Israelis from their rooms.
There has never been a single investigation by the UN of Palestinian war crimes against the Israeli people - suicide bombings, massacres and rocket and mortar attacks.

There is not a peep out of the UN about the crimes of Islamic fundementalist fanatics or the campaign to destroy the State of Israel.

Hiding behing terms such as "war crime".

by Sammi

Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:30

I think that calling the unwarranted attack a war crime is a continuation of the international policy of letting Israel of the hook again for it terrorist atrocities that it continues to commit to this very day with complete impunity.

When terrorists bombed Omagh and killed 30 people and injured two hundred in the middle of civilian areas, then there were those who would try to make us believe that they were retaliating to the occupation of the UK forces in Northern Ireland. Going down that road then some people would call it a war crime and in doing so they would be giving the cowardly terrorists the respecabitlity of soldierhood. Not even a staunch 32 county republican would dirty his morals by taking that line to justification. Yet we have queues of people lining up to justify the Beit Hanoun outrage against unarmed families and children in their beds as some kind of mistake made under retaliation against Hamas by "soldiers". A bunch of vicious drudheads taking out their bitterness on Palestinian babies are not soldiers. They are terrorists and they should be hunted down and inprisoned but you can bet your life that those murdering psychopaths are still sitting at their cannons and tanks outside Gaza smoking drugs, enjoying the view and waiting to strike again at the families of Gaza, well ensured that no matter what they do a flock of morally challenged supporters will justify their actions for them.
If Palestinian commandos could go out in tunnels and grab them in the night like they did with Ghilad Shalit, another terrorist in a tank shelling Gaza, then they would be imprisoned as criminals not as war criminals, just criminals.
Perhaps the law of Gaza would recommend execution for them, it would be certainly appropriate.

Pussyfooting around Israel

by Alan

Sat Sep 20, 2008 18:37

Is it a warcrime when a bunch of armed vandals stand at a checkpoint and watch a woman scream and bleed in the back of a car while she tries to give birth to a baby. Then watch the baby die and do nothing ? is this a war crime ? Who is the enemy ? the woman in labour or the stillborn infant ?

Is it a warcrime when the Israeli army protects and aids Israeli civilians carry out pogroms in Palestinian villages. Who is the war between? The colonists and the Farmers , with the army present in a caretaker capacity?

These are crimes against Humanity , all committed this week, in the last couple of days. We dont need a UN investigation to tell us what they "might" be.

The degradation of fellow humans and the destruction of their Human rights on a grand scale is what is called crimes against humanity.

not a war crime

by dave

Sat Sep 20, 2008 22:21

as perplexed said, what Israel did can hardly be called a war crime. Hamas in Gaza regularly adopt a policy of hiding their militants among densely populated areas. the result is that it is near impossible for the idf to target terrorists launching kassam rockets into Israel without incurring, sometimes significant, collateral damage. nobody is denying the fact that this was a tragic loss of life, but it is certainly incredible that this is being purported to constitute something on the scale of a 'war crime'; if the archbishop were to use the same criteria to the palestinians, i am sure that their suicide bombings and rocket attacks on civilians would both constitute war crimes.

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Israel raid 'could be war crime'

Comments (4 of 4)