Hiding behind civilians: The continued use of Palestinian civilians as human shields by the Israeli Occupation Forces

28 April, 2009 — peoplesgeography.com

36The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has released an important update to its July 2008 report on the IOF practise of hiding behind Palestinian human shields. The use of civilian human shields is customary Israeli practice in gross violation of international law, in which the practice is a war crime and crime against humanity, as well as a violation of Israel’s own High Court ruling of 2005, which itself came after a three-year legal battle. The pretence extends then to the illusion of israeli rule of its own law.

The Al Mezan report also takes the international community to task for its “continued failure … to fulfill its obligations and its silence on Israeli violations [which] encourages Israel to proceed with its crimes.”

Full_Report (pdf, 19pp)

Introduction

“They handcuffed and blindfolded me. Then, they forced us to move out of the room, pushing me with their hands and guns to move although I was blindfolded and pregnant. I heard them pushing others to hurry up as well. I got exhausted and I fell down many times…I told them that I was four months pregnant and couldn’t continue but a soldier threatened to shoot me…”

Testimony of woman from As-Sreij neighborhood, April 2008

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Posted in Human Rights, International Law, Israel, Palestine. Tags: , . 7 Comments »

Breakfast With War Criminals

15 April, 2009 — peoplesgeography

Why do Bush and Blair continue to escape indictment for war crimes? Serbs and Sudanese dictators are far more likely to face a political court set up by the West, writes John Pilger.

These are extraordinary times. With the United States and Britain on the verge of bankruptcy and committing to an endless colonial war, pressure is building for their crimes to be prosecuted at a tribunal similar to that which tried the Nazis at Nuremberg.

The Nuremburg tribunal condemned acts of aggression in the strongest terms: “To initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole”. International law would be mere farce, said the US chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Robert Jackson, “if, in future, we do not apply its principles to ourselves”.

That is now happening. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in International Law, War crimes. Tags: , , . 5 Comments »

Our South Africa Moment Has Arrived

22 March, 2009 — peoplesgeography.com

Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), takes stock. This article is based on a presentation he recently gave at Canadian universities as part of Israeli Apartheid Week. Its full of important reminders, such as this one:

Racial discrimination against the indigenous Palestinian people who became citizens of the State of Israel was formalized and institutionalized through the creation by law of a “Jewish nationality”, which is distinct from Israeli citizenship. No “Israeli” nationality exists in Israel, and the Supreme Court has persistently refused to recognize one as it would end the system of Jewish supremacy in Israel. The 1950 Law of Return entitles all Jews — and only Jews — to the rights of nationals, namely the right to enter “Eretz Yisrael” (Israel and the OPT) and immediately enjoy full legal and political rights. “Jewish nationality” under the Law of Return is extraterritorial in contravention of international public law norms pertaining to nationality. It includes Jewish citizens of other countries, irrespective of whether they wish to be part of the collective of “Jewish nationals,” and excludes “non-Jews” (i.e., Palestinians) from nationality rights in Israel.

Introduction

As Israel shifts steadily to the fanatic, racist right, as the latest parliamentary election results have shown, Palestinians under its control are increasingly being brutalized by its escalating colonial and apartheid policies, designed to push them out of their homeland to make a self-fulfilling prophecy out of the old Zionist canard of “a land without a people.” In parallel, international civil society, according to numerous indicators, is reaching a turning point in its view of Israel as a pariah state acting above the law of nations and in its effective action, accordingly, to penalize and ostracize it as it did to apartheid South Africa.

Palestinian communities in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Hebron, the Jordan Valley and the Naqab (Negev), among others, have been recently subjected to some of the worst, ongoing Israeli campaigns of gradual ethnic cleansing intended to “Judaize” their space. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Apartheid, Gaza, International Law, Israel, Palestine, War crimes. Tags: , . 1 Comment »

Russell Tribunal for Palestine Launch: Video

14 March, 2009 — peoplesgeography.com

Following an appeal from Ken Coates, Nurit Peled, and Leila Shahid, and with the support of over a hundred international personages, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine was recently established. The Tribunal is a civic initiative promoting international law as the core element of the Israeli-Palestinian issue.  Here are the video clips from the press conference launching the Tribunal, featuring the following speakers in English: Ken Loach, Ken Coates, Nurit Peled, and Paul Laverty and speaking in French: Jean Ziegler, Stéphane Hessel, Leila Shahid and Pierre Galand.

Ken Loach

more about “Ken Loach, a video from RussellTribun…“, posted with vodpod

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Posted in International Law, Israel, Palestine. Tags: , , , . 1 Comment »

Time for Trial

22 January, 2009 — peoplesgeography.com

… argues Elna Sondergaard in Cairo, weighing up the options and prospects for war crimes prosecutions.

The brutal and indiscriminate Israeli attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza during the last weeks have entailed numerous violations of basic norms of international law, such as the principles of proportionality and distinction (between civilians and combatants; and between civilian and military targets). Military acts such as intentionally targeting schools and other civilian facilities are considered violations of international humanitarian law in relation to which the state of Israel bears responsibility – but they also constitute serious crimes under international law (e.g., war crimes and eventually crimes against humanity) in relation to which individuals should stand trial.

The international community agreed to this principle of individual responsibility for international crimes in the wake of the Second World War; genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes were considered totally unacceptable and individuals committing such crimes should be held accountable. The rational behind the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1945 was clear: without a trial, justice and peace would never prevail. This idea of individual accountability has subsequently been implemented in the case law of the ad-hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague will develop it further in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Gaza, International Law, Israel, Palestine, War crimes. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Wanted for War Crimes And Crimes Against Humanity

22 January, 2009 — peoplesgeography.com
2007_dan-halutz_poster-campaign-wanted-halutz

At least 3 Israeli generals have feared arrest warrants waiting for them when landing in a foreign airport. A former US-based campaign had Dan Halutz and a UK campaign Doron Almog in its sights, while Avi Dichter has also cancelled visits to the UK to elude arrest (click on image for further info)

While the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) has apparently been prevaricating on whether it can exercise jurisdiction, there are increasing calls for the creation of a specific ad hoc tribunal to try Israeli war criminals.

Established in 2000, the ICC is the world’s first permanent court set up to investigate and prosecute war crimes. Israel and the United States are not among the 108 countries that have signed the Rome Statute creating the court, but that does not prevent the ICC from acting.

A Belgian Court has reportedly undertaken to arrest Tzipi Livni should she visit Brussells; the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have demanded an investigation into war crimes; Bolivia has pledged to take Israel to the Hague, the Beirut-based ICAI-HOKOK Coalition Against Impunity has lodged a Letter of Referral, and others have also joined the chorus for action by the ICC for Israel’s flagrant mass killing of civilians who made up most of the 1300+ killed in Gaza. These war-crimes include the bombing and shelling of schools, hospitals, supply convoys, media and UN facilities, even after assurances; shooting at medical crews; the use of illegal munitions against a civilian population, including white phosphorus shells; the prevention of the evacuation of wounded, and more.

Olmert, who led the rampage in two unnecessary and immoral wars of choice in his brief tenure, Ehud Barak with longer and even more horrifying criminal baggage, and Tzipi Livi, who was most prominent in attempting to justify these war-crimes in international media and who helped spearhead the campaign, are arguably at the forefront of this round of Israeli war criminality. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Gaza, International Law, Israel, Justice, UN, War crimes. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment »

Outsourcing E-Waste

8 July, 2008 — peoplesgeography

There is somewhere between 20 and 50 million tons a year of e-waste, mostly from the US and Europe. Much of the detritus of the digital economy ends up in other countries such as China, India and Nigeria, where PCs, printers and phones are dismantled by the poor, often including children, in what is usually a very toxic and unprotected process. Journalist Michael Zhao traveled to Guiyu, China to see the impact of e-waste first-hand.

E-Waste: Dumping on the Poor 电子垃圾污染穷国 (4.35)

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Posted in China, Ecology, International Law, Pollution, USA. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti presentation

26 June, 2008 — peoplesgeography.com

An excellent extended overview of the I-P conflict by Dr Barghouti and Israel’s apartheid policies of continued ethnic cleansing and annexation of up to 58% of the West Bank through illegal settlement expansion. It really helps to see it by way of maps and slides.

Moved to a dedicated page here.

Posted in Gaza, International Law, Israel, Israel Watch, Palestine, War crimes, West Bank. Tags: , . Leave a Comment »

Enfant Terrible Turns Into Terrible Tyrant: Why Israel At 60 Is No Cause for Celebration

2 May, 2008 — peoplesgeography.com

Mazin Qumsiyeh of the excellent Wheels of Justice peace initiative has drafted this list furnishing facts about why good people of conscience everywhere will not be celebrating Israel at its 60th anniversary this month, just as apartheid-era South Africa was not accepted or celebrated. There are many more reasons, and he invites people to add to it.

Israeli psychologist and exile Avigail Abarbanel notes, “If a day comes, and I hope it does, when Israelis decide to stop living in denial, they will have to realise that real peace will only come through justice. Justice in this context means one thing, that the ideal of an exclusively Jewish state at the cost of an entire people might have to be abandoned. Only a bi-national state and a right of return for the Palestinian refugees will come close enough to rectifying some of the injustices committed in 1948 and since. Having been ethnically cleansed, this is also what the Palestinians are entitled to under international law and common human decency.“

  • Ethnic cleaning and ongoing genocide: Between December 1947 and December 1950, over 530 Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed. Half of the Palestinians were ethnically cleansed by underground Zionist forces even before Israel was unilaterally declared a state. Palestinians call these events of the late 1940s the Nakba (Catastrophe).
  • The Palestinian refugees are the largest remaining refugee population in the world. Seven million of the ten million Palestinians are refugees or displaced people. They are prevented from returning to their homes and lands even though International law and UN resolutions demand it. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Empire, War and Terror, Genocide, International Law, Israel, Israel Watch, Justice, Occupation, Palestine, USA. Tags: , , . 4 Comments »

The Wall: impact and consequences, video

10 February, 2008 — peoplesgeography.com

While the introduction and conclusion of the narration leaves something to be desired (it is not “democracy” that is being installed in the Middle East, it is being actively subverted and sabotaged in the OPT, for a start), this eight minute ChromoVision video is a very worthwhile production overall: it is a very good overview of what the illegal separation wall in Israel means in terms of partitioning off from Palestinians the most fertile agricultural land and water supplies for use by Israel.

The narration also is correct in noting that all the wall is not in fact along the 1967 Green Line: 157,800 acres2 – or about 11.5 percent – of West Bank land (excluding East Jerusalem) will actually lie between the Barrier and the Green Line, according to the revised route announced in 2004. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Agriculture, Apartheid, Gaza, Human Rights, Illegal settlements, International Law, Israel, Israel Watch, Justice, Maps, Occupation, Palestine, Peace and Justice, Peace education, Video, Water, West Bank. Tags: , , , . 3 Comments »
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