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<h1><big><big>Israel’s Supporters: Where Do You Draw the Line
Between Defense and Atrocities?</big></big></h1>
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<div class="cat-date-line"><big><big><span class="cat-date-line2"><a
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all posts in Educate!" rel="category tag">Educate!</a></span>
<span class="cat-date-line3"> <a
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rel="tag">Gaza</a>, <a
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<span class="cat-date-line4">By Fred Branfman, <a
href="http://www.alternet.org/world/open-letter-israels-supporters-where-do-you-draw-line-between-defense-and-atrocities?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark"
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August 22nd, 2014</span><br>
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<div class="article_insert_separator"><big><big><em><span
class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date
field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span
class="field-item even"><span
class="date-display-single">August 19, 2014</span></span></span></span>
</em> | Dear U.S. supporters of Israel in Gaza:</big></big></div>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>If you believed the IDF could destroy Hamas by
employing portable gas chambers or chemical weapons to
publicly gas over 1,400 Gazan civilians, including 400
children, chosen at random, would you favor doing so? I guess
not. Perhaps you even feel insulted at the suggestion that you
might. But this raises a basic question: if you would not
favor gassing Palestinan civilians, how do you justify your
support for blowing them to bits?</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>The controversial issue is not Israel trying to destroy
Hamas tunnels. Nor is it the attempt to destroy rockets, as if
the Israelis can claim that they reasonably suspected the
46-48,000 U.N.-estimated buildings they either partially or
totally destroyed contained rockets. Nor is it rightfully
condemning Hamas for rocketing civilian targets as well. As
even long-term apologists for Israeli violence like the
New Republic’s Leon Wieseltier <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/israel-supporters-try-to-come-to-terms-with-killing-of-children-in-gaza-strip.html"
target="_blank">acknowledge</a>, the issue is massive
Israeli bombing and shelling of the civilian infrastructure in
Gaza, which is wholly disproportionate to combatting tunnels
and/or rockets.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>This raises the basic question: as a human being, where
do you draw the line? How do you justify your support for mass
misery inflicted on hundreds of thousands of innocent
civilians? The bombing and shelling campaign, whatever its
stated intent, has not only murdered 1,400 civilians and
maimed thousands more, but destroyed hospitals, schools,
businesses, and Gaza’s only power station, plunging 1.8
million Gazans into darkness and depriving them even of
drinking water, created over 400,000 refugees, and traumatized
a U.N.-estimated 373,000 children. Your own integrity requires
that you at least acknowledge the facts rather than, as so
many of Israel’s supporters do, accept at face-value Israeli
claims that it sought to avoid civilian destruction.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>I answered such questions for myself 45 years ago, when
I discovered that civilians were well over 90% of the victims
of U.S. leaders’ mass bombing of northern Laos. I concluded
then that there is never any moral or legal justification for
mass bombing or shelling of civilians. Period.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>The World Can’t Wait website has just posted a
PowerPoint presentation on the <a
href="http://warcriminalswatch.org/images/stories/pdfs/LAOS-B%7E2.pdf"
target="_blank">years-long bombing of northern Laos,</a>
perhaps the worst unknown crime of the 20th century. It
combines an analysis of automated war, the writings of the
rice farmers who suffered most and were heard from least, and
my personal story in discovering and trying to expose it to
the world. A Lao mother summed up the nature of mass bombing
of civilians for all time: “There was danger as the sound of
airplanes led me to be terribly, terribly afraid of dying.
When looking at the faces of my children who were losing the
so very precious happiness of childhood I would grow
increasingly miserable. In reality, whatever happens, it is
the innocent who suffer.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>The question of protecting civilians in wartime far
transcends the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: it is a basic
measurement of the progress of human civilization. Not only
Israel’s humanity, but yours is at stake in your support for
Israel’s recent attacks on Gaza.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>There are two basic questions regarding warfare: 1)
whether a given war is considered legitimate, e.g. whether it
is “aggressive war”; and 2) how civilians are treated once a
war is launched. These are two distinct questions—even if you
consider a given war legitimate there is no moral or legal
justification for waging it in a way that mainly murders and
maims civilians.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p id="bookmark"><big><big>The evolution of international law on
this question, beginning with the 1907 Hague Convention, has
been slow and painful. But it is today unequivocal: waging war
in a way that results primarily in civilian deaths and damage
is a punishable war crime. Article 85 of the 1949 Geneva
Conventions states categorically that “the following acts
shall be regarded as grave breaches of this Protocol…
launching an indiscriminate attack affecting the civilian
population or civilian objects in the knowledge that such
attack will cause excessive loss of life, injury to civilians
or damage to civilian objects.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>That is a precise description of Israeli bombing and
shelling in Gaza.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Israel claims it is justified in maiming and murdering
civilians because Hamas is using them as “human shields.” But
there is always a military and political rationale for bombing
civilians. In Laos, Deputy CIA Director James Lilley explained
that though North Vietnamese soldiers were not in the
villages, they would hide there if the U.S. didn’t bomb
civilians. Prime Minister Nethanyahu offers a similar
rationale for mass civilian murder today.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Other rationales include hoping that mass murder of
civilians will turn the population against their leaders, as
when former Israeli General Amos Yadlin stated in the N.Y.
Times that Israel must bomb partly so that “Gaza’s people
(are) given the chance to elect new leaders.” As the U.S.
Senate Refugee Subcommittee concluded after visiting Laos, the
bombing’s purpose was to hurt the enemy by destroying its <em>“</em>social
and economic infrastructure.” This was also General Curtis
Lemay’s basic rationale for burning alive over 100,000
Japanese civilians in the firebombing of Tokyo on March 9,
1945, an act for which Lemay acknowledged at the time, and his
assistant Robert McNamara later also admitted, was a war
crime. (See Note 1 below.)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>It is precisely because there is always a rationale for
bombing civilians that the progress of human civilization is
largely measured by the extent to which civilians are
protected in times of war from indiscriminate bombing and
shelling, and that those who violate these rules are
prosecuted for crimes of war. Protecting civilians against
indiscriminate murder is not only a question of war. It is a
measure of your own humanity.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><strong>Civilian Impact of Israel’s 2014 Attack on Gaza</strong></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>CIVILIAN DEAD AND WOUNDED: A U.N.-estimated 1396
Palestinian civilians killed including 222 women and 418
children, thousands more wounded. (<a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/month-long-war-in-gaza-has-left-a-humanitarian-and-environmental-crisis/2014/08/06/85772138-cad7-4812-90d9-6bdb21be1c63_story.html"
target="_blank">Source:</a> Information Management Unit in
the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, from
“Month-long War in Gaza Has Left a Humanitarian and
Environmental Crisis,” Washington Post. August 6, 2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>CHILDREN: “Pernille Ironside, who runs the UNICEF field
office in Gaza, said the agency estimates that roughly 373,000
Palestinian children have had some kind of direct traumatic
experience as a result of the attack and will require
immediate psycho-social support … (She) added that she’s seen
‘children coming out of these shelters with scabies, lice, all
kinds of communicable diseases.’” (<a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/06/amid-gazas-ruins-impact-children-most-severe-un-official"
target="_blank">Source:</a> “Amid Gaza’s Ruins, Impact on
Children Most ‘Severe’: UN Official”, Common Dreams, August 6,
2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE: “175 of Gaza’s most successful
industrial plants had also taken devastating hits, plunging an
already despairing economy into a deeper abyss” (<a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/07/world/middleeast/after-conflict-gaza-industry-lies-in-ashes.html"
target="_blank">Source:</a> “Conflict Leaves Industry in
Ashes and Gaza Reeling From Economic Toll”, NY Times, August
6, 2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>MOSQUES, FARMING, INDUSTRY: “As many as 80 mosques have
been damaged or destroyed. Many farming areas and industrial
zones, filled with the small manufacturing plants and
factories that anchored Gaza’s economy, are now wastelands.” (<a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/month-long-war-in-gaza-has-left-a-humanitarian-and-environmental-crisis/2014/08/06/85772138-cad7-4812-90d9-6bdb21be1c63_story.html"
target="_blank">Source:</a> “Month-long War in Gaza Has Left
a Humanitarian and Environmental Crisis,” Washington Post.
August 6, 2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: Oxfam said: “We’re working in an
environment with a completely destroyed water infrastructure
that prevents people in Gaza from cooking, flushing toilets or
washing [their] hands.” <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-gazas-survivors-now-face-a-battle-for-water-shelter-and-power-9650347.html"
target="_blank">(Source:</a> “Gaza’s Survivors Now Face A
Battle For Water, Shelter And Power,” The Independent, August
5, 2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>400,000 REFUGEES, 46-48,000 HOMES: “Frode Mauring, the
UN Development Programme’s special representative said that
with 16-18,000 homes totally destroyed and another 30,000
partially damaged, and 400,000 internally displaced people,
‘the current situation for Gaza is devastating.’” (<a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-gazas-survivors-now-face-a-battle-for-water-shelter-and-power-9650347.html"
target="_blank">Source:</a> “Gaza’s Survivors Now Face A
Battle For Water, Shelter And Power”, The Independent, August
5, 2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>ELECTRICITY: “Mr Mauring said that the bombing of
Gaza’s only power station and the collapse at least six of
the 10 power lines from Israel, had ‘huge development and
humanitarian consequences’ (<a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-gazas-survivors-now-face-a-battle-for-water-shelter-and-power-9650347.html"
target="_blank">Source:</a> “Gaza’s Survivors Now Face A
Battle For Water, Shelter And Power,” The Independent, August
5, 2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>SCHOOLS, REFUGEE CENTERS: “United Nations officials
accused Israel of violating international law after artillery
shells slammed into a school overflowing with evacuees
Wednesday … The building was the sixth U.N. school in the Gaza
Strip to be rocked by explosions during the conflict. (<a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-presses-attack-16-killed-at-un-school/2014/07/30/4a643588-17a5-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html"
target="_blank">Source:</a> “U.N. Says Israel Violated
International Law, After Shells Hit School In Gaza”,
Washington Post, July 30, 2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>HOSPITALS: “Israeli forces fired a tank shell at a
hospital in Gaza on Monday … It was the third hospital
Israel’s military has struck since launching a ground
offensive in Gaza last week.” <a
href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/middle-east-unrest/another-gaza-hospital-hit-israeli-strike-four-dead-40-hurt-n161086"
target="_blank">(Source:</a> “Another Gaza Hospital Hit by
Israeli Strike,” NBC News, July 21, 2014)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>HOSPITALS, HEALTH WORKERS: “There has been mounting
evidence that the Israel Defense Forces launched apparently
deliberate attacks against hospitals and health professionals
in Gaza … Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director
at Amnesty International (said) ‘the Israeli army has targeted
health facilities or professionals. Such attacks are
absolutely prohibited by international law and would amount to
war crimes.’” (<a
href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/news-item/mounting-evidence-of-deliberate-attacks-on-gaza-health-workers-by-israeli-army"
target="_blank">Source:</a> “Mounting Evidence Of Deliberate
Attacks On Gaza Health Workers By Israeli Army,” Amnesty
International, August 7, 2014)</big></big></p>
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