Tag: Gaza

Gaza fishermen demonstrate at UN in protest of Israeli attacks on their livelihoods

PNN | Fishing Under Fire

14 August 2009

Fishermen in the Gaza Strip are the frequent targets of Israeli forces. Israeli naval ships sometimes open fire, or board boats, arrest the fishermen, even confiscate nets and the boats themselves.

Today in Gaza, Palestinian fishermen are demonstrating against the Israeli policies that are destroying their livelihood. The Palestinian fishing industry has lost millions in revenue since the siege began three years ago, that has led to a ban on exports of fish, imports of equipment, and an increase in attacks by the Israelis.

During the three-weeks of major Israeli attacks in late December and January the losses to the agriculture and fishing sector, for which statistics are combined, were 311,000 USD in those three weeks alone. The head of the Fishermen’s Association, Nizar Ayash, reported as long ago as March of 2007 that losses incurred in the fishing sector due to Israeli practices amounted to 16 million dollars. There are approximately 3,000 Palestinians engaged in the fishing trade, which translates into 40,000 people living on that income.

Palestinian Legislative Council member and Chairman of the People’s Committee against the Blockade, Jamal Al Khudari, said today that Palestinian fishermen are maintaining their profession and their right to fish in the Sea of Gaza, despite the intense Israeli attacks. Under Article 11 of the Israeli-Palestinian Protocol, it is stipulated that Palestinian fishing boats have the right to go out 20 nautical miles from the coast in a specific region. The number has been reduced by the Israelis several times and is now down to three miles, yet still some fishermen on the shores face fire.

During a march on the United Nations headquarters in Gaza City, Al Khudari reiterated what a serious threat the fishermen and their families are under.

He said that by reducing the area allowed for Palestinian fishing in Gaza territorial waters from 15 to just three nautical miles, the occupying forces are contradicting signed agreements.

A call was issued to the international community to pressure the Israelis to abide international law and agreements, and to stop the harassment of the Palestinian fishing trade.

Morality’s chief of staff

Gideon Levy | Ha’aretz

16 August 2009

Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi is a moral and ethical paragon who stands atop an organization that is no less moral or ethical. Last week, he broke his silence and proved his acute sensitivity to matters of conscience: “We have not one gram of tolerance,” the chief of staff said in a loud and clear voice, referring to those who had hazed soldiers. “We ought to view this incident as a reminder of the high ethical threshold expected of us,” he said in a clear and crisp voice, referring to the affair involving Brig. Gen. Imad Fares.

However, on the same day the chief of staff – who brags of his “high ethical threshold” – made his statements, a report commissioned by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch was made public. It stated that during Operation Cast Lead, the Israel Defense Forces killed 11 civilians, including five women and four children, who were carrying white flags, an act that has been characterized as a war crime. This should have been far more shocking, but we did not hear one word about it from the chief of staff. For this, he had kilograms of tolerance.

The IDF under Ashkenazi, who demanded that the army “scour with a steel comb every platoon and squad” in response to the hazing incident, did not investigate the killing of white-flag bearers. All of a sudden the IDF – whose spokesman, Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu, launched a disgraceful delegitimization campaign against the rights group Breaking the Silence for daring to take shocking testimonials from soldiers – is backing an investigation of every tent. “We ought to encourage revelations,” the fearlessly investigating chief of staff said of those hectoring soldiers, as the IDF stifles any possibility of revealing suspicions of war crimes.

If only our camp were clean, clean of those who abuse soldiers, purged of the minor liars. Allowing a child to drive an IDF-issued all-terrain vehicle? Forbidden. Killing children carrying white flags? Allowed. Lying about allowing your wife to drive an army-issued car? Forbidden. Killing women? Allowed. Administrative minutiae – a wife driving her husband’s car, a son driving an ATV and the hazing of fresh recruits – are grave matters. Mistakenly killing civilians is permitted. This is the message.

If abusing soldiers is forbidden and abusing Palestinians is permitted, we are talking about two sets of morals. The result is a double standard and dehumanization. When Ashkenazi says, “As officers we are measured in our ability to serve as a worthy personal example,” he is referring to trifling matters, like the Fares farce (and now we can add to this the grotesque case of the stolen credit card). He is not referring to ethical issues or problems of conscience. The extreme care given to such trivial matters is a wonderful fig leaf for the IDF because it allows it to prove “morality” and whitewash all allegations of war crimes.

Fares, like Brig. Gen. Moshe (Chico) Tamir before him, committed minor sins. Tamir, he of the ATV, was involved in far more grievous actions, including the errant killing of civilians in Jenin and Gaza, acts for which nobody thought to demote him. When the IDF responds with such force against two accomplished officers – boy, are they ever accomplished; all our combat officers are automatically labeled with this tag – it tries to blur their real crimes and those of their colleagues.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office occasionally issues official statements that do not always jibe with the truth, though for this we will forgive. Maj. Avital Leibovich, an IDF spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera in English on Thursday that the IDF does not fire on children. Then how did hundreds of children die during Operation Cast Lead? Was it an act of providence? Nobody objected to her deceitful propaganda. But when Fares lies on the fateful question of who drove his car, his fate is sealed. We have yet to see an officer whose service was terminated due to the errant killing of Palestinians in Gaza, but when it comes to lying to a car-leasing company, that’s another matter. These are the standards by which morals are judged in the most moral army in the world. No other organization in Israel speaks so often about “morals” while committing so many flagrantly amoral acts.

The previous chief of staff, Dan Halutz, was tainted by his “light shudder on the wing” comment when asked what he felt after he dropped a bomb. And he was only referring to one bomb. He claimed that he was misunderstood. Ashkenazi is made of Teflon; nothing sticks to him, not even after the unbridled assault on Gaza and the mass killing of civilians with countless bombs. Now he can also be thought of as a sensitive chief of staff whose like we have not seen when it comes to morality. Oh, how shocked he was to hear of the wet towels that were hurled at soldiers’ backs.

Rights group: Israel killed unarmed Palestinians

Jen Thomas | Associated Press

13 August 2009

A new report by Human Rights Watch charged Thursday that Israeli soldiers killed eleven unarmed Palestinian civilians who were carrying white flags in shooting incidents during Israel’s offensive in Gaza earlier this year.

The report says the civilians included five women and four children. The group urged Israel to conduct investigations into the deaths, which it said occurred when the civilians were “in plain view and posed no apparent security threat.”

The group says at least three witnesses confirmed the details in each of the seven separate shootings.

The report is the latest in a slew of charges from human rights groups alleging that Israel violated the rules of war in its Gaza offensive. The reports on the Gaza war have focused on Israeli violations, but Human Rights Watch has also said Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups violated the rules of war by firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians.

Israel says groups like Human Rights Watch are unfairly singling it out and has criticized the methodology of reports based largely on Palestinian testimony. Israel says it did not deliberately target civilians and that noncombatants were killed because Hamas militants took cover, fired rockets and stored ammunition in crowded residential areas.

In a response to the report, the Israeli military said its soldiers were obligated to avoid harming anyone waving a white flag but that in some cases Hamas militants had used civilians with white flags for cover.

“Any person who displays a white flag in this way acts illegally, does not enjoy protection from retaliatory action, and endangers nearby civilian populations,” the military said.

Last month, the Israeli government released its own report defending its use of force in Gaza. The report says Israel is investigating five alleged cases in which soldiers killed civilians carrying white flags, incidents that it said resulted in 10 deaths.

Two of the five incidents were among those mentioned by Human Rights Watch.

Both Israel and the Palestinians acknowledge that more than 1,100 Gazans were killed in the Israeli offensive. Palestinians say most were civilians. Israel says most were armed militants, but has not released evidence to back up that claim.

Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed during the Gaza war.

Shortly after the new report was released, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev questioned the organization’s objectivity.

Regev did not directly comment on the Gaza allegations, instead referring to a recent flap over Human Rights Watch’s fundraising activities in Saudi Arabia. The group came under fire for reportedly highlighting its criticism of Israel at a meeting attended by several Saudi officials.

This, Regev said, “raises important questions about the organization’s impartiality, professionalism and credibility.”

Piecing the injured back together

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

10 August 2009

Following consultation with him and with the specialist in prosthetics and orthotics rehabilitation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), many will begin the long road to treatment.

“It was the second day of the war,” says Omar Al-Ghrub (24), referring to the three weeks of Israel attacks in the winter of 2008-2009. “I was working that day,” he said. By day he worked in the Al-Waleed marble and granite factory northwest of Gaza city, and by night served as its watchman.

A missile struck, and Ghrub lost both his legs. Six months later, he waits for the stumps to heal enough to begin the process of fitting artificial legs, and learning to walk anew.

Loay Al-Najjar, 22, also lost both his legs. At 11 pm Jan. 13, Najjar was trying to help his sister evacuate a house that had been hit by shelling in the Khoza’a region, east of Khan Younis. “I was hit by a drone missile,” says Najjar. His legs were lacerated with shrapnel. But he is one of the luckier ones; he was able to travel to Saudi Arabia where he received treatment for three months, and artificial legs.

Ghrub and Najjar are among the many waiting for a consultation this particular Saturday. The artificial limb centre is unique in that it makes and fits the limbs on the premises. With the help of staff from the ICRC and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), it also provides physiotherapy and other support.

The centre is overcrowded – it is the only one of its kind. The waiting list has lengthened dramatically since the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Gaza’s Ministry of Health says between 120-150 new patients have had to have amputations following the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Gerd Van de Velde, head of the ICRC’s physical rehabilitation team in Gaza, says the number could rise with patients whose wounds worsen.

“Even now we are getting new patients,” says Van de Velde. “Some patients are having problems with their stumps as they were not cared for properly during their initial treatment due to the hectic situation. At the time, treatment was focussed on life-saving.”

In January 2008, five to ten patients came on a Saturday; now there are at least 30. ICRC figures show that in 2008, 63 patients received 71 prosthetic limbs (some had multiple amputations), and the centre served 1,500 patients. In the first half of 2009, 1,018 patients have come to the centre, 53 for prosthetic limbs.

“We have 146 patients on the waiting list, including 101 with war wounds,” says Van de Velde. “Of these, over 50 percent are above the knee amputations.” Blast injuries become even more complicated, because shrapnel must be extracted from the stump of the limb before it can heal enough for prosthetics treatment.

A few years ago, the centre used its funding to pay all the costs of the materials. Nearly all came from a specialist company in Germany, some were bought at twice their usual price from an Israeli importer.

Now, the ICRC, which began working with the centre in November 2007, supplies most of the materials, buying directly from the manufacturer, and also facilitating transfer through Israel. The centre also gets help from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Handicap International and Islamic Relief.

Van de Velde sees early hospital care, or the lack of it, as the origin of the problem for many of the patients. In a crisis, he said, “patients are evacuated quickly to make room for new patients. They did not receive the treatment and follow-up physiotherapy that they needed.”

The ICRC has now taken on a second, hospital-based project. “We’ve started with Shifa hospital, and hope to expand to Gaza’s other hospitals, focussing on quality of post-surgical physiotherapy care and ensuring that patients receive the treatment that they need.” Likewise, MSF is working throughout the Gaza Strip to provide post-operation wounds care and physiotherapy.

At the artificial limbs centre, taking a pause from casting and sculpting limbs, Nabil Farah and Mohammed Ziada, two of four specialists in prosthetics, take turns to demonstrate work at the centre. The specialists have both studied abroad, in Germany and in India, and want the trainees here to be sent for specialised studies. But with the siege on Gaza and the sealed borders, it has become difficult to leave Gaza.

Likewise, says Farah, many specialists want to come to Gaza to train technicians in making and working with prosthetic limbs, but they cannot enter because of the siege. But on Jul. 1, after much coordination with the Israeli authorities, the ICRC was able to send two Palestinians to India for an internationally recognised 18-month training programme. Van de Velde says the ICRC plans to send three more to be trained next year, with the aim of building a pool of qualified technicians.

All sorts of people were injured in the last assault. “During the first and second Intifadas (Palestinian uprisings, 1987-1991 and then from September 2000), most of the injuries were among the shebab (young men),” says Mohammed Ziada. “But in this last war, most of the injuries were people other than shebab: elderly, children, women…”

While the current focus is on people injured in the assault, the artificial limb centre also tackles birth disabilities. “Each month we normally make 20 to 30 braces for straightening legs,” says Farah. “This cures more than 80 percent of patients.”

Farah points to several siege-related difficulties the centre faces. The artificial limb centre uses hundreds of different parts, plastics and materials to make the prosthetic arms and legs. “Without even just one of the materials, the limb cannot be made. We don’t have the materials or the chemicals in Gaza to make the limbs.” Israel often prevents or greatly delays materials from entering, says Farah.

Walking through a storage room, Farah points out various empty shelves. Among clusters of different weaves of stocking net cloth used in the making of limbs, size 10 shelf sits empty. “We haven’t had size 10 for the last month,” Farah says.

Also absent are artificial foot parts L23, unavailable for the last 10 days, and R24 and R25, depleted for the last two months. “We help first those who need help the most,” says Farah.

Gerde Van de Velde says, however, that “not one patient had to wait because of a lack of material.” Items like the cloth can be substituted by a closely related size, he says. He admits there are restrictions on certain chemicals, but adds that these are more related to international law, and delayed by other bureaucratic procedures regarding the transport of chemicals.

Farah cites some sample costs: a below-the-knee prosthetic is about 800 dollars. An above-the-knee limb is twice as much. An arm costs 1,200 dollars. Yet these seemingly expensive limbs cost a fraction of what they might in other countries.

“Our salaries are very low,” says Farah. “We aren’t working for the money, obviously. We’re working for the many Palestinians who need limbs and therapy.”

University of JHB Prof lodges charges against War Criminal David Benjamin

Today, University of Johannesburg academic, Professor Farid Esack and Palestine Solidarity Committee members formally laid charges at the Johannesburg Central Police station against war criminal Lieutenant-Colonel David Benjamin.

This follows an application lodged on Monday by the Palestine Solidarity Alliance and others with the assistance of well-known international law professors John Dugard and Max du Plessis. The application calls on the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions to set in motion an investigation into war crimes committed by a number of Israelis linked to the Gaza massacre of December 2008-January 2009. South African-born Lieutenant-Colonel David Benjamin, who obtained his law degree from the University of Cape Town, has worked for the Israeli Occupation Forces for the past 17 years. As a member of the Israeli Army’s Military Advocates Corps, he provided legal advice to the Israeli military during the massacre.

Benjamin has been credited with giving the Israeli army the legal go-ahead for the use of white phosphorous in its attacks against Gaza in December 2008-January 2009. Israel’s use of white phosphorous in Gaza is illegal under international law; the Geneva Convention bars its use against civilian targets.

Benjamin, by his own admission, told Bloomberg News that the Gaza “campaign was a long time in the works, and we [the Military Advocates Corps] were intimately involved in the planning… Approval of targets which can be attacked, methods of warfare – it all has gone through us.”
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The charges are supported by overwhelming evidence, including reports from internationally known human rights organisations, and affidavits in excess of 3500 pages (available from the PSC). The massacre followed an 18-month siege and blockade which saw an occupied population experience starvation, deprivation, displacement and ongoing trauma on a horrendous scale that has shocked humanity. This seige continues.

The Gaza onslaught resulted in the deaths of 1400 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians. Of these approximately 40 % were women and children. More than 5400 Palestinians were seriously injured, many with the most horrific wounds, burns and amputations and countless others are psychologically, physically and mentally traumatised. This is in comparison to 10 Israeli soldiers killed (four by own fire and 2 Israeli citizens).

These acts of barbarity did not spare the innocent lives of a besieged occupied people. It is common knowledge that Israel attacked and destroyed schools, places of worship, shelters, hospitals and United Nations installations, such as the UNWRA school and relief aid warehouses. Israel’s offensive destroyed about 22,000 buildings and is estimated to have caused 1.9-billion US dollars worth of destruction. The actions are abhorrent and profoundly in breach of international humanitarian law and constitute evidence of international crimes.

The Israeli attack and bombardment of Gaza has been extensively documented and horrific scenes of death, injury and destruction of the civilian population were televised to the world. Evidence collected from eye-witnesses and those injured as well as United Nations and other investigative reports, including the testimony of Israeli combat soldiers and physicians (including South Africans) provide compelling proof that suggests Israelis have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

All credible humanitarian and human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, and the Red Cross, and respected individuals such as the professors of law Richard Falk and our own John Dugard, also condemned these actions as war crimes.

All of these actions are war crimes under international law, and Benjamin is, therefore, a war criminal. South Africans should feel outraged to have such a war criminal visiting our country, with the express purpose, according to the host organisation, Limmud, of providing South African audiences with the Israeli army’s justification for their war crimes.

Issued by the Palestine Solidarity Committee.