Blogroll Me! How This Old Brit Sees It ...: US National Lawyers Guild Investigates Israel's Palestinian Persecution

14 February 2009

US National Lawyers Guild Investigates Israel's Palestinian Persecution



If you belong to that bunch of barmpots who habitually condemn all American lawyers as being nothing but a load of lying, money grabbing mofos, don't bother reading further. We'd hate to waste both your time and ours.

However, if you're not so stupid as to all too easily swallow such silly shit, you'll probably choose to continue.

A Report from Gaza

Strong Indications of Israeli War Crimes


By NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Gaza City.

We are a delegation of 8 American lawyers, members of the National Lawyers Guild in the United States, who have come here to the Gaza Strip to assess the effects of the recent attacks on the people, and to determine what, if any, violations of international law occurred and whether U.S. domestic law has been violated as a consequence. We have spent the last five days interviewing communities particularly impacted by the recent Israeli offensive, including medical personnel, humanitarian aid workers and United Nations representatives.

In particular, the delegation examined three issues: 1) targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure; 2) illegal use of weapons and 3) blocking of medical and humanitarian assistance to civilians.

Targeting of Civilians and Civilian Infrastructure

Much of the debate surrounding Israel’s aerial and ground offensive against Gaza has centered on whether or not Israel observed principles of proportionality and distinction. The debate suggests that Israel targeted Hamas i.e., its military installations, its leaders, and its militants, and in the process of its discrete military exercise it inadvertently killed Palestinian civilians. While we have found evidence that Palestinian civilians were victims of excessive force and collateral damage, we have also found troubling instances of Palestinian civilians being targets themselves.

The delegation recorded numerous accounts of Israeli soldiers shooting civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, in the head, chest, and stomach. Another common narrative described Israeli forces rounding civilians into a single location i.e., homes, schools which Israeli tanks or warplanes then shelled. Israeli forces continued to shoot at civilians fleeing the targeted structures.
If that snip has tempted/interested you enough to read the rest of this remarkably revealing report,
then please be our guest.



*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Someone has to do something Ric, they seem untouchable... interesting

7:09 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whatever comes out, Obama won't cross Israel. It's already too late. Israel realised a long time ago that the US (and especially it's presidents) needs Israel's presence in the MidEast badly enough overlook anything it does. And I do mean "anything".

Israelis to all intents and purposes the US government's very own international "mafia" -- which in turn has it's very own MOSSAD.

12:37 am  
Blogger Gert said...

A'jay:

The only people that can do "something" are US. Keep getting the word out, sign those petitions, make noise. Only if the American and European general publics start taking of the Hasbarah blinkers and demand change from our comatose politicians, only then can we realistically 'hope for change'. Obama too needs to feel the pressure or decades from now and thousands of dead Palestinians later nothing will have changed at all.

There are rumblings though, even in the USA.

6:30 pm  

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