| Gaza: I Blame the Rabbis By Diane V. McLoughlin Feb. 05, '09 The Israeli Defense Force cohort of rabbis instructed the soldiers to treat civilians as if they were combatants and to show no mercy. (See: 'IDF rabbinate publication during Gaza war: We will show no mercy on the cruel'; Haaretz.com; By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent; 01/01/09.) There have been calls for Defense Minister Ehud Barak to dismiss the chief chaplain, Rabbi Avichai Rontzki. Haaretz quotes one publication distributed to soldiers wherein they are encouraged to 'apply lessons today of the military tactics of Samson and David.' This is a clear incitement to disproportionate military action. It is also a clear violation of the laws of war as Richard Silverstein, publisher of the on-line publication Tikun Olam: Make the World a Better Place, points out. Silverstein: 'I worry that there may come a time when support for Israel from us will be essential for its survival. Then, there may not be enough support to secure for Israel what it needs. And this will be the fault of decades of Israel thumbing its nose at the concerns and interests of Diaspora Jews, not to mention debasing its own moral values.' So what happens to soldiers who's moral values are debased? The following is a summary of IDF actions in the December 2008 - January 2009 military assault on Gaza: The Israeli attack began December 27th, 2008 by striking a police academy graduation ceremony wiping out 200 people in attendance in minutes. (From, 'Israel/Palestine Peace Delegation 2008' .) The IDF targeted ambulances and paramedics. They destroyed huge swaths of farmland. From The Guardian's Observer, 'Gaza desperately short of food after Israel destroys farmland': 'The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): 'What we have seen in large areas of farmland is the destruction of all means of life.' 'The wholesale destruction of farms, greenhouses (100's), dairy parlours, livestock, chicken coops and orchards has damaged food production, which was already hit by the blockade. 'Buildings heavily damaged during Israel's Operation Cast Lead included much of its agricultural infrastructure. The Ministry of Agriculture was targeted, the agriculture faculty at al-Azhar university in Beit Hanoun largely destroyed, and the offices of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees in Zaitoun - which provides cheap food for the poor - ransacked and vandalised by soldiers who left abusive graffiti. 'Although international and local officials are still gathering figures, they believe that scores, perhaps hundreds, of wells and water sources have been damaged and several hundred greenhouses have been levelled, as well as severe damage inflicted on 60,000-75,000 dunums of Gaza's 175,000 dunums (44,000 acres) of farmable land. 'As well as the physical damage done by Israeli bulldozers, bombing and shelling, land has been contaminated by munitions, including white phosphorous, burst sewerage pipes, animal carcasses and even asbestos used in roofing. In many places, the damage is extreme. In Jabal al- Rayas, once a thriving farming community, every building has been knocked down, and even the cattle killed and left to lie rotting in the fields. 'In al-Atatra, Ahmad Hassan, 65, the overseer of an orchard that once had hundreds of lemon and orange trees, surveyed an area flattened by bulldozers. "This was the well," he said, showing a pile of bulldozed concrete. "We can clear the ground in two weeks. Then what? The well is gone. The pump has been destroyed. And where will the trees come from to replant the land?" ( Guardian, The Observer; Peter Beaumont; Feb. 01/09.) Again: 'Up to 60 per cent of the best farmland in Gaza has been systematically destroyed, livestock too.' (From, 'Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Those who seek justice do so in vain,Some nations – and some leaders – are beyond the reach of the law'; Monday, 2 February 2009 - 4,000 homes destroyed, 21,000 badly damaged, 100,000 homeless; schools, wedding halls, mosques, the parliament and nearly all the police stations (reported by NYT Ethan Bronner; Jan. 24, 09) According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights - PCHR (as reported Jan. 24, '09 by the International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC): Ambulances, civil defense and relief services vehicles were all targets. Houses; civilian facilities; mosques (45); charitable societies; schools; government buildings including the parliament buildings; industrial and commercial workshops (300, including cement factories and one that produced juice); 60 police stations; 5 media organizations; fishing harbors; educational institutions (29); health clinics (2); charitable institutions (10); cafeterias; resorts and hotels - completely or partially destroyed. Illegal weapons or legal weapons illegally used on Gaza civilians included white phosphorous bombs (and there is reported evidence of the use of flesh-shredding DIME munitions and flechettes.) Physicians reported patients with burning wounds that they couldn't get to stop burning. There are reports of children being murdered in cold blood in front of their parents by IDF soldiers after being ordered out of their houses. ('Israeli soldier shot dead my two little daughters after ordering them to leave their home'; Belfast Telegraph; By Donald Macintyre in Gaza City; Thursday, 22 January 2009.) 1,370 people in Gaza were killed by the IDF incursion and 5,340 people were injured. (AP: UN: One-third of Gaza dead, injured are children; By JOHN HEILPRIN – Jan 9, 2009) Ten Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians died during the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza have no water. Sewage treatment and protection of water sources is precarious. The infrastructure was destroyed. There isn't enough food. There is in coming days going to be even less food than during the previous two-year period of the inhuman military siege of Gaza. Now, Israel and Egypt work together to shut down the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. The tunnels were blamed as a conduit for rocket-making. But these hundreds of tunnels were a vital supply line sustaining life in Gaza with food and medicine. Now, that will be gone. And the military siege remains. 'EU to Israel: remove obstacles to entry of Gaza aid'; Reuters; 04/02/09 'E.U. leaders said the nearly 200 truckloads of aid currently entering Gaza each day were "far below the minimal requirements to answer the humanitarian and commercial needs" of Gaza's 1.5 million residents. They said 500 aid trucks were needed.' 'A recent study reports that 46 percent of all Gazan children suffer from acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated with Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition is extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75 percent of Gazans. There are widespread mental disorders, especially among young people without the will to live. Over 50 percent of Gazan children under the age of 12 have been found to have no will to live.” ' ('Israel's 'Crimes Against Humanity'; Chris Hedges; truthdig; Dec. 15, '08.) The military siege of Gaza, now into its second year, continues to starve the people of Gaza. It is a crime against humanity and it is a crime under international law. The PCHR reports on recent activities in the occupied West Bank: 'In the last week, after the Israeli offensive came to an end, a Palestinian civilian was killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank. 40 Palestinian civilians, including 17 children, were wounded by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank. Israeli forces conducted 34 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, abducting 46 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children. In addition, Israeli forces positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank abducted 6 Palestinian civilians, including a girl.' The pitiful subsistence of the oppressed Palestinian People grinds on without mercy. home Further reading: 'Israeli army "subcontracted" by extremist settlers; Jonathan Cook; The Electronic Intifada; Feb. 04, 09 Older article but still germaine: 'Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza'; JPost; Matthew Wagner; May 30, '07 (Excerpt: 'All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.' |
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Gaza. Khalil Hamra; AP