Why our boycott campaign against Israel makes sense #BDS

[Mozilla 10]

investigate foreign citizens serving in Israel's army

Riad al-Malki calls on governments including those of the UK, US and Australia to investigate nationals over Gaza war

 

The Palestinian government has urged foreign states with citizens serving in the Israeli military to investigate them for alleged war crimes committed during the current war in Gaza.

 

Riad al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, wrote to the governments of the UK, US, France, Australia, Canada, South Africa and five Latin American countries on Tuesday, reminding them that all states are obliged under international law to investigate alleged violations, including war crimes, committed by their nationals. Malki said that governments should warn their citizens that they could be liable for investigation and prosecution.

 

Thousands of soldiers with dual nationality are conscripted into the Israel Defence Forces, while non-Israelis also volunteer under the IDF's Mahal programme, which invites Jews from other countries to serve in combat and support roles for up to 18 months. The IDF did not respond to a request for figures.

 

Malki's letter, which was also sent to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, sets out the requirements under international law for governments to investigate alleged violations over which they have jurisdiction, including the actions of their nationals.

 

It demands that foreign states identify nationals serving in the IDF, notify them of alleged war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, and investigate allegations that foreign nationals "were involved in the commission and/or the aiding and abetting of war crimes during the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, and prosecuting these individuals where appropriate".

 

Malki's letter says that Israeli forces have "committed war crimes during the repeated assaults on Gaza in the present, as in the past. They have engaged in indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks. Such actions have caused death and injury to thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children, and massive destruction to civilian properties, in grave breach of international humanitarian and human rights law."

 

The Israeli military has "deliberately targeted vital civilian infrastructure" and "carried out attacks against clearly marked facilities sheltering displaced civilians, including six [uN] schools", the letter adds.

 

However, the absence of specific allegations against named individuals will limit the capacity of foreign governments to act. The UN has established an international commission of inquiry into possible war crimes and human rights violations committed by both sides in the current conflict, appointing William Schabas, a Canadian professor of international law, as its head.

 

The independent team is to investigate "all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law … in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014," the UN said in a statement. It will report by March next year to the UN human rights council.

 

Israel dismissed the UN move, and is to establish an internal inquiry into the military and political conduct of the war.

 

A group of eminent British lawyers wrote to the international criminal court earlier this month urging it to investigate alleged war crimes committed in Gaza. "The international community cannot continue to act simply as witness to such bloodshed and extreme civilian suffering," they said.

 

Last week, Hamas announced it had backed a Palestinian move to join the ICC, the first step in taking legal action against Israel for alleged war crimes. Israel vehemently opposes Palestinian membership of the ICC, and many international diplomats have warned that such a move could entrench Israel's aversion to resuming the stalled Middle East peace process.

 

It could also expose Hamas to scrutiny by the ICC. A UN investigation into the last conflict in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09, concluded that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/26/palestinian-riad-al-malki-investigate-war-crimes-foreign-citizens-israel-army

Edited August 26, 2014 by Mozilla

[donkey 10]

I don't know whether you support isis or not you claim you don't, so I thought ok maybe he doesn't. Then I saw what you wrote next.

 

 

 

How can you attempt to falsify what isis are doing .. they are not just occupying the lands of a military opponent.. they are taking land from civilians and executing them if they are not muslims or don't worship their god the right way.

 

Some israeli individuals or groups, not the entire nation, might well be be taking some of the disputed land between israel and gaza it certainly looks that way perhaps that's why its disputed. But why did hamas fire rockets at israel generally instead of just attacking the israeli settlers that have offended them?

 

 

Oh and this makes little sense.

 

 

 

You are quite right but why do mention it? isis slaughter civilians, drive others off their lands and kidnap their wives and daughters. The allies did not do that in Germany either. What was your point? We already know isis are criminals and the allies were not.

I see you infer you do not support isis.

Some people might believe you.

Then again there are a lot of people with an IQ score of under 70

.

.

 

 

 

The only ones talking about ISIS are you and Firemanbob. I was refering to the actions of Israel. Yet, in your mind, my being opposed to the actions of one bunch of tyrants automatically means I must support a different bunch of tyrants, to be randomly named by you??? Stirling logic Sherlock. I'd keep quiet about that low IQ thing...you know, people in glass houses. Although your accusations are so bizzarre I think it must actually go beyond mere stupidity.

 

The rantings of a fanatical lunatic

Edited August 27, 2014 by donkey

[blake 10]

T in your mind, my being opposed to the actions of one bunch of tyrants automatically means I must support a different bunch of tyrants.

 

you simply do not comprehend what Israel's fate is going to be.

 

you, and the likes of you, have got it into your tiny little minds, that Israel are like these 18th or 19th century imperialist colonialist type landgrabbers. Or that they are like 'right wing'.

 

if they the Israelis, really are like that, then they have been bloody awful at it. Because Israel, is only the size of Wales.

 

in actuality, what the Israelis will be doing in the forseeable future is not busily helping themselves to territory from the Nile to the Euphrates, which is the way the antisemites read it, but just stuck there and watching all the Arabs and their other neighbours, knocking the spots out of each other.

 

the Big 5 Middle East powers, Cairo-Istanbul-Damascus-Tehran-Baghdad are going to tear the hell out of each other in the decades to come. All of that, is nothing to do with either the west, or Israel.

 

it is tiny Israel or Tel Aviv-Jerusalem's fate to just be there in the middle, but on the sidelines, watching it and defending themselves.

[firemanbob 10]

No Bob, I don't support terrorists. Do you support ethnic cleansing?

 

No Don, I support Israels right to self defense.

 

If you oppose the terrorists that have been firing rockets into israel how do you think Israel should have reacted to those attacks on their civilian population?

 

---------- Post added 27-08-2014 at 06:46 ----------

 

The only ones talking about ISIS are you and Firemanbob. I was refering to the actions of Israel.

 

Because you have condemned the actions that Israel have taken against Isis and the other terrorist groups that are attacking Israel from Gaza.

Edited August 27, 2014 by firemanbob

[Mecky 10]

So you think the ever expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank - which are built on land forcibly taken from Palestinians and protected by the IDF - are a figment of my imagination?

 

Why are they illegal settlements?

[donkey 10]

you simply do not comprehend what Israel's fate is going to be.

 

you, and the likes of you, have got it into your tiny little minds, that Israel are like these 18th or 19th century imperialist colonialist type landgrabbers. Or that they are like 'right wing'.

 

if they the Israelis, really are like that, then they have been bloody awful at it. Because Israel, is only the size of Wales.

 

in actuality, what the Israelis will be doing in the forseeable future is not busily helping themselves to territory from the Nile to the Euphrates, which is the way the antisemites read it

Oh here we go again. Start by telling me what it is I think because it is easier to argue against the words you put into my mouth than what I've actually said, then come out with that staple "anyone who doesn't agree withe the Official Israeli Government version of reality is an anti-semite." Does that include the numerous Jewish groups who oppose Israeli policy?

 

---------- Post added 27-08-2014 at 09:40 ----------

 

Why are they illegal settlements?

 

Thery are in contravention of international law, not according to me, but to numerous UN resolutions.

Edited August 27, 2014 by donkey

[blake 10]

antisemites like you always want to point to what they think of as being the 'good' Jews, who oppose Israel. Which is why the oaf George Galloway wheels out Neuteri Karta at his public meetings. They are like the 'house blacks' that used to work in the house and not in the fields, as slaves in the United States, when slavery was still legal.

 

it is all fantasy. In reality 90% plus of Jewish people worldwide, like the idea of a Jewish national home in the Middle East.

 

and try as you might, you will never be able to say which precise 'international law' you claim Israel is in contravention of, re the settlements. You are obviously not familiar with, or have invented a different take on that everyone else did, about UNSCR 242.

Edited August 27, 2014 by blake

[Halibut 12]

antisemites like you always want to point to what they think of as being the 'good' Jews, who oppose Israel. Which is why the oaf George Galloway wheels out Neuteri Karta at his public meetings. They are like the 'house blacks' that used to work in the house and not in the fields, as slaves in the United States, when slavery was still legal.

 

it is all fantasy. In reality 90% plus of Jewish people worldwide, like the idea of a Jewish national home in the Middle East.

 

and try as you might, you will never be able to say which precise 'international law' you claim Israel is in contravention of, re the settlements. You are obviously not familiar with, or have invented a different take on that everyone else did, about UNSCR 242.

 

Is everyone who opposes Israel's behaviour towards Palestinians an antisemite?

 

---------- Post added 27-08-2014 at 10:26 ----------

 

No Don, I support Israels right to self defense.

 

If you oppose the terrorists that have been firing rockets into israel how do you think Israel should have reacted to those attacks on their civilian population?

 

---------- Post added 27-08-2014 at 06:46 ----------

 

 

Because you have condemned the actions that Israel have taken against Isis and the other terrorist groups that are attacking Israel from Gaza.

 

Answer the question and stop being so spineless.

 

---------- Post added 27-08-2014 at 10:27 ----------

 

Why are they illegal settlements?

 

Because Israeli government policy is very selfish and thinks Israel's needs are more important than anyone else's.

[donkey 10]

antisemites like you always want to point to what they think of as being the 'good' Jews, who oppose Israel. Which is why the oaf George Galloway wheels out Neuteri Karta at his public meetings. They are like the 'house blacks' that used to work in the house and not in the fields, as slaves in the United States, when slavery was still legal.

 

it is all fantasy. In reality 90% plus of Jewish people worldwide, like the idea of a Jewish national home in the Middle East.

 

and try as you might, you will never be able to say which precise 'international law' you claim Israel is in contravention of, re the settlements. You are obviously not familiar with, or have invented a different take on that everyone else did, about UNSCR 242.

 

Such vitriol. You really can't stand people having a different opinion to you, can you? That is because your position can't be defended with logic and reason, so all you have is insults, hysterical accusations and bile.

 

All I've done is voiced my opposition to the slaughter of nearly 2,000 civilians by Israel - in the past few weeks alone - and debunked the myth that Israel is merely 'defending' itself by pointing out that, as we speak, the Israeli armed forces are complicit in a campaign to drive Palestinians from their land in an ongoing campaign of colonisation in the West Bank.

 

It is an inconvenient fact, but when you are engaged in a campaign of forced dis-placement and colonisation, you are engaged in aggression, which is different from 'defending' yourself.

 

Pointing these facts out does not make me an 'antisemite' and the fact that you think it does only shows you are unable to debate this issue in a rational way.

[alchresearch 215]

In reality 90% plus of Jewish people worldwide, like the idea of a Jewish national home in the Middle East.

 

But don't want to support it by living there?

[Halibut 12]

Such vitriol. You really can't stand people having a different opinion to you, can you? That is because your position can't be defended with logic and reason, so all you have is insults, hysterical accusations and bile.

 

All I've done is voiced my opposition to the slaughter of nearly 2,000 civilians by Israel - in the past few weeks alone - and debunked the myth that Israel is merely 'defending' itself by pointing out that, as we speak, the Israeli armed forces are complicit in a campaign to drive Palestinians from their land in an ongoing campaign of colonisation in the West Bank.

 

It is an inconvenient fact, but when you are engaged in a campaign of forced dis-placement and colonisation, you are engaged in aggression, which is different from 'defending' yourself.

 

Pointing these facts out does not make me an 'antisemite' and the fact that you think it does only shows you are unable to debate this issue in a rational way.

 

Eloquently put.

[skinz 10]

But don't want to support it by living there?

 

Ouch!