VERA MACHT: THE HOUSE OF NASSER AND HIS CHILDREN WAS BOMBED

Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 9:27AM Gilad Atzmon

Thursday evening I got the call. From Inge, my ISM colleague, who is still in Gaza. "Nasser's house was bombed," she just said. "The paramedics are evacuating the family now. I'll keep you updated.” It took about an hour before I knew that all are alive. One hour, in which the images were passing behind my eyes, the days we spent purchasing all vital things for the family, the bright eyes of the children, when they saw their new stuff, the hope we were able to give all of them. We, and all of you who have donated. The hope that Nasser's family equally gave to all of us. Hope that also at a place like Gaza, a place where misery is found everywhere you turn, that also there there is something you can make okay. "I have never seen them so happy", Inge had told me in our last conversation, when I asked her about the children. "They played outside, and looked forward to the new house. "Gaza is not the place for happy endings", I was once told by a friend from Gaza. Gaza is no place for happy endings, I had this sentence in my ears when I got the terrible news.

Nasser's house was bombed. Four times. Four whole times. Everyone has survived, Inge told me after an eternal seeming hour, but little Maisa, 5 years old, and Ala, 10 years, had been buried under the rubble of the house. And with them everything we all had worked for for the past few months. For psychological support, the processing of the death of the mother, a stable livelihood, and above all – for a feeling of security. A little bit of childhood and joy amidst this hostile place. "Maisa was brave", said Inge. The small Maisa is always brave, and in her 5 years she has been through things you can’t get through at any age. Ala was in shock. Four bombs on a family house that is well known to the Israeli military. Such a blatant cruelty turns any sense of right and wrong in pain. Gaza is no place for a happy ending.

But all survived. Traumatized all over again, with a destroyed house, destroyed belongings, but all survived. And that means to look forward, over and over again. Gaza is not the place for a happy ending, we cannot and we aren’t allowed to give in to that. The psychological care will continue. We will build a new house, as planned. We will create a little happy end, also and especially in Gaza.

--------------------------------------------
April 30th 2011 Inge Neefs - ISM Gaza

*Family house shelled: two children, a woman and a man injured*


"I dreamt of my wife last night, she said the day would have a surprise in store for me". Nasser Abu Said (37) is pleased: an NGO has confirmed a 2000 dollar contribution to the construction of his new house. He often smiles, but his face is predominantly characterized with the traces of worries from his daily struggle for survival. I think how good it is to see him laugh, it reminds me of the happy family picture I saw of him with his wife and five children. That must have been shortly before last year's atrocity which has caused for physical and psychological displacement of his family. On July 13th 2010, on a warm summer evening that the Abu Said family was enjoying outside, the Israeli Occupation Forces attacked them. "Five tank shells and
a flechette shell", Nasser told me, again, two days ago, with blank expression. The flechettes riddled the body of his wife, and while ambulances were prevented from entering the area, she died. Her five children, aged 3 to 12, watched her succumb and saw how her body grew lifeless.


In the evening of April 28th, Nasser was still cherishing his dream of his wife, whilelaying in the bedroom, when all of a sudden, the Israeli

Occupation Forces attacked the house at 8:10 pm. Within five minutes, four shells were fired from a tank, stationed by an Israeli base by the border, 3 kilometers from the family house. The first one went straight through the bedroom wall, were Nasser was resting. The second and third shells passed through the corridor where three of his children were playing and the forth shell hit the bedroom a second time.

"It was dark, the electricity cut as soon as the attack began. I was afraid to move, even afraid to turn on the flashlight on my mobile. I was afraid that they would shell again if they would see any movement. But then I heard the cries of my children, calling out to me to get them out from under the rubble. I went into the corridor and saw Ala' under the stones, but could only see Maisa's hand sticking out from under the rubble", says Nasser. "It was terrible. I didn't know where my other children were and feared they had been killed."

After approximately 40 minutes of utter fear, it turned out that Jaber (3),Baha (7) and Sadi (9) were outside with their grandparents and were physically ok.

"Ala' saw how I was panicking and just answered that he was fine when I got him from under the rubble. It was only when the ambulances arrived that he told me of his injuries", says Nasser.

Both Maisa and Ala' had been injured by shrapnel and were taken to Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Baleh, together with Nassers's brother, Mohammed Abu Said (43) and his wife Sana'. Mohammed has a crack in his skull, a swollen eye and his face is scratched, while Sana' has shrapnel in her foot.

Five year old Maisa, is sitting barefoot in her pink track suit at the end of the hospital bed. She looks pale, but then I realize that she is covered in dust of the stones that fell on her when the shells crashed through the
walls of her house. She puts on a courageous smile and shows me the shrapnel wound in her hand. She's staying in the hospital overnight as she has trouble breathing. Next to her lies her eldest brother Ala , who is
suffering; his eyes flicker around nervously. His face cramps when the doctor pushes his belly softly. He tries to turn his face, but realizes there's another wound in his neck and panics with tears in his eyes. His family members stand by in shock: "They are children! It's outrageous!"

The Abu Said family house is situated in Johr Al-Dik's farming land, exactly 340 meters from the border with Israel. Currently, 14 people live in the house: Nasser and his five children live on the second floor, with his
parents, while his brother lives on the ground floor with his wife, two children and his sister. Other families have evacuated the area in the past decade, because of the danger, but the Abu Said family lacks resources to relocate to a safer area. Incursions with bulldozers and tanks take place every month, while gunfire is heard on an almost daily basis. These bullets pose a direct danger: in the past year, the house has been shot at on different occasions, the children have been trapped by gunfire while playing and their grandparents have been shot at while doing nothing more threatening than drinking coffee and tea by the house.

After his wife was killed, Nasser pitched a tent, a couple of hundred meters away from the house, hoping for it to be a safer haven for his traumatized children. During last month's escalation, he moved back into the house, because how much protection can a tent offer against missiles and bombs?

Once things grew calmer, he and his children spent their nights in the tents again. But they moved out again after the children had caught two big black scorpions by their beds.

Nasser has been lobbying different organizations to build him a new house, because he isafraid of a new Israeli assault. Some of his requests have been negatively answered, but most have disappeared in the NGO's indigestible pile of bureaucracy. "Maybe they will help me now, now my house is destroyed. It's just a shame that my wife had to be killed again; all of her belongings are destroyed in this attack. It's very painful to lose the things she cherished."

*** It always seems impossible until it's done ** Nelson Mandela*

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Four Palestinians wounded in IOF shelling of Buraij refugee camp

[ 29/04/2011 - 09:57 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation tanks shelled on Thursday evening a house at the Johr al-Deek neighbourhood of the Buraij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip wounding four people including a child and a woman.

Security sources told PIC that IOF tanks fired six artillery shells at Johr al-Deek east of Buraij refugee camp resulting in the wounding of four people whose wounds were described as moderate to medium as a shell fell on their house.

Spokesman for the emergency services in Gaza said that four casualties, including a woman and a a child were brought into the Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah.

PIC correspondent said that that targeted home belongs to Naser Abu Said and that the home lies only two hundred meters from the border with 1948-occupied Palestine.

The emergency services had to wait for an hour and a half to evacuate the wounded until arrangements were made through the Red Cross with the IOF as the house lies a short distance from an IOF military post.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

IOF troops raid southern Gaza, round up 6 West Bankers - Savage Jewish settlers burn commercial stores in Al-Khalil old city

IOF troops raid southern Gaza, round up 6 West Bankers
[ 27/04/2011 - 10:27 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided eastern Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday morning amidst indiscriminate shooting at Palestinian residential quarters and agricultural land.

Local sources said that three IOF tanks escorted six bulldozers and advanced amidst random firing then bulldozed citizens' land.

Earlier at dawn Wednesday, IOF soldiers rounded up six Palestinians in various West Bank districts.

Locals said that soldiers broke into two homes in Tobas and questioned their inhabitants after searching them.

IOF soldiers also stormed Awarta village, southeast of Nablus, firing live bullets and sonic bombs in the process. They searched the homes of relatives of Amjad and Hakim Awad who were charged by Israel with killing five settlers in the nearby Itamar settlement in mid March before withdrawing from the village.

Savage Jewish settlers burn commercial stores in Al-Khalil old city

[ 27/04/2011 - 10:50 AM ]

Al-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Armed Jewish settlers attacked at dawn Tuesday Palestinian commercial stores with Molotov cocktails in Kazazeen souk (market) in the old city of Al-Khalil burning down four of them and all goods inside them.

Owners of these stores are Shaban Hashlamoun, Mohamed Al-Shalloudi, Atta Al-Shweiki and Abdelhameed Al-Natsha.

Firefighters from Al-Khalil municipal council tried to enter the old city to extinguish the fire, but the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) blocked their way at the pretext the area was a closed military zone.

Eyewitnesses said they saw armed Jewish settlers in Kazazeen souk dancing in circles, singing and shouting racist chants against Arabs before culminating their revelry with an arson attack on the stores.

"We know the settlers torched our stores in order to expel us from our old city and fully take it over, but they can never achieve that and we are staying in the city even if we get killed," one of the Palestinian store owners said.

"They offered us huge amounts of money to sell our stores, and one of their leaders told us, 'You have an open check,' but we kicked them out and we told them to leave along with their lackeys because our [Palestinian] land is more precious than our blood and they cannot take a grain of its soil," he added.

• IOA to build new settlement outpost in OJ

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Where were the calls for a no-fly zone when Israel attacked Gaza, asks George Galloway

MCS

- 26. Apr, 2011

As Western powers look for an excuse to intervene in Libya, George Galloway, interviewed by the BBC, asks where were the calls for a no-fly zone when Israel attacked Gaza.

Urging the U.N. Security Council to Establish a “No Fly Zone” Over Gaza under the Principle of “Responsibility to Protect”?

Petition: “No Fly Zone” Over Gaza, Please Sign Now!!!

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

BBC governing body hails “pretentious propaganda” documentary on Gaza aid ship massacre

Via Redress
By Richard Lightbown

21 April 2011
Richard Lightbown is surprised to learn from the BBC Trust - the governing body of Britain’s state broadcaster – that it considered Panorama’s “Death in the Med” documentary to have “performed a valuable public service”.

”Nothing of value will ever be served by distorting reality and no credit will come to the BBC for promoting or excusing such a travesty of the truth.” (Richard Lightbown)

The BBC Panorama programme, “Death in the Med” took as its subject the Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara. Broadcast on 16 August 2010, the programme received both accolades and brickbats.

Pro-Zionist blogs expressed delight that the BBC had finally produced a “balanced” documentary, while Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs downloaded the whole programme onto its website. (The Goldstone Report was denied the same distinction.)

On the other hand, of the more than 2,000 respondents to the programme who expressed an opinion, 72 per cent were negatively inclined. The BBC considered about one quarter of these were more or less identical with the wording recommended by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. It is possible then that the programme generated about 1,000 original complaints.

Selective background

Because the programme length was limited to 29 minutes the subject had been confined to the raid on the Mavi Marmara. The report tells us on page 88 that the “story of the film was the organized resistance to Israeli commandos and the shocking consequences of the decisions taken by each side”. Interestingly, the programme itself had not made this claim, but had stated that it would “piece together the real story – for the first time” – of the raid on the Turkish ship.

As part of the background to these events, the firing of rockets from Gaza and the allegation of racist abuse over the marine radio band had been mentioned. Yet years of violent occupation, military attacks on the Gazan population, often with illegal weapons, and the condemnation of the blockade by the United Nations were all considered irrelevant to the story by first the programme makers and now the BBC Trust.

Complainants were first dealt with by the programme’s deputy editor, Daniel Pearl, and then passed on to the Editorial Complaints Unit (ECU) if they remained dissatisfied (or had the stamina to continue). The ECU rejected all of the complaints. The final stage of the process was handled by a committee of the BBC Trust, which met to consider the 19 remaining complaints in a consolidated appeal on 17 March. Its findings were published on 19 April, nine months after the programme was broadcast. This in part upheld three of the 51 points of complaint. Lest anyone should think this to be some kind of rebuke, the committee was at pains to commend the BBC for tackling this “most controversial of issues” and declared that the programme was “an original, illuminating and well-researched piece of journalism”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will no doubt appreciate this extra copy.

Breaches of BBC guidelines on accuracy and impartiality

The points of complaint upheld were:

1. Material from the Turkish preliminary autopsy reports would have given some indication of the level of force employed by the commandos. (Viewers were given no indication that the nine dead had been shot 30 times in total. This included the fatal injury to Cevdet Kiliclar who was shot once in the centre of the forehead; the ECU had told one respondent: “No one except those directly involved is in a position to state as a fact that the victims were deliberately killed.” Instead viewers heard a commando tell the reporter that he had aimed at the legs.) This was considered to have breached Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, but not those on impartiality.

2. By mentioning that the Israelis evacuated the badly wounded to hospital without mentioning widespread allegations of mistreatment of some of the casualties, the programme makers were considered by the committee to have breached the guidelines on impartiality. Despite omitting all mention of claims that wounded passengers had died following denial of medical attention, the committee considered that there had been no breach of guidelines on accuracy.

3. The programme was also considered to have breached the guidelines on accuracy by mentioning (in a deprecating fashion) only a small part of the aid cargoes carried by the flotilla. However, the committee agreed with the programme that the purpose of the flotilla was not really about taking aid to Gaza.

(This curious opinion was also shared by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees mission. The flotilla had been carrying 10,000 tons of aid, the majority of which was construction materials and other items not allowed into Gaza. Just how much aid do private citizens have to organize for the beleaguered population in defiance of their indolent governments before the BBC and other spectators deign to take them seriously?)

The BBC’s perverse reasoning

Among the points of complaint that were rejected were:

The programme did not mention that the blockade and siege are widely considered to be illegal.

Despite being condemned as collective punishment (and therefore illegal) by the UN, the BBC committee decided the information was not essential to understanding the story. Yet perversely the committee had endorsed the programme’s claim that the attempt to breach the blockade was political, i.e. it was defying the illegal imprisonment of a whole population.

2. The legality of the boarding and takeover did not need to be explored because the committee considered (without justification) the viewers’ perception of the issue was not altered by its exclusion.

3. Israeli attacks on Gaza were never referred to because they were not essential to understanding the situation whereas the rockets from Gaza were considered central to the circumstances of the conflict.

4. The reporter’s statement “Here in Gaza the problem’s not so much a lack of food or medicine” was described as correct even though it contradicted the statement by Dr Ahmed Yousef that “Many people have died because [of] the lack of medical supplies, or because there is no chance for having surgery here.”

5. Having observed that allegations of links to terrorism by the Turkish charity IHH needed to be well sourced and based on sound evidence, the BBC committee accepted that links to Hamas, which runs the government in Gaza constituted links with terrorism, along with totally unsubstantiated assertions from Judge Bruguiere made in 2010.

6. The allegations of the use of live fire by activists were not sufficiently tested for veracity.

The committee had noted that proving a negative – that the activists did not use live fire and did not possess live weapons – was not a reasonable expectation. However, it did not consider that proving a positive – that Israel had made allegations that it has never produced evidence to substantiate – is a very reasonable expectation that the programme and the BBC Trust should both have insisted on.

7. That live fire had commenced from the helicopters, before the commandos boarded.

The BBC committee ignored the fact that Israeli aerial infrared film of the raid has been withheld for the crucial period when this allegation is most likely to have occurred. They also ignored the fact that laser sights from a helicopter was shown scanning the deck in the Cultures of Resistance film thus disproving the assertion of the Israeli Turkel Commission, which the committee used here in assessing the evidence, that this equipment was not carried in the helicopters. And they have overlooked the fact that at least one of the activists who was shot from above was on the navigation deck at which location only a helicopter can fire from above. It is fair to say therefore that the BBC committee exhibited wilful ignorance on this point.

8. The commandos repeated use of the word terrorist was never countered.

The BBC committee apparently failed to understand that terrorism involves attacks on civilian targets, and that in describing the defence of a ship against armed military aggression this is not an accurate word to use. The committee should also not have naively regurgitated Israeli propaganda that 50 individuals on the ship had connections with “global jihad-affiliated terrorist organizations”. This is nothing less than a McCarthy-type slur intended for the gullible. The committee might also have recognized that the definition of a terrorist that they quote from the Turkel Commission – “…terrorists are an armed group dressed for battle - protective vests, masks and facial covers” – most accurately (and appropriately) describes the Israeli commandos.

9. The programme had not mentioned the abuse and humiliation of passengers when detained on the ship. While accepting that there were detailed allegations of ill-treatment, the BBC committee decided that the exclusion of this information was a legitimate editorial decision. Thus, having allowed the Israelis to call the passengers terrorists the programme then excluded any mention of the Israeli behaviour that the UNHRC has described as tantamount to torture. We are then told by the committee that this version of events is impartial.

It is unsurprising then that in its final paragraph the BBC committee should conclude: “…’Death in the Med’ was an original, illuminating and well researched piece of journalism. It had achieved exceptional access to key players from both the Israeli and the activists’ side. Voices were heard that had not previously spoken and in presenting their story Panorama performed a valuable public service.”

In truth the only public that was well served by this pretentious propaganda were the Israeli bigots who lined the hill overlooking Ashdod in order to jeer at the activists illegally abducted into the port. Nothing of value will ever be served by distorting reality and no credit will come to the BBC for promoting or excusing such a travesty of the truth.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Forensic reports show white phosphorus use in Gaza attacks

[ 18/04/2011 - 01:33 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Ihab Kahil, who was appointed director of the Gaza Ministry of Justice forensic medicine department, said the bodies retrieved in Israel's recent attack on the Gaza Strip have been examined to identify the weapons used in the onslaught.

”We are preparing appropriate medical reports, because the crimes committed by Israel should not blur the realities. Everyone must know what crimes Israel has committed,” Kahil said in a press statement on Monday.

He said the forensics department has been in constant contact with the Gaza war crimes documentation committee and human rights organizations with the ultimate goal of helping take Israel to trial for war crimes against the unarmed Palestinians.

The department has been working in cooperation with the documentation committee to bring many massacres to light, especially those where internationally banned weapons were used. Several photographs and other pieces of evidence have been compiled and will be submitted in reports to human rights organizations, courts and other official channels, Kahil said.

He said that during the recent Israeli escalation, forensic science crews have been working round the colock because there is only one forensic medicine center in the Gaza Strip. He went on to describe some of the evidence that has been passed on to the forensics team as chilling, as the body parts of some children have been torn and charred, while some of the bodies were mutilated and decapitated beyond recognition.

”During examinations, evidence has been found that Israel used white phosphorus and internationally banned weapons,” Kahil concluded.

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Operation Cast Lead II–Yisrael Beiteinu promotes another invasion

Posted: April 17, 2011 by crescentandcross

Editor Palestine Monitor

April 16, 2011

Scrapping Hamas’ offered cease-fire, influential Yisrael Beiteinu politicians are promoting another invasion of Palestine’s worn-torn, besieged land of Gaza.
 
Photo by Gaurdian.co.uk While President Benajim Netanyahu thanked in Washington, DC for another US$205 million for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called for the forced removal of Hamas.

“Only the collapse of Hamas rule in Gaza will stop the firing,” Ayalon said, according to Jpost. “There is no other solution.”

A peaceful solution, though, was proposed by Hamas: a ceasefire that was held by both Netanyahu and most of Gaza’s guerrillas. But following escalating violence, Israel has reentered Gaza in force, killing twenty Palestinians as a collective punishment.

Ayalon, his party comrade Avigdor Lieberman, and others called the cease-fire a mistake.

“The enemy will now recover, just as it did after Operation Cast Lead, another military operation which drew to a halt before its completion,” wrote Israel Harel on Haaretz. “Hamas will arm itself for another, even more lethal, round of fighting.”

Voted into power in 2006, Hamas was quickly targeted by the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the US as a “terrorist” threat and engaged through bloody inter-Palestinian battles, sanctions, and a horrific siege. The harshest result of this complete rejection of the Gaza Strip’s impoverished people’s democratic choice – however desperately decided – was called Operation Cast Lead.

The Palestine Monitor’s 2009 book Palestine’s Guernica and many other sources have multilaterally defined Israel’s invasion of Gaza a modern atrocity of incredible proportions. six thousand injured and 1,500 dead. It’s blood and rancor have not cautioned the war drums of Israel – but have rather whet the appetites of some leading politicians.

“We need to finish the job of Operation Cast Lead,” said Uzi Landau, National Infrastructure Minister said to Israeli Army Radio. “If we really want to deter Hamas, we must exploit their fear of losing control in the strip. Our targets need to be their leaders.”

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

60% of polled Israelis support a new war on Gaza

[ 17/04/2011 - 08:28 AM ]

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- An Israeli opinion poll revealed that 60% of Israelis support a new sweeping attack on the Gaza Strip similar to the 23-day operation Cast Lead of late 2008.

The poll conducted by "New Wave" polling institute for the Israel Today newspaper surveyed 400 Hebrew speaking Israelis.

The results displayed that only 29.6% opposed such a war.

A similar survey conducted last month for the same paper showed that 50.8% were supportive of a new military campaign against Gaza while 38.8% opposed it.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Woman killed in Gaza air strike was anticipating wedding

Rami Almeghari, The Electronic Intifada, 14 April 2011

The chairs that Nidal and Najah Qdeih were sitting in when they were killed in an air strike. (Rami Almeghari)

Around midday last Friday, Ibrahim Qdeih was chatting with his daughters and wife about preparations underway for his daughter Nidal's wedding later this month. Those plans would be forever disrupted after an Israeli missile hit their house, taking the lives of Ibrahim's wife, Najah, and daughter, Nidal.

"I was set to go to the Friday sermon [at the mosque] and it was about 12:15pm, when my daughter Nidal was talking to me about the final touches for her wedding party. By then, electricity was cut off and my wife Najah and my daughters Nidal, Neda and Fida, all moved to rest a bit on these chairs," Qdeih explained, standing near a crater left by the fatal missile strike next to his modest, rural home in al-Faraheen, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The bereaved father added "After we talked, I took my son to the Friday sermon at a nearby mosque. While in the middle of the road, we heard a large explosion but we went on walking, for I didn't expect it was my home. As we arrived at the mosque, someone told me that my house was struck by a missile. Then I rushed back along with my son to the house."

As the two arrived, Ibrahim's 43-year-old brother, Fathi, along with Ibrahim's neighbor, Mansi, were trying to aid Ibrahim's wounded daughters, Neda and Fida. Najah and Nidal did not survive the strike. Neda is currently in critical condition and is being treated at al-Nasser hospital, while Fida's injuries are moderate.

Fathi was the first to arrive at the gruesome scene.

"As I was walking down just few meters away from my brother's house, just near this palm tree, I was shocked by the explosion and saw some pillars of smoke rising up from Ibrahim's house," Fathi said while surrounded by family in Ibrahim's three-room home.

"Then I pushed the door to see what happened. It was horrible, it was horrible -- Najah's face was smashed and stained with blood, while Nidal's abdomen was ripped open with blood covering all over her body."

Nidal's fiance, 24-year-old Jihad al-Qarra, was waiting anxiously for their wedding day before the missile hit. Al-Qarra teared up when he entered the room where luggage lay, stuffed in preparation for a wedding that will never happen.

Ibrahim Qdieh and his son Ahmad. (Rami Almeghari)

"Just four hours before Nidal was killed, I was taking part in the funeral procession for my cousin Abdallah, who was also killed by an Israeli drone the day before," al-Qarra, a university graduate and farmer, said. "It was a very difficult moment for me when I heard Nidal was killed. Nidal was a very quiet, simple and kind girl who I really loved for the past six months and I wanted her to be my life partner."

Asad al-Najjar, Ibrahim's brother-in-law, vented his anger over the loss of his sister and niece.

"This is a catastrophe," al-Najjar said. "Where is the UN Security Council, where are the rights groups and others who are concerned about the protection of civilians in the time of war? It is really the climax of atrocities! This is an unbearable situation where people can never feel safe inside their homes. How come such helpless women are struck by missiles, killed and wounded inside their home?"

In the half-meter-wide crater left by the strike, Najah and Ibrahim's 12-year-old son, Ahmad, began collecting small pieces of shrapnel. "I am collecting these small pieces for remembrance," the boy said before being overcome by emotion.

The Qdeih family were not the only to suffer casualties last week as the Israeli military bombed across the Gaza Strip. According to Adham Abu Silmia, spokesperson for the ambulance service in Gaza, the Israeli army targeted civilian homes and even medical centers such as the Hijazi clinic in northern Gaza.

"Eighteen persons, including three children, two women and two elderly men have been killed either by air strikes or artillery fire," Abu Silmia explained. "And 67 other persons have been wounded, including forty women, children and elderly and two ambulance crew members."

Abu Silmia added that four of the wounded, including an elderly farmer in northern Gaza, had limbs amputated due to the drone or artillery fire.

Israeli army spokesperson Arieh Shaliqar, asked to comment on the deaths of Najah and Nidal Qdeih in their home, said: "Please let me emphasize that the Israeli army is not interested in fighting civilians or fighting people who are uninvolved or people who are regular citizens living in the Gaza Strip or in any other place. Our enemy is the Hamas terrorist organization, which keeps on sending rockets on the Israeli home front."

In the wake of last week's strikes, several Gaza-based armed factions, topped by the ruling Hamas party, declared a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza. Israel threatened to collectively punish Gaza in the event of additional rocket fire from Gaza.

Last Thursday, Israel stepped up attacks on the Gaza Strip after Hamas' military wing fired an anti-tank rocket on a school bus in southern Israel, critically wounding a 16-year-old boy and the bus driver. Hamas said the strike was in retaliation for Israel's 1 April extrajudicial killing of three Hamas members in Gaza.

The latest violence follows weeks of escalation of violence between Gaza and Israel, which Israeli analysts say has been fueled and instigated by Israel.

In Cairo, Arab League chief Amr Mousa signaled the possibility that he would request the United Nations consider imposing a no-fly zone over Gaza to prevent further Israeli air strikes.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, there will be one less wedding celebration this month. And during this reporter's time in al-Faraheen with the Qdeih family, the Israeli drones -- or unmanned aerial vehicles -- overhead signaled the end of the interview.

"Let's leave the house right now; the drone is overhead and I think this is enough," Fathi Qdeih said.

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

Now Israel Is Free to Declare Its Innocence before the International Court of Justice

April 15, 2011 posted by Prof. William A. Cook

WHITE PHOSPHOROUS RAINS DOWN ON GAZA CITY

United States Congress has once again jumped to the fore as defender of the beleaguered state of Israel by writing a letter to the UNHRC

Let us present this case as objectively as we can… A few photos of Israeli use of white phosphorus will accompany this article if possible.

William A. Cook / STAFF WRITER

Thank God Judge Goldstone recanted his judgment on Israel and its IDF forces in the slaughter inflicted on Gaza during its Christmas invasion in 2008-2009; both are now innocent of wrongful intent to kill Palestinian civilians since the Israeli military courts investigated Goldstone’s allegations and determined he was wrong. Now the good Judge has found, with the military court, that the Israeli government, that refused to cooperate with the United Nations investigation, did not intentionally send its forces to kill and destroy but only to kill and destroy Gaza; that the civilians were killed is simply a sad consequence of war. How astute, how learned, how compassionate; how absurd, how facetious, how despicable.

Yet, good may come of this decision. Now Israel is free to declare its innocence before the International Court of Justice since it is Israel’s investigation that can be presented as its case, with the good Judge as co-defendant. After all, isn’t this exactly what the Israeli government has wanted from the start, a way to demonstrate to the world that its Army is the most moral on the planet, its government the most democratic, acting only to defend its people, its weaponry the most sophisticated state of the art precision ordinance available, and its actions always proportionate to the crimes it seeks to address? Knowing now what they did not know before Judge Goldstone recanted his report, the government of Israel has nothing to fear from the ICJ but the justice it so rightfully deserves. Certainly it makes no sense for Israel or the UN to do nothing now that the report has been brought into question. The world has castigated Israel because of the report, now it’s Israel’s turn to seek revenge and put before the world how righteous and how legal its actions have been. How fortunate this turn of events.

And how opportune a moment since our United States Congress has once again jumped to the fore as defender of the beleaguered state of Israel by writing a letter to the UNHRC that it should expunge the report from history since it is biased against the Jewish state and this would help make amends. (“Congressional initiatives targeting Goldstone report” April 11, 2011 JTA) But why expunge it? Israel, after all, knows it did no wrong; it has done its own investigation and declared its innocence. What an opportunity to show the world that it has been maligned, that it has obeyed all international laws relative to individual rights, that as an occupying force under Geneva Conventions and the Charter of the UN it has observed all requisite responsibilities toward the people of Gaza, and finally that it had rights to invade that the international community must recognize since it was only defending itself.

Let us present this case as objectively as we can by using the words in the Israeli Gaza Operation Investigations: the means used to investigate, the difficulties that impeded the investigation, their presentation of the investigation concerning white phosphorus, and the conclusions drawn by the Military Advocate General, oh, and the convictions leveled on those found guilty. We’ll follow that presentation with some eye witness accounts of the Gaza operation, the effect of white phosphorus and its legality, and the impact of DIME explosives on humans and the environment. A few photos of Israeli use of white phosphorus will accompany this article if possible.

Consider the facts as articulated by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as it labeled Cast Lead as Hamas war against Israel.

Israeli soldier looks impatient as he watches over a load of bombs destined to be fired at Gaza[My apologies; I’m interjecting a subjective comment on Israel’s calling Operation Cast Lead “Hamas’ war against Israel.” In the 8 years preceding Cast Lead, Hamas or other resistance groups in Gaza, fired 6000 home made rockets at Israel, roughly 750 a year, or 62.5 per month or 2 per day. Twenty three people were killed. In that same period Israel killed more than 1000 Palestinian children and in Cast Lead killed an additional 352. A total of 1084 Israelis were killed between 2000 and 2008, but 6430 Palestinians were killed. Yet it was Hamas’ war against Israel. One final observation: Israel’s launch of one of its American supplied missiles that cost $300,000, a fraction of the 8.2 million per day we supply to Israel’s military, a precision state of the art weapon that hit a home where the IDF ordered people to go, in less than one minute killed 21 members of the Samouni family, nine of them children.] (figures from ifamericansknew.org and see this author’s article “Consider the Realities of Gaza,” Counterpunch, Jan. 5, 2009). Back to our sources and let the reader be judge.

Gaza Operation Investigations: An Update Jan 2010.

Israeli Defence Forces fire massive weapons of destruction toward the population of Gaza

1. Israel’s investigative system has multiple layers of review to ensure impartiality and independence. These include the Military Advocate General’s Corps (MAG), which determines whether to initiate criminal investigations and file charges against IDF soldiers. The Military Advocate General is legally independent from the military chain of command. Israel’s Attorney General provides civilian oversight, as any decision of the Military Advocate General on whether or not to investigate or indict may be subject to his review.

2. The Operation in Gaza: Factual and Legal Aspects, which addressed a range of factual and legal issues related to the Gaza Operation. The Operation in Gaza also set out the legal framework governing the use of force and the principles – including the principles of distinction and proportionality – that apply in such a conflict. It also described the IDF’s efforts to ensure compliance with these principles during the Gaza Operation and the modus operandi of Hamas, in particular its abuses of civilian protections that created such acute operational dilemmas.

3. Describing the application of these mechanisms to the Gaza Operation, the Paper notes that the IDF to date has launched investigations of 150 separate incidents arising from the Gaza Operation. A number of these were opened at the IDF’s own initiative. Others were opened in response to complaints and reports from Palestinian civilians, local and international non-governmental organisations, and U.N. and media reports.


Conclusions:

183. The Gaza Operation presented complex challenges to Israel and the IDF. While the need and obligation to respond effectively to the thousands of Hamas rockets and mortars that had terrorized Israeli civilians for years was clear and acute, the strategies adopted by Hamas, and in particular its systematic entrenchment in the heart of civilian areas, created profound operational dilemmas. [A second interruption if I may: consider the reality of the Palestinians’ plight; they can go nowhere, they cannot escape through the Israeli gates, they can not flee by car, rail, air, boat or on foot, and they are caged in a steel enclosed land area blocked on the west by Israeli gunboats. They have no army, no air force, no navy; but they were training police to help provide order inside this cage of chaos, and Israel began its operation by killing 50 of the graduating class on December 27, 2008.]

Palestinian doctors carry the bodies of children killed by an Israeli tank shell, to the morgue at Shifa hospital in Gaza (images: documents.blogspot.com)

184. These challenges did not end with the close of operations. A key element of respecting the Law of Armed Conflict is a commitment genuinely to review military operations after the fact, and thoroughly investigate allegations of unlawful activity. Fulfilling this commitment in the context of Gaza is demanding, and requires serious efforts to obtain evidence from battleground situations and to make arrangements to enable residents of Gaza to give their accounts. It also requires an awareness that, in complex combat situations, errors of judgment, even with tragic results, do not necessarily mean that violations of the Law of Armed Conflict have occurred. [Note that Israel refused to cooperate with the UNHRC investigation that became the Goldstone Report.]

187. Israel recognizes the importance of engaging in dialogue and sharing best practices on theconduct of investigative proceedings with other democratic states facingsimilar challenges and committed to upholding the rule of law.

Obviously this article cannot provide a complete rendering of the Israeli investigation and its conclusions regarding proper conduct under international law. However, one of the more telling concerns raised about the IDF was its use of white phosphorus. Here is the comment from the Israeli operation cast lead investigation on that subject. Section IV contains others.

IV. COMPLAINTS ALLEGING VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW
OF ARMED CONFLICT DURING THE GAZA OPERATION

89. Israel is aware of concerns raised regarding the Gaza Operation. As discussed in detail in The Operation in Gaza, and as outlined above, the deliberate strategy of Hamas to blend in with the civilian population made it difficult for the IDF to achieve the objective of the Gaza Operation – reducing the threat of deliberate attacks against Israeli civilians – while also avoiding harm to Palestinian civilians. To be sure, the IDF undertook strenuous efforts to minimise such harm. It intensively trained its personnel on the requirements of the Law of Armed Conflict. It delayed, diverted, or refrained from attacks to spare civilian life. It provided numerous and varied types of concrete warnings before launching attacks.

88 Nevertheless, Israel’s efforts to comply with the Law of Armed Conflict do not lessen its regret for the loss of innocent lives and damage to civilian property.

93. The unique difficulties involved in the investigation of alleged violations of the Law of Armed Conflict in the battlefield should not be ignored. They include: the inability to secure the scene for forensic and physical evidence, either during a battle or after, when the territory is under enemy control; the possible destruction of evidence during fighting and the possible  manipulation of the scene by the enemy; the need to recall reserve soldiers back for questioning; the difficulty of accurately identifying the location of an incident, when it is described in local and unofficial terms and slang; and the need to locate the adversary’s civilians as witnesses and overcome their natural suspicion and fear of reprisals by their authorities.

90(v) The use of weaponry containing phosphorous

117. This investigation dealt with the use of weapons containing phosphorous by IDF forces during the Gaza Operation. The investigation focused on the different types and number of weapons containing phosphorous used during the Operation, the purposes for which they were used, the applicable professional instructions and rules of engagement, and the extent of compliance with those instructions and rules. Some of the findings of the special command investigation are detailed in The Operation in Gaza.107

118. The Military Advocate General reviewed the entire record of the special command investigation. With respect to exploding munitions containing white phosphorous, the Military Advocate General concluded that the use of this weapon in the operation was consistent with Israel’s obligations under international law.

119. With respect to smoke projectiles, the Military Advocate General found that international law does not prohibit use of smoke projectiles containing phosphorous. Specifically, such projectiles are not “incendiary weapons,” within the meaning of the Protocol on 106 Id. ¶¶ 436-45. Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons,108 because they are not primarily designed to set fire or to burn. The Military Advocate General further determined that during the Gaza Operation, the IDF used such smoke projectiles for military purposes only, for instance to camouflage IDF armor forces from Hamas’s antitank units by creating smoke screens.

120. The Military Advocate General found no grounds to take disciplinary or other measures for the IDF’s use of weapons containing phosphorous, which involved no violation of the Law of Armed Conflict. Nevertheless, the Military Advocate General’s opinion did not address a number of specific complaints that were received after the investigation concluded and which are being investigated separately.(vi)

Palestinians were burned alive with illegal weapons during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead.

Based on information from B’Tselem and Euromedrights.org, the determinations by the Israeli investigation resulted in the following charges: “In the over two years since Operation Cast Lead, Israel and the Palestinian side have failed to conduct genuine investigations, and where appropriate, prosecutions. To-date one Israeli soldier has served 7.5 months in jail for the theft of a credit card and two others have received three month suspended sentences for using a Palestinian child as a human shield. These three convictions, and the ongoing trial of a fourth soldier, have been the only concrete judicial outcomes of Israeli Operation Cast Lead investigations. It is noted that neither these indictments nor the sentences handed down for the human shield conviction reflect the gravity of the actual crimes committed. It appears that the majority of other investigative procedures have been closed without charge. All alleged international crimes must be subject to genuine investigation, and, if appropriate, those responsible must be prosecuted in accordance with the requirements of international law. In light of the domestic authorities’ failure to conduct such investigation, the International Criminal Court now constitutes the most appropriate forum, as recommended by the Human Rights Council on 25 March.(Euromedrights.org)

To date, no independent investigation apparatus, empowered also to investigate the responsibility of the political and military decision-makers, has been established. According to the report that the Foreign Ministry provided to the UN in July 2010, the Judge Advocate General’s office ordered 47 Military Police investigations with respect to Operation Cast Lead. B’Tselem is aware of 20 Military Police investigations of incidents in which a suspicion arose that soldiers in the field violated army regulations. Four soldiers have been prosecuted for three incidents that occurred during the operation. In the first case, a soldier was convicted of stealing a credit card and sentenced to seven and a half months’ imprisonment, a conditional sentence of seven and a half months, and demotion from sergeant to private. In the second case, indictments were filed against two soldiers alleging they used a nine-year-old child as a human shield, ordering him to open suspected booby-trapped bags. The two soldiers were convicted and sentenced to a three-month suspended jail sentence and demotion in rank from staff sergeant to private. In the third case, an indictment was filed against a soldier for killing an anonymous person and conduct unbecoming a soldier. In three other cases, disciplinary proceedings were instituted against six officers. B’Tselem is aware of at least six cases in which the Attorney General decided not to indict the soldiers. (B’Tselem).

Now let us return to the arguments for a UN investigation that can provide the people of the world with deliberations that place the Israeli Operation Cast Lead before an International Court of Justice.

Phosphorous Bomb Rain Over Northern Gaza

Hiyam Noir, in Palestine Free Voice, January 13, 2009, reporting from Gaza observed “Blankets of white clouds covered the skies over Gaza, including the refuge camps in Khan Younis, Beit Lahia and Gaza City.  On Saturday Israeli F16 warplanes launched attacks using phosphorus bombs on the Block 2 section inside the densely populated Jabalya Refuge Camp. Many residents of Jabalya escaped the area covering their faces, searching for a safe shelter in the home of relatives and friends in the neighboring Beit Lahia from the Israelis “Cast Lead Operation”. Gaza has always been the Israelis “testing ground” – from nerve agents used in Khan Younis in 2003, to Sonic Boom “phantom air raids”, and the use of DIME in the Israelis massacre called ” Operation Summer Rain” over Gaza year 2006.”

In that same article, Noir notes, The Human Rights Watch senior analyst Marc Garlasco said in an interview on France Chanel 4 TV that ..”Israeli artillery bursted fire of white phosphorous shells over Gaza City.”Garlasco said ..”I have been standing at the border for the last few days ,watching Israeli artillery firing white phosphorus shells into refugee camps”.

Press TV on 4 March 2011 reported that cancer cases in Gaza had increased by 30 per cent, and that there was a link between the occurrence of the disease and residence in areas that had been badly hit by Israeli bombing. Zekra Ajour from the Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights told the channel that Gaza had been a testing ground for illegal weapons.

In a separate article, Richard Lightbown argues that Israel’s use of white phosphorus and other toxic metals, and its suspected use of depleted uranium, in the war against the people of the Gaza Strip has put the whole of the Strip’s population and its environment – air, soil, groundwater and possibly seawater – at risk of serious long-term injury and contamination. He also observes that The goldstone report mentions phosphorus in paragraph 896: Medical staff reported to the mission how even working in the areas where the phosphorus had been used made them feel sick, their lips would swell and they would become extremely thirsty and nauseous.

The toxicity of phosphorus is also recorded in a report by New York medical staff:⁴

‘Oral ingestion of white phosphorus in humans has been demonstrated to result in pathologic changes to the liver and kidneys. The ingestion of a small quantity of white phosphorus can cause gastrointestinal complaints such as nausea, abdominal cramps, and vomiting. Individuals with a history of oral ingestion have been noted to pass phosphorus-laden stool (“smoking stool syndrome”). The accepted lethal dose is 1 mg/kg, although the ingestion of as little as 15 mg has resulted in death.’

Although an Israeli army spokesman told CNN on 7 January 2009, “I can tell you with certainty that white phosphorus is absolutely not being used.” the chemical had been used by Israeli forces since the beginning of the war.¹² The Goldstone Report stated that Israeli sources later claimed their forces had stopped using white phosphorous on 7 January 2009 because of international concerns. This was also untrue as there is evidence that it had been used after that date. Goldstone declared the Israeli armed forces to have been “systematically reckless” in using white phosphorous in built-up areas (paragraphs 884, 886 and 890).
Lightbown also discusses DIME: “Evidence of the use of depleted uranium against Gaza is tenuous and Goldstone merely recorded in paragraph 907 that it had received allegations which it had not further investigated. Much of this evidence came from Action des citoyens pour le désarmement nucléaire (ACDN: Citizens Action for Nuclear Disarmament). Their report of July 2009 hypothesizes that the GBU-39 bunker-buster bomb is packed with 75 kilogram of depleted uranium. (A UNEP report also ambiguously refers to bunker-buster bombs containing depleted uranium.) The US delivery of 1,000 of these bombs to Israel arrived in early December 2008 shortly before the start of the war. The GBU-39 is considered one of the world’s most precise bombs and Boeing, the manufacturer, claims that the bomb will penetrate three feet of steel-reinforced concrete. (UNEP suggests that it can penetrate reinforced concrete to depths ranging from 1.8 to over 6 metres.) Boeing’s patent on the weapon mentions depleted uranium.⁶

It is not known how many bunker-buster bombs were used against Gaza but it seems reasonable to assume that the number could run into hundreds. It is thought that they were used mostly in the Philadelphia corridor against the tunnels. Desmond Travers, the former Irish army officer who was a member of the Goldstone Commission, would only say that depleted uranium may have been used during the war, although he did agree that it would have been well suited for attacking the tunnels where maximum penetration would have been desired.⁷ He was also in agreement with ACDN that the use of below-ground targets would have considerably reduced the levels of aerosol uranium that was dispersed into the air.

In April 2009 Jean-François Fechino from ACDN was part of a four-person team which went to Gaza for the Arab Commission for Human Rights. Samples that the team brought back were analysed by a specialist laboratory which identified carcinogens: depleted uranium, caesium, asbestos dust, tungsten and aluminium oxide. Thorium oxide was also found, which is radioactive, as are depleted uranium and caesium. The analysis also identified phosphates and copper, along with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are a health hazard, especially to children, asthmatics and elders.⁹

Depleted uranium burns at almost 1200 degrees Celsius. (TNT by comparison burns at 576 degrees Celsius.) ¹⁰ At this temperature the fire vaporizes any metals in the target which in combination with uranium are released into the air in aerosol form. After deposition the aerosols have the potential to contaminate groundwater. (The Gaza aquifer, which is the Strip’s only water source, is also connected to ground water supplies in Egypt, although water only flows into Gaza from Israel.¹¹)

The Goldstone Commission was unable to confirm that DIME munitions were used by Israeli forces during Operation Cast Lead. Col Lane had told the commission in testimony that there was no actual proof. He then went on to testify that he had been given samples in Gaza which analysis in Dublin had shown to contain DIME materials consisting mostly of tungsten with traces of iron and sulphur. He was of the opinion that ordnance had been used that had some sort of DIME component. He also mentioned that he had read of unusual amputations, and that tungsten and cobalt would have this effect. Weaponry had been found with DIME components which was capable of amputation and there are Palestinian amputees, yet neither Col Lane nor the commission was prepared to say that DIME weapons had been used by Israeli forces.

DIME bombs cause a high proportion of amputations particularly of legs, while patients often suffered internal burns as well. The bombs consist of powdered tungsten alloy mixed with an explosive material inside a casing which disintegrates on explosion. The tungsten powder tears apart anything it hits including soft tissue and bone, causing very severe injuries. Tungsten alloy particles, described as “finely powdered micro-shrapnel”, are too small to be extracted from the victim’s body and are highly carcinogenic. (Goldstone, paragraphs 902-4)

The whole Gaza population and their environment, including generations yet to be conceived, have been put at risk of serious long-term injury from heavy metal pollution of the air, soil and groundwater (and possibly the seawater too), while the causal pollution is likely to cross state borders into Egypt and even into Israel. Reassurances of the legitimate and responsible use and the reduced lethality of weapons (an opinion in part shared by Col Lane) are callous and inadequate in the context of the dangerous reality that has resulted. Meanwhile, the impacts of Israel’s illegal assaults on Gaza remain ignored and its deeds uncensored by the wider international community.”

Certainly it makes good sense to have the Israeli investigation brought before the ICJ. What possible reason exists not to do this, from either the Israeli perspective or the UNHRC. The perspectives presented above demonstrate the necessity; truth requires it, justice demands it, and the dead cry out for it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Prof. William A. Cook is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California and author of The Rape Of Palestine: Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied, Read Full Bio

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Related Video

PROFOUND INTERVIEW IDF ‘OPERATION CAST LEAD’

NOTE: The footnotes below are from Lightbown’s article which can be accessed at
www.redress.cc/palestine/lightbown200110314.

I would also note that the pictures that accompany or may accompany this article are from Dr. Arthur Billy’s Memorial to the People of Gaza available at You tube or as contained in an article titled “What does it profit a congressman to retain his office but suffer the loss of his soul?” A google search will give you access.

Notes

1. Kawther Salam, 29 December 2009; Abortions, Cancer, Diseases and… in Gaza; Intifada-Palestine. www.intifada-palestine.com/2009/12/abortions-cancer-diseases-and-in-gaza/
2. BBCNews, 4 March 2010; Falluja Doctors Report Rise in Birth Defects. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8548707.stm
3. Rita Hindin, Doug Brugge and Bindu Panikkar; Teratogenicity of depleted uranium aerosols: A review from an epidemiological perspective; Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source 2005, 4:17 doi:10.1186/1476-069X-4-17. www.ehjournal.net/content/4/1/17
4. Lisandro Irizarry, Mollie V Williams, Geri M Williams and José Eric Díaz-Alcalá, 21 October 2009; CBRNE – Incendiary Agents, White Phosphorus. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/833585-overview
5. UNEP, 2007; Lebanon Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment, p 149.
6. ACDN, 4 July 2009; Report on the Use of Radioactive Weapons in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead.  www.newweapons.org/files/ACDN%20Gaza%20report%20updated%204Jul2009%201.pdf
7. Dr Hana Chehata, 9 March 2010; Disturbing Findings of Toxic Uranium Levels in Gaza; Middle East Monitor. http://preview.tinyurl.com/6cdf55k
8. Video accessed from http://blog.unwatch.org/?p=413
9. Palestinian Telegraph, 24 May 2009; Israel Used Depleted Uranium in Offensive on Gaza. www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/935-israel-used-depleted-uranium-in-offensive-on-gaza.html
10. Sister Rosalie Bertell; Depleted Uranium in the Human Body: Sr Rosalie Bertell, PhD.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgQ79-oDX2o
11.  www.standwithus.com/FLYERS/WaterFlyer.pdf
12. Human Rights Watch, 10 January 2009; Q & A on Israel’s Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza. www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/10/q-israel-s-use-white-phosphorus-gaza
13. http://tinyurl.com/287wxo9
14. Sobhi Skaik, Nafiz Abu-Shaban, Nasser Abu-Shaban, Mario Barbieri, Maurizio Barbieri, Umberto Giani, Paola Manduca, 31 July 2010; Metals Detected by ICP/MS in Wound Tissue of War Injuries Without Fragments in Gaza.  www.newweapons.org/files/1860524319368107_article.pdf
15. NWRC, 17 December 2009; Gaza Strip, soil has been contaminated due to bombings: population in danger.  www.newweapons.org/files/pressrelease_nwrc_20091216_eng.pdf
16. NWRC, 17 March 2010; Metals Detected in Palestinian Children’s Hair Suggest Environmental Contamination. http://www.newweapons.org/?q=node/112
17. James Brooks, 6 December 2006; US and Israel Targeting DNA in Gaza? The DIME Bomb: Yet Another Genotoxic Weapon, Part II. Al-Jazeerah: Cross-Cultural Understanding. http://tinyurl.com/6kq6sd9
18. John F. Kalinich, et al, 15 February 2005; Embedded Weapons-Grade Tungsten Alloy Shrapnel Rapidly Induces Metastatic High-Grade Rhabdomysoarcomas in F344 Rats; ehponline.org  www.afrri.usuhs.mil/www/outreach/pdf/tungsten_cancer.pdf
19. James Brooks, 5 December 2006; The DIME Bomb: Yet Another Genotoxic weapon, Part 1; Al-Jazeera. www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27a/308.html
20. David Halpin, 14 August 2006; Are New weapons Being Used in Gaza and Lebanon; Electronic Intifada. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5528.shtml
21. James Brooks, 5 December 2006; The DIME Bomb: Yet Another Genotoxic weapon, Part III; Al-Jazeera. www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/oldsite/article.asp?ID=5648

• US senate call for rescinding the Goldstone report
• Israeli warplanes blast targets in Gaza

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Goldstone’s Retraction Rejected

The three co-authors of the United Nations report on the 2008-2009 Gaza war rejected on Thursday an op-ed by the fourth member and chairman Richard Goldstone in which he retracted key conclusions of the report – in particular claiming that Israel had not intentionally targeted civilians during the war.

In an article in the British daily The Guardian, the three members – the Pakistani human rights lawyer Hina Jilani; Christine Chinkin, professor of international law at the London School of Economics; and former Irish peace-keeper Desmond Travers maintained that the conclusions of the report remain valid despite Goldstone's shift and subsequent calls to retract the report in the UN.

"There is no justification for any demand or expectation for reconsideration of the report as nothing of substance has appeared that would in any way change the context, findings or conclusions of that report with respect to any of the parties to the Gaza conflict," they wrote.

Earlier this month, Goldstone published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he backtracked on claims he had made in the UN report, accusing Israel of targeting civilians during its war on the Gaza Strip two years ago.

The three international law experts did not mention Goldstone by name, but slammed a number of the points he made in his op-ed in the Washington Post, writing that "aspersions cast on the findings of the report cannot be left unchallenged" and said they have "misrepresented facts in an attempt to delegitimize the findings" of the Goldstone Report and "to cast doubts on its credibility."

Moreover, they said that any kind of retraction of the report is an insult to the victims of the Gaza war. "We consider that calls to reconsider or even retract the report, as well as attempts at misrepresenting its nature and purpose, disregard the right of victims, Palestinian and Israeli, to truth and justice."

In his Washington Post op-ed earlier this month, Goldstone said that if Israel had cooperated with his probe then the conclusions on the report would have been different.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian