The ‘missing’ News on the Israel-Lebanon conflict

July 20, 2006 in Middle East

The links are to stories that you don’t get to see on US media.

Update: Kofi Annan condemns “excessive use of force” by Israel. (BBC)

Lebanon civilian deaths morally not same as terror victims — John Bolton Yahoo News

Palestine:

“Whatever the Israelis’ intended target, the bomb fell on a small water canal next to the Qasmia refugee camp, home to about 500
Palestinians. Its victims were 11 children taking an afternoon swim in the canal.
The first blast left a crater nearly four meters deep, burying many of the swimmers deep under the orange earth. Seven of the children were injured, three critically. Three others have not been found.” Guardian: ‘Is Hizbullah here? Only children here.’ City mourns air strike dead

“The destruction of the 140-megawatt reactor, the only one in the Gaza Strip, threatens to create a humanitarian disaster because the plant supplies electricity to two-thirds of Gaza’s 1.3 million residents and
operates pumps that provide water supplies.” Boston Globe

In Pictures

Lebanon:

“The New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch called on the Israeli military to provide details about a bombing Saturday that killed 16 people in a convoy of civilians fleeing a Lebanese village near Israel’s border.” Washington Post: Toll Climbs In Mideast As Fighting Rages On

“Fouad Siniora said more than 300 people had been killed and 500,000 others displaced in a week of Israeli attacks.” BBC

“The United Nations says about 500,000 are displaced internally in the country, either by choice or under Israeli fire.”BBC

“PARKED outside the small general hospital in Tyre is a badly refrigerated lorry container in which are stacked the bodies of 91 Lebanese civilians, 55 of them children.

The bodies have been placed inside black plastic rubbish bags and labelled in anticipation of the time, days or weeks from now, when their surviving relatives - if any - can come to collect them.” Sydney Morning Herald

“Over 30 civilians were killed in Israeli air strikes against Lebanon on Tuesday.

Ten civilians who had taken refuge inside the Greek Orthodox Church in Rachaya al-Fokhar were wounded in an attack. Lebanese security sources said Israel had used phosphorous missiles in the attack, an internationally banned weapon.” Daily Star

“Israeli planes struck targets in the east, south and the capital
Beirut, with a Christian district coming under fire for the first
time.”
BBC

An entire neighborhood of a southern Lebanese village is no more: All 15 houses were destroyed Wednesday in an airstrike by Israelis…
Israel’s onslaught, now in its second week, has wreaked its worst damage in the poor farming regions of southern Lebanon. Warplanes have blasted bridges and roads and turned villages into ghost towns as civilians flee, abandoning the area to Hezbollah guerrillas who continue to fire rockets on Israel and engage any ground force that advances from the border 12 miles to the south.
Seattle PI

Analysis:

  • In his last interview - after the 1967 six-day war - the historian
    Isaac Deutscher, whose next-of-kin had died in the Nazi camps and
    whose surviving relations lived in Israel, said: “To justify or
    condone Israel’s wars against the Arabs is to render Israel a very bad
    service indeed and harm its own long-term interest.” Guardian

  • UN human rights chief Louise Arbour suggested Wednesday that the military operations being carried out in Lebanon, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories could be considered war crimes.

    The obligation to protect civilians during hostilities is entrenched in international law, “which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Arbour said in a statement.

    “The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control,” she added.
    Daily Star - Lebanon

  • “The Fourth Geneva Convention, prohibits “collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism …” (Article 33). According to Article 147 of the Convention, “extensive destruction … not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly,” hostage-taking and “torture or inhuman treatment” are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and constitute war crimes. All state parties to the Convention are required to search for and ensure the prosecution of perpetrators of grave breaches of the said Convention.

    Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions codifies the principle of distinction, a customary rule of international humanitarian law: “In order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operation only against military objectives.” (Article 48 ). International Humanitarian Law strictly prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian objects. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) includes as war crimes: “Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities”, and “Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects” (Article 8 2 (b) (i) and (ii)).” ‘Big News Network

  • The Israel Lobby by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer

Letters
“Israel has now kidnapped a quarter of the parliament elected by the Palestinians, and half of its democratically elected government. They join thousands of other Palestinians illegally kidnapped or imprisoned, including over 300 children.” Signed by London Mayor Ken Livingstone among others. Guardian -End this punishment of the Palestinians

History