Britain has slapped a partial arms embargo on Israel, refusing to supply replacement parts and other equipment for Sa’ar 4.5 gunships because they participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.
Britain’s Foreign Office informed Israel’s embassy in London of the sanctions a few days ago. The embassy, in a classified telegram to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, said the decision stemmed from heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human rights organizations.
The embargo followed a government review of all British defense exports to Israel, which was announced three months ago. In total, the telegram said, Britain reviewed 182 licenses for arms exports to Israel, including 35 for exports to the Israel Navy. But it ultimately decided to cancel only five licenses, all relating to the Sa’ar 4.5 ships. The licenses in question apparently cover spare parts for the ship’s guns.
The British said the embargo was imposed because these ships participated in Operation Cast Lead. In so doing, the British claimed, they violated the security agreements between Britain and Israel, which specify what uses may be made of British equipment.
Last week, Britain’s foreign and defense ministries informed the relevant companies that they would have to cease their planned arms deals with Israel’s navy.
Ever since the Gaza operation, British MPs and nongovernmental organizations have been trying to persuade London to impose a complete arms embargo on Israel. However, the British government has rejected this demand.
In February, Amnesty International published a report on arms sales to Israel in which it highlighted Britain’s role in supplying engines for Hermes 450 drones. According to Amnesty, Israel uses these drones to conduct assassinations in Gaza. The report prompted the Palestinian organization Al-Haq to file a suit against the British government, arguing that British arms sales facilitate Israeli operations in Gaza.
In April, Foreign Secretary David Miliband informed Parliament that Britain would reexamine all its defense exports to Israel in light of Operation Cast Lead. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that since then, Britain’s military attache in Israel has requested information on the uses Israel made of various types of British-supplied equipment during Cast Lead.
Foreign Ministry officials said that only a small percentage of Israel’s defense-related imports come from Britain. According to data suppled by Britain’s department of trade, these sales total some 20 million pounds – about NIS 130 million.
The British embargo is not expected to have any impact on the navy’s operational capability. However, it has great political significance, and could encourage other countries to halt defense exports to Israel. The country considered most likely to be next is Belgium, which sells Israel equipment used to disperse demonstrations.
In response the British Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a statement saying, “On 21 April 2009 the Foreign Secretary issued a Written Ministerial Statement about U.K. exports to Israel which may have been used by the Israel Defense Forces during the conflict in Gaza. This statement makes clear that all exports are subject to stringent controls.
“The statement sets out clearly the detail of U.K. components in equipment that may have been used in Operation Cast Lead. U.K. equipment was not exported for specific use in Operation Cast Lead and export licenses were issued based on all the evidence available at the time they were granted.
“Future decisions will take into account what has happened in the recent conflict. We do not grant export licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression.
“We do not believe that the current situation in the Middle East would be improved by imposing an arms embargo on Israel. Israel has the right to defend itself and faces real security threats.
“This said, we consistently urge Israel to act with restraint and supported the EU Presidency statement that called the Israeli actions during operation Cast Lead ‘disproportionate.'”
The Spirit of Humanity leaves port in Larnaca for Gaza
P. Selvarani speaks to Free Gaza Movement chairperson Huwaida Arraf to discover a woman determined to see an end to violence. She could have lived a blissful life as a successful lawyer, raising a nice, happy family in the Land of the Free. But social activist Huwaida Arraf, a first generation Palestinian-American, instead found her calling helping free her people.
For the past 10 years, Huwaida has often found herself staring down the nozzle of an Israeli army Uzi submachine gun, roughed up, handcuffed and thrown into jail — all in her quest to free Israeli-occupied Gaza and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
A lesser mortal would have caved in under such pressure and atrocity but then Huwaida is no ordinary woman.
“It’s not going to stop me. I’m lucky to be alive and not injured like others. Some of my friends have been killed. It’s bad when that happens but what Palestinians are going through on a daily basis is more horrifying,” said the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) chairperson and founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) whose mission is to resist Israeli occupation of Palestine using non-violent tactics.
Just a week before this interview was conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Huwaida and her team of FGM volunteers found themselves once again under siege by Israeli forces.
“On June 29, we departed Cyprus in the ‘Spirit of Humanity’ ferry to provide aid such as medicines, toys and books to the Palestinians in Gaza. But the next day, we found ourselves surrounded by Israeli warships. They threatened to use force against us if we would not leave.
“I told them we were unarmed civilians who were just bringing humanitarian aid. But they kept following us and when we were about 18 knots from the Port of Gaza, their commandos jumped on board our ferry and forcefully took control of our vessel. They took away our cameras and phones and when my husband (documentary producer Adam Shapiro) tried to prevent them, they beat him up.”
Huwaida’s efforts to placate the commandos and assure them that they were on a humanitarian cause ended with her being handcuffed by the soldiers.
“They isolated me in the kitchenette of the ferry. I didn’t know what happened to the rest of the volunteers, including my husband. As the ferry shook violently while they steered it to an Israeli port, crockery and cutlery were falling all over me. Fortunately, I was not injured.”
Huwaida and another volunteer, who are both Israeli citizens, were detained in a huge warehouse near the port with six soldiers watching over them. They were released 16 hours later without being told why they were arrested.
The 19 others, including Adam, spent the next six days in an Israeli prison and were eventually deported. They included Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire and former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
It’s this type of unnecessary aggression against innocent folk that makes Huwaida, a Christian, even more determined to fight the Palestinian cause.
Understandably, although she is only 33, Huwaida wears a weary look on her face as she has witnessed this kind of brutality all too often. But doesn’t it feel like she’s flogging a dead horse?
“I can’t accept the violence of the Occupation. When you see (the brutality and oppression) every day and you get used to it, THAT would be a tragedy. I try not to be desensitized to what is happening because we cannot give up.
“Sometimes you feel a sense of guilt, especially when you have access to luxuries denied to other people. I used to feel very guilty about sleeping (she manages on about five hours of sleep a day). Now, I don’t feel as guilty as before because I have to take care of myself but sometimes I still do, especially when I find myself in a place like this,” she said, gesturing at the Club Lounge of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, where the interview took place.
(Barely hours after she landed at the KLIA, Huwaida was whisked to Putrajaya for a press conference held by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the plight of the Palestinians.)
Huwaida said the sight of Palestinians waiting in long queues for hours as they go through the numerous Israeli checkpoints to get to the West Bank is degrading.
“The soldiers decide everything. You see old folk, mothers and children going to school sometimes waiting the whole day just to get through.”
She recalled seeing a soldier yelling at a Palestinian man from Jerusalem who needed to get to Nablus to pay his last respects to his father who had died that morning before they buried him.
“The soldier refused to let him through but when the man kept on insisting, the soldier raised his gun. I intervened and pleaded for the soldier to let the man through on humanitarian grounds. Instead, they handcuffed and took him away. I still protested and they asked me to leave. When I refused, they arrested me.”
Huwaida’s parents — her father is an Israeli-Arab and her mother a Palestinian who both migrated to the United States as they wanted to bring up their children away from the violence in Palestine — are always pleading with her not to waste her life like this.
“I have sometimes thought about what we’re doing. But what’s happening in Palestine is so illegal and immoral. There have been times when I thought about returning to the US to practice law, become successful and build an influence, but I never thought about it for too long although I know I need to strike a balance in my life now.”
She said although she and Adam, whom she met at the Seeds of Peace youth organisation, have been married for seven years, they’ve hardly thought of starting a family because of the work they do and the limited time they spend with each other.
“I do want to have children but with so much to do now, I have not thought of starting a family. I guess I have to find a better balance in my life because I am not getting any younger!”
Huwaida confessed that when she first met Adam, they didn’t initially hit it off.
“For the first year we didn’t really talk to each other very much but I think there was a hidden attraction between us. And within a few weeks after our first kiss, he proposed! Two months after we were married, my husband was arrested in Israel and deported and not allowed to return for 10 years.”
It was a difficult period for Huwaida as she was unsure whether to stay on or join her husband in the US. She decided to stay on in Palestine and only went to the US in 2004 to read law.
“Our struggle is a long one and we need to gather as much support as we can from all over the world. Some governments support us but many are unwilling to stand up against Israel’s policies. People in power know what’s going on but they are consciously choosing to ignore it.
“But I know I can’t always be there. I tell myself not to allow this war pre-occupy me too much in order to focus on the bigger change.
“The people whom I have had the honor of meeting and working with, especially our volunteers — who come from all over the world and who’ve not given up in the face of all this persecution — offset the disappointments we face.
But what really keeps Huwaida going is the spirit and resilience of the Palestinians.
“I was in a village called Jayyous where we were planning a demonstration against the Israelis for confiscating the farms of the people to build a wall. The night before I was staying with a friend and his family and I was visibly distressed by what I saw.
“But here was my friend, who had just lost his land, trying to comfort me and make me laugh. I was bewildered! I asked him how he could laugh in the face of all this adversity.
“And he told me that although his land had been confiscated by the Israelis, what was important was that they didn’t take away his ability to laugh and live away from them.”
On another occasion when the [ISM] was trying to prevent the Israeli soldiers from conducting house-to-house raids in Nablus, Huwaida received a call from someone. “He said he could see our volunteers trying to stop the soldiers and although he felt the volunteers could not really do much, the fact that we were trying to do something was comfort enough for him. I did not know who this man was or how he got my number!
“It’s this kind of positive spirit that motivates me and tells me that our efforts are not wasted. At the very least, we are telling the Palestinians that “we see you, we hear you and we are doing what we can to help you”.
Her most challenging moment was when she had to face the parents of a 23-year-old American volunteer who was killed when an Israeli bulldozer ran over her as she was trying to prevent the demolition of a house.
“I was in the US when this happened. Having to face her parents was the most difficult thing I had to do.”
Despite the odds, Huwaida is optimistic that the conflict will end soon.
“We are going to continue to stop this blockade in Gaza. And I believe that if people unite and work together we can be a force to reckon with. Even one person can make a difference.”
The army does not classify .22-inch caliber bullets as a suitable means to disperse demonstrators, the judge advocate general, Brig.-Gen. Avichai Mendelblit, told the human rights group B’Tselem yesterday. According to the organization, the use of .22-caliber bullets resulted in the death of at least two unarmed Palestinians. On February 13, Az a-Din al-Jamal, 14, was killed in Hebron; and on June 5, Aqel Sror, 35, was shot and killed in a demonstration in the village of Ni’lin. Dozens of people have been wounded from the bullets, some seriously. B’Tselem says since Sror’s death, 0.22-caliber bullets have not been fired at demonstrators in Ni’lin.
Yesterday morning, shots were fired at an Israeli car near Ramallah, south of the settlement of Ofra. The shooting did not result in casualties or damage.
Five years ago today, the international court of justice in The Hague published its advisory opinion on Israel’s separation wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The keenly awaited verdict, requested by the UN’s general assembly, was clear: Israel’s wall is illegal, it must be removed and adequate compensation paid.
The wall’s illegality, and Israel’s obligation to dismantle the structure and pay damages for the consequences of the wall thus far, were all agreed by the judges by a margin of 14-1. (The ICJ also accepted the use of the term “wall”, since “other expressions” are “no more accurate”.) There was also confirmation that Israel’s settlements were “a flagrant violation” of the convention, established “in breach of international law” (contrast this with the mealy-mouthed nitpicking over outposts and “freezes” by Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu). Overall, the court found that the route of the wall threatened to create “de facto annexation”, with the wall itself described as severely impeding “the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination”.
At the time, the ICJ decision was hailed by Palestinians and dismissed by the Israeli government. As Yasser Arafat described it as a “victory for the Palestinian people”, a spokesman for the then prime minister Ariel Sharon, Raanan Gissin, opined that “after all the rancour dies, this resolution will find its place in the garbage can of history”.
Both the US and UK had opposed the entire process, on the odd grounds that the UN’s main judicial body for settling legal disputes was not “the appropriate forum to resolve what is a political issue”. In the words of Jack Straw, it was better not to “embroil” the ICJ “in a heavily political bilateral dispute”.
This opposition was rare – later that same month, the general assembly voted by 150 to six in support of the ICJ opinion. The decision was also welcomed by the likes of Oxfam and Amnesty International, with Oxfam’s director adding that the ruling was a “step in the right direction” but needed “further action” by the international community.
But meaningful “further action” was not forthcoming, and Israel pressed on with the wall. Five years on, the wall loops around the West Bank and cuts through East Jerusalem, isolating Palestinian communities and devastating lives, and has become an integral part of Israel’s apartheid regime in the territories. About two-thirds of the 700km+ route, featuring a 8m-high wall, electric fences, sniper towers and “buffer zones” up to 100m wide, is completed or under construction. Of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 8.5% will be on the “wrong” side of the wall. In terms of size as well as significance, this would be comparable to the UK losing Greater London and south-east England.
For Israel to consolidate its hold on the illegal colonies in the OPT, many Palestinians find themselves hemmed in and surrounded by the wall’s contortions (pdf). About 35,000 Palestinians with West Bank IDs are to be caught between the wall and the Green Line – if you add (pdf) the East Jerusalem Palestinians in the same position, this figure increases to about 260,000.
These are the bare facts five years on from the ICJ opinion. Israel has ignored the judges’ decision, but that’s not a surprise. However, has the Palestinian leadership sufficiently exploited the opinion? Speaking to Palestinians involved in monitoring the wall’s progress, or in directly resisting it on the ground, there is a feeling that Palestinian diplomats have not done as much with the ICJ result as they could have.
Palestinians in communities directly affected by the wall continue to put up resistance, sometimes at their cost of their lives: 18 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during anti-wall protests, the youngest victim a 10-year-old boy. While they fight for survival, the wall has also played a key role in changing the big picture, delineating the borders of the Palestinian enclaves Israel will grant “statehood”.
In 1994, the then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin said that “we have to decide on separation as a philosophy”. However, this is not separation on equal terms – the following year Rabin also made it clear that the Palestinian “entity” would be “less than a state”. There is a term for unequal separation in international law – apartheid. The wall urgently needs dismantling; but it is only one part of a bigger whole.
The West Bank village of Ni’lin has been demonstrating since the Israeli government began for a second time to construct the Apartheid Wall on village lands in May 2008. To date, Israeli forces have killed 5 residents of Ni’lin and critically injured 1 American solidarity activist. According to local medics who volunteer with the Palestinian Red Crescent, over 450 people have been injured during demonstrations as of April 2009.
Visibly, the violence from Israeli forces dramatically increased during and after the 22 day assault on Gaza that began on 27 December 2008. Israeli forces have killed 3 demonstrators since the beginning of the Gaza assault in Ni’lin. Additionally, the Israeli army has introduced new weapons against demonstrators; using the high-velocity tear gas projectile and a 0.22 calibre live ammunition shot by sniper fire as a means of crowd dispersal.
Two witnesses to the willful killings of Arafat Rateb Khawaje and Mohammed Khawaje with live ammunition on 28 December 2009, a Palestinian resident of Ni’lin and an Israeli solidarity activist, testified to the United Nations in Geneva on 6 July 2009.
Their testimonies are available on the United Nations video archives. The testimonies from Ni’lin are the 2nd to last on the webpage, labelled Mr. Sour and Mr. Jonathan Pollack.
To date, Israeli occupation forces have murdered five Palestinian residents and critically injured 1 international solidarity activist during unarmed demonstrations in Ni’lin.
29 July 2008: Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
30 July 2008: Yousef Amira (17) was shot in the head with two rubber coated steel bullets. He died in a Ramallah hospital 5 days later on 4 August 2008.
28 December 2008: Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) was shot in the back with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
28 December 2008: Mohammed Khawaje (20) was shot in the head with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition. He died in a Ramallah hospital 3 days later on 31 December 2008.
13 March 2009: Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile. He is currently at Tel Hashomer hospital with an unknown
5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Srour (36) was shot in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
In total, 35 people have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition in Ni’lin: 7 were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 28 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition.
Since May 2008, residents of Ni’lin have been organizing and participating in unarmed demonstrations against construction of the Apartheid Wall. Despite being deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, the Occupation continues to build the Wall, further annexing Palestinian land.
The current entrance to the village will be closed and replaced by a tunnel to be built under Road 446. This tunnel will allow for the closure of the road to Palestinian vehicles, turning road 446 into a segregated settler-only road . Ni’lin will be effectively split into 2 parts (upper Ni’lin and lower Ni’lin), as road 446 runs between the village. The tunnel is designed to give Israeli occupation forces control of movement over Ni’lin residents, as it can be blocked with a single military vehicle.
Richard Goldstone said his four member team had been shaken by the extent of the destruction in Gaza.
Witnesses from Gaza, Israel and the West Bank gave testimony in public hearings in Gaza and Geneva.
Israel has refused to co-operate, accusing the UN Human Rights Council of bias against it.
The investigation is looking into whether Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s three-week operation in Gaza in December and January.
The Human Rights Council has been accused of singling out Israel unfairly, although Mr Goldstone, who is Jewish, is a respected South African war crimes prosecutor.
Israel did not provide visas for the investigators to visit the south of Israel, which has suffered years of Palestinian rocket fire, or the West Bank, and the team entered Gaza from Egypt.
In two days of hearings last weeks, Gaza residents described harrowing stories of bereavement and injury during the Israeli operation.
And on Monday and Tuesday, residents of southern Israel, weapons experts, Palestinian lawyers and the father of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit gave testimony.
“The testimonies we have heard from victims and witnesses… have been very difficult to hear, but I believe it is important that we listen to these stories,” Mr Goldstone told a news conference.
“Obviously on this mission, visiting Gaza was very important, not only to listen to people but to see the physical damage. That shook all of us, the extent of it,” Goldstone said.
Previous investigations
It is the first time a UN fact-finding mission has held such public hearings.
Mr Goldstone said written questions would now be submitted to Israel and Hamas and the team was aiming to present its report in September.
Several investigations into alleged violations of international law during Israel’s 22-day operation in Gaza, which ended on 18 January, have now reported back.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has requested more than $11m (£7m) compensation from Israel for damage to UN property in Gaza, after a limited UN inquiry accused Israel of targeting known civilian shelters and providing untrue statements to justify actions in which civilians were killed.
The report found Israel to blame in six out of nine incidents when death or injury were caused to people sheltering at UN property and UN buildings were damaged.
The Israeli military has concluded in an internal investigation that its troops fought lawfully, although errors did take place, such as the deaths of 21 people in a wrongly targeted house.
International human rights group Amnesty International accused both sides of committing war crimes in a detailed report on the conflict last week.
Palestinian rights groups say more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the January conflict. Israel puts the figure at 1,166.
Israeli and Palestinian estimates also differ on the numbers of civilian casualties.
According to the United Nations, the Israeli military campaign left more than 50,000 homes, 800 industrial properties and 200 schools damaged or destroyed, as well as 39 mosques and two churches.
