Provided there is a single American like Jeremy R. Hammond, who can
speak the truth loud and clear.
Jeremy R. Hammond have spoken a truth which more than 1 billions
Muslims could not write regarding Palestinians.
Jeremy R. Hammond is the ambassador of Humanity.
Regards
FM Shah
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Top 5 Lies About Israel's Assault on Gaza
January 3, 2009
by Jeremy R. Hammond
Lie #1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is
seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property
in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population
does not, under international law, deprive that population of their
protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the
guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.
Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members
of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has
been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are
extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military
targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from
Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.
Hamas has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military
organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the
democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people.
Dozens of these elected leaders have been kidnapped and held in
Israeli prisons without charge. Others have been targeted for
assassination, such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official. To kill
Rayan, Israel targeted a residential apartment building. The strike
not only killed Rayan but two of his wives and four of his children,
along with six others. There is no justification for such an attack
under international law. This was a war crime.
Other of Israel's bombardment with protected status under
international law have included a mosque, a prison, police stations,
and a university, in addition to residential buildings.
Moreover, Israel has long held Gaza under siege, allowing only the
most minimal amounts of humanitarian supplies to enter. Israel is
bombing and killing Palestinian civilians. Countless more have been
wounded, and cannot receive medical attention. Hospitals running on
generators have little or no fuel. Doctors have no proper equipment or
medical supplies to treat the injured. These people, too, are the
victims of Israeli policies targeted not at Hamas or legitimate
military targets, but directly designed to punish the civilian
population.
Lie #2) Hamas violated the cease-fire. The Israeli bombardment is a
response to Palestinian rocket fire and is designed to end such rocket
attacks.
Israel never observed the cease-fire to begin with. From the
beginning, it announced a "special security zone" within the Gaza
Strip and announced that Palestinians who enter this zone will be
fired upon. In other words, Israel announced its intention that
Israeli soldiers would shoot at farmers and other individuals
attempting to reach their own land in direct violation of not only the
cease-fire but international law.
Despite shooting incidents, including ones resulting in Palestinians
getting injured, Hamas still held to the cease-fire from the time it
went into effect on June 19 until Israel effectively ended the truce
on November 4 by launching an airstrike into Gaza that killed five and
injured several others.
Israel's violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in
retaliation from militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in
response. The increased barrage of rocket fire at the end of December
is being used as justification for the continued Israeli bombardment,
but is a direct response by militants to the Israeli attacks.
Israel's actions, including its violation of the cease-fire,
predictably resulted in an escalation of rocket attacks against its
own population.
Lie #3) Hamas is using human shields, a war crime.
There has been no evidence that Hamas has used human shields. The fact
is, as previously noted, Gaza is a small piece of property that is
densely populated. Israel engages in indiscriminate warfare such as
the assassination of Nizar Rayan, in which members of his family were
also murdered. It is victims like his dead children that Israel
defines as "human shields" in its propaganda. There is no legitimacy
for this interpretation under international law. In circumstances such
as these, Hamas is not using human shields, Israel is committing war
crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions and other applicable
international law.
Lie #4) Arab nations have not condemned Israel's actions because they
understand Israel's justification for its assault.
The populations of those Arab countries are outraged at Israel's
actions and at their own governments for not condemning Israel's
assault and acting to end the violence. Simply stated, the Arab
governments do not represent their respective Arab populations. The
populations of the Arab nations have staged mass protests in
opposition to not only Israel's actions but also the inaction of their
own governments and what they view as either complacency or complicity
in Israel's crimes.
Moreover, the refusal of Arab nations to take action to come to the
aid of the Palestinians is not because they agree with Israel's
actions, but because they are submissive to the will of the US, which
fully supports Israel. Egypt, for instance, which refused to open the
border to allow Palestinians wounded in the attacks to get medical
treatment in Egyptian hospitals, is heavily dependent upon US aid, and
is being widely criticized within the population of the Arab countries
for what is viewed as an absolute betrayal of the Gaza Palestinians.
Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been regarded as a
traitor to his own people for blaming Hamas for the suffering of the
people of Gaza. Palestinians are also well aware of Abbas' past
perceived betrayals in conniving with Israel and the US to sideline
the democratically elected Hamas government, culminating in a
counter-coup by Hamas in which it expelled Fatah (the military wing of
Abbas' Palestine Authority) from the Gaza Strip. While his apparent
goal was to weaken Hamas and strengthen his own position, the
Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East are so outraged at
Abbas that it is unlikely he will be able to govern effectively.
Lie #5) Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it
warned the Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted.
Israel claims it sent radio and telephone text messages to residents
of Gaza warning them to flee from the coming bombardment. But the
people of Gaza have nowhere to flee to. They are trapped within the
Gaza Strip. It is by Israeli design that they cannot escape across the
border. It is by Israeli design that they have no food, water, or fuel
by which to survive. It is by Israeli design that hospitals in Gaza
have no electricity and few medical supplies with which to treat the
injured and save lives. And Israel has bombed vast areas of Gaza,
targeting civilian infrastructure and other sites with protected
status under international law. No place is safe within the Gaza
Strip.
Jeremy R. Hammond is the editor of Foreign Policy Journal, a website
dedicated to providing news, critical analysis, and opinion commentary
on U.S. foreign policy from outside of the standard framework offered
by government officials and the mainstream corporate media,
particularly with regard to the "war on terrorism" and events in the
Middle East. He has also written for numerous other online
publications. You can contact him at jeremy@foreignpolicyjournal.com.
