Issue-oriented and thematic papers for PfL’s advocacy work, including statements, campaign materials, articles and updates on developing issues; and links to related resources and information
No. 67 (2008.12.24) – Nazi Israel... Indeed
Editor’s note:
In this issue of PU- 67, we bring you an account the way in which Israel’s policies in the Gaza sStrip tantamount to war crimes - a return to the Nazi era. Professor Falk describes Israel’s policies against Palestinians and its siege of Gaza as “war crimes”, “genocidal tendencies”, “holocaust implications”, and “holocaust-in-the-making”. He urges the International Criminal Court to look into the possibility of indicting Israeli leaders for war crimes.
Professor Falk had a little taste of Israel’s Nazi-like crimes and human rights violation when he traveled to Israel, last Sunday December 14th, 2008, to visit the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to report on Israel’s compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law. The Israelis “detained” Professor Falk at the airport, treated his as a criminal and a threat to the state, humiliated him and deported him next day back to Geneva.
A bit of background about Richard Falk is in order. Prof Falk was appointed as the UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine. He holds regional responsibility for Occupied Palestine.
On December 14, Richard Falk arrived at Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv to perform his assigned duties. He led a three-person mission that intended to visit the West Bank and Gaza, assess conditions on the ground, and then report on Israel’s compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law.
Israel was informed of his trip, his itinerary, individuals he planned to meet with, and issued visas for himself, a staff security person, and an assistant. Falk had no reason to expect interference, and as he put it: “I would not have made the long journey from California, where I live, had I not been reasonably optimistic about my chances of getting in.” Nonetheless, he was denied entry and harassed as follows:
- despite his UN status, he was put in a holding room with about 20 others experiencing entry problems;
- then “treated not as a UN representative, but as some sort of security threat, subjected to an inch-by-inch body search and the most meticulous luggage inspection I have ever witnessed;”
- separated from his two UN companions; they were allowed entry and taken to the airport facility about a mile away;
- required to put his luggage and cell phone in a room, then taken to a “locked tiny room that smelled of urine and filth;”
- five other detainees were with him in very cramped, uncomfortable quarters;
- he was confined there for the next 15 hours, “which amounted to a cram course on the miseries of prison life, including dirty sheets, inedible food and lights that were too bright or darkness controlled from the guard office;”
- Israel’s “obvious intention (was) to teach me, and more significantly, the UN a lesson: there will be no cooperation with those who make strong criticisms of Israel’s occupation policy.”
Israel accuses Falk of bias for making inflammatory comments about its occupation of Palestine. He rejects the charge and asserts that, like his predecessor John Dugard (whom Israel earlier assailed) he assesses facts and relevant law truthfully. “It is the character of the occupation that gives rise to sharp criticism of Israel’s approach,” especially its collective punishment of 1.5 million Gazans under siege. Although denied entry and expelled, Falk insists that he’ll continue “to use all available means to document the realities of the Israeli occupation” and report as fully and truthfully on them as possible.
He is mandated to assess conditions on the ground, prepare detailed reports on what he finds, keep the UN fully informed, the public worldwide as well, and recommend ways of remediating violations. As an international law expert, he’s eminently qualified for the task.
Since assuming his post in May, he’s been denied entry into Israel and Occupied Palestine. On August 25, he submitted his first report covering the first half of 2008. He criticized the deteriorating human rights conditions for Palestinians, called Israel’s violations grave, singled out the Gaza siege and a crackdown on free expression and peaceful assembly.
Earlier this year, Israel denied a Bishop Desmond Tutu-headed UNHRC mission entry as well. He was delegated to investigate the Israeli occupation force November 2006 Beit Hanoun massacre, an appalling act of mass murder killing 18 civilians (including seven children and six women) and wounding 53 others. The mission had to enter Gaza from the Egyptian side through the Rafah International Crossing Point, but even that way is rarely easy.
Other international delegations have been obstructed as well, including diplomats, humanitarian workers, and journalists. Last November, the IDF stopped an EU one and one other comprised of 20 representatives of international organizations seeking entry into Gaza. Israel is extremely brazen, so far with no world community condemnation of its practices.
And to think, Israel is showcased as the region’s only authentic democracy!
In solidarity
Ranjan Solomon
Nazi Israel... Indeed
DR. ELIAS AKLEH
Countercurrrents.org
24 December, 2008
Richard Falk, the professor of international law at Princeton University and the UN’s special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, had accused Israel of violating international law, international humanitarian laws, and the Geneva Convention. He described Israel’s policies against Palestinians and its siege of Gaza as “war crimes”, “genocidal tendencies”, “holocaust implications”, and “holocaust-in-the-making”. He urged the International Criminal Court to look into the possibility of indicting Israeli leaders for war crimes.
Professor Falk had a little taste of Israel’s Nazi-like crimes and human rights violation when he traveled to Israel, last Sunday December 14th, 2008, to visit the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to report on Israel’s compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law. The Israelis “detained” Professor Falk at the airport, treated his as a criminal and a threat to the state, humiliated him and deported him next day back to Geneva.
Despite Israel’s strong declaration that every Jew in the world is automatically granted full Israeli citizenship with all the protections this entails, and despite being a Jew himself, Professor Falk was not spared the humiliations and cruelty Israel treats its enemies with.
Emboldened by the American blind and unconditional support, defiant Israel wanted to publicly give its finger to Falk and to the UN he represents, declaring itself above all international laws and above any criticism of its crimes and human rights violations even if such criticism comes from a Jew himself. Such defying humiliation of the world political body is meant to distract the UN, and thus the whole world, away from the holocaust it is perpetrating against the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, and all its on-going war crimes against the rest of Palestinians throughout the whole Palestine.
Falk’s accusations of Israel’s Nazi-like holocaustal implications are no different from those made by John Dugard, his predecessor, in several reports on conditions in occupied Palestine. Many conscientious political figures, as well as regular citizens, around the world had described Israel’s policies in occupied Palestine in specific and in the Middle East in general as war crimes and threat to world peace.
Comparing the present-day Israel with Nazi Germany one discovers that the majority of the Israeli policies are the exact copies of the Nazi policies. Nazi Germany had invaded its European neighbors extending from England to Russia. Israel had also invaded all its neighboring countries; Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. It is also heavily involved in the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Its tentacles had also reached African countries as far as South Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Angola, and Sierra Leone.
Read the full article at:
Palestine Update is an occasional mailing edited by Ranjan Solomon and sent out by Goa-based Alternatives on behalf of Alternatives/Badayl
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