Tag Archives: Justice

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Israel’s High Court of Justice Dismisses Petition Filed on Behalf of More Than 1,000 Victims of Operation Cast Lead

PCHR

Palestine Center Human Rights, Ref: 38/2011 Date: 30 April 2011

On Thursday, 28 April 2011, the Israeli High Court of Justice dismissed a petition brought by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and litigated by Attorneys Michael Sfard and Carmel Pomerantz.

 

The petition was filed on 21 December 2010, by PCHR in relation to more than 1,000 victims of Israel’s 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 offensive on the Gaza Strip (Operation ‘Cast Lead’), in order to challenge the 2-year statute of limitations imposed on filing tort (compensation) cases. The petition requested that the High Court of Justice order the State Attorney to refrain from raising a claim under the statute of limitations in future civil suits brought before Israeli courts. According to PCHR, the right of access to the courts demands that the statute of limitations on bringing such civil cases begin to accrue only once Israel’s illegal closure of the Gaza Strip has ceased.

 

PCHR have consistently argued that the statute of limitations, imposed monetary barriers, and the illegal closure of the Gaza Strip, combine to fundamentally deny victims’ legitimate right to an effective judicial remedy. In effect, they contribute to the establishment of an ‘accountability free-zone’ in the Gaza Strip, wherein Israeli forces are free to violate international law without consequence. At issue in this petition is the fundamental – and universally recognized – right to compensation in the event of a violation of international law.

 

Yesterday’s High Court of Justice ruling represents a serious setback for the victims, and their legitimate quest for accountability and redress.

 

Significantly, the Court’s decision to dismiss the petition was procedurally flawed. PCHR had a right to reply to the State’s submission before the Court decided on the matter. The date fixed by the Court for PCHR’s reply is 3 May 2011.

 

PCHR believe that the procedurally flawed dismissal of this case represents an example of the Israeli judiciary’s complicity in the perpetuation of a climate of pervasive impunity, whereby those Israeli officials and soldiers suspected of committing international crimes are shielded from justice, and victims’ legitimate rights to the equal protection of the law are systematically denied. In this context it is noted that the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict concluded that the series of acts that limit Palestinians in the Gaza Strip’s “access to courts of law and effective remedies could amount to persecution, a crime against humanity.”

 

It is imperative that victims’ fundamental human rights be respected and upheld, and that recourse to mechanisms of international justice be supported and encouraged by the international community.

 

Background Information

 

Customary international law recognises all victims’ right to reparation (including compensation) in the event of a violation of international law. However, Palestinian victims from the Gaza Strip are currently faced with a number of significant hurdles which effectively prevent them from accessing justice, in violation of their fundamental rights. Claimants face three principal obstacles:

 

1. Statute of Limitations. Under Israeli law, a complaint for civil damages must be brought within two years of the date of the incident, or the right to compensation is irrevocably lost. As a result of the illegal closure of the Gaza Strip, and the significant number of victims of Operation Cast Lead, this two-year limit means that the victims are often unable to submit their cases within the required time-frame. Prior to 1 August 2002, the statute of limitations was seven years.

 

2. Monetary Barrier. Israeli courts often require claimants to pay a court insurance fee before the case can begin. While this is a discretionary fee applied by the court, in practice, this fee is always applied to Palestinian claimants. The exact value of the fee is not fixed, and it is determined on a case-by-case basis by the court. With respect to claims for damage to property, the fee usually constitutes a percentage of the value of the property being claimed, however, for death or injury there is no informal guideline. In PCHR’s experience this amount is typically set at a minimum of NIS 10,000 (about US $2800); however, it can reach significantly higher amounts. In a recent case brought by PCHR, the claimants were required to pay an insurance fee of NIS 20,000 (US $5,600) for each of the five wrongful deaths claimed. Thus, grave violations equal extremely high monetary barriers to justice. This insurance fee constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to justice. Simply put, claimants from Gaza – crippled by the economic devastation wrought by the occupation and the illegal closure – cannot afford this fee and their cases are being dismissed and closed.

 

3. Physical Barriers. Under Israeli law, in order testimony to be valid, the victim or witness must be present in court to undergo cross-examination. However, since June 2007, despite a letter from the court requesting their presence, the Israeli military authorities have not allowed a single individual to leave Gaza to appear in court. As a result, their cases are dismissed and closed. Further, PCHR’s lawyers – although qualified – cannot enter Israel to represent their clients before the courts. As a result, PCHR is forced to work with and hire lawyers in Israel (at extra cost). However, clients are not allowed to enter Israel to meet with their lawyer, and all requests made by lawyers to enter Gaza – to meet with clients, visit the crime scene, and so on – have been denied. Necessarily, this affects the lawyers’ ability to represent their clients, thereby undermining victims’ right to an effective remedy.

 

The Petition

 

The petition, brought by PCHR and litigated by Attorneys Michael Sfard and Carmel Pomerantz, challenged the two-year statute of limitations. An injunction was sought from the court suspending the two-year statute of limitations period. The petition highlighted a number of barriers to justice created as a result of Israeli policy, including the illegal closure of the Gaza Strip.

 

This petition is brought by PCHR in relation to 1,046 victims of Operation Cast Lead, representing the overwhelming majority of cases prepared in the aftermath of the offensive. These cases cover virtually the entire spectrum of international humanitarian law violations, and among them are the most infamous cases of the offensive, including those of the Samouni, Abu Halima, and Al-Dia families.

 

The policies and practices challenged in this petition serve to comprehensively deny victims’ right to access justice. They perpetuate a climate of pervasive impunity, and effectively contribute to the establishment of an accountability free zone in the Gaza Strip.

 

 

 

 

 

Public Document

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For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893

PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org

 

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8th Anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s Stand in Gaza

Rachel Corrie

Cindy & Craig Corrie: March 16, 2011 Statement from Johan Genberg on Vimeo.

16 March 2011 – Rachel Corrie Foundation

A Message from Craig and Cindy Corrie, March 16, 2011

 

On Wednesday, March 16th, we mark the eighth anniversary of our daughter Rachel’s stand in Rafah, Gaza, to protect the right of a Gazan family to be safe and secure in their home and the rights of all Palestinians to self-determination, freedom, equality, and security in the same measure as their Israeli neighbors.

Here in Olympia, Washington – our hometown and Rachel’s – our family, the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, and our community will mark this anniversary with an event that emphasizes three components: community-building, education, and action. Strengthening community connections was important to Rachel when she lived and worked here in Olympia, but, also, beyond, as she embraced the world as her community. As we pursue a more just global community, we must arm ourselves with solid information and knowledge. Rachel believed this profoundly and emphasized in her writing from Gaza the importance of seeking and communicating the facts and doing so without exaggeration. And it is not enough for us to think and talk. We must, also, act. Indeed, it is because of Rachel’s action on March 16, 2003, that we pause to mark this day.

As we consider where Rachel would want us to focus now, Gaza still remains high on the list. The UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the number of weekly civilian injuries in Gaza was recently higher than it has been for any week since May 2010. The number includes injuries to five children. During the week of February 20-26, imports from Israel into Gaza were only 36 percent of the average amount that entered weekly before Israel imposed its blockade of Gaza in 2007. Exports and movement of people in and out of the Strip remain severely restricted. Collective punishment of the 1.7 million residents of Gaza by the Israeli government and military continues. We must, therefore, continue to focus on improving their situation and ending the blockade and siege under which they have suffered for so many years.

 

Rachel Corrie

Rachel Corrie

Rachel would want us to remember the courageous activists whose lives were claimed this past year in nonviolent actions against Israeli policies and those who have found themselves in prison because of their nonviolent resistance. They are American, Palestinian, Turkish, Israeli, and from elsewhere. We had the privilege recently of meeting Ahmet Dogan, the father of Furkan Dogan, the 18-year-old American citizen executed by the Israeli military aboard the Mavi Marmara in international waters. We spent an evening in Istanbul with the wives, children, and grandchildren of others struck down on the same ship. We have followed the stories of Jawaher Abu Rahma. fatally injured by teargas during protest in the Palestinian village of Bil’in and of Ahmad Suliman Salem Deeb, the 19-year-old Gazan shot and killed as he participated in a demonstration against the no-go zone east of Gaza. We have read of the fishermen and farmers injured and killed while grazing their sheep and plying the waters just off the shore of Gaza. We have followed the Israeli court actions against our friends Abdullah Abu Rahma of Bil’in and Jonathan Pollack of Tel Aviv, imprisoned in Israel because of their leadership and nonviolent actions to resist Israeli confiscation of land and the continuing presence of the wall in West Bank villages. With admiration, we have watched the courageous pursuit of freedom and democracy unfold and spread throughout the Middle East. We have celebrated the victories and mourned the losses. In keeping with our memory of Rachel, we are listening to the voices of young people as they struggle worldwide to assert their visions for a democratic, free, and peaceful future – in Gaza, the West Bank, in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, in Kabul, Cairo, and beyond. We call on U.S. officials to listen, too. We ask for them to be consistent and strong in their demands that foreign governments and militaries be accountable for their actions, that they respect the right of people to assemble and protest, and that they respond only nonviolently to such protests.

 

On March 10, 2010, our family’s civil lawsuit against the State of Israel and its Ministry of Defense opened in Haifa District Court. In sessions spread over the course of the past year, we have heard from four of the internationals who stood with Rachel in Gaza in 2003 and, also, from state’s witnesses who include the bulldozer driver, commander, and the lead investigator in the military police inquiry into Rachel’s case. The testimony has often been disturbing. We have recently learned that the case will resume on April 3rd. Six state’s witnesses remain to testify, including commanders who were in charge on March 16, 2003. As our family continues our quest for truth and accountability for Rachel, we demand it for all the others, as well. We know that for there ever to be peace, there must be an airing and resolution of the grievances.

Some of you – in Madison, Wisconsin, Marin County, California, in Turkey, in the U.K. and elsewhere – have told us that you, too, plan commemorative events for March 16th or during the upcoming weeks. Thank you for remembering Rachel with us. As you do, we hope you will, keep in mind the community-building, education, and action so important to her. We hope, too, that you will recall those others who have stood and been struck down, those imprisoned for their nonviolent action, and those who carry on the work – and that you will do what you can to support them all. With events this week and beyond that keep compassion, humility, and love at their core, together, we will honor Rachel’s commitment and spirit.

With appreciation always and in solidarity with all who pursue justice,
Cindy and Craig Corrie

 

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I am a Palestinian…with Nothing more to say

Yasser Arafat memorial (Majed Bamya)

Majed Bamya, 3 March 2011

As many Palestinians around the globe, I have spent the last few weeks following the uprisings in the Arab world on TV, overwhelmed with hope, enthusiasm, belief…and frustration. I grew up with the deep belief that our struggle for freedom was not only about territory. We were fighting to ensure a number of fundamental human values will prevail. We were fighting for justice, genuine democracy, dignity. In our quest, we aimed at freeing Palestine from the occupation but also allow it to rebuild the ties with its essence: pluralism, humanity, tolerance. We were fighting against zionism as an ideology that leads to exclusiveness, and exclusion, that spreads negation and destruction, discriminations and apartheid. And we thought that by fighting for pluralism in Palestine, and by accepting pluralism within the national movement, we were spreading the seeds of democracy in all of our region. We were democrats without a State, and we had a message to deliver. But years going by, and our house, the PLO, being neglected and weakened by divisions and competition, our pluralism was no longer a strength, as we were unable to dialogue respectfully and to speak with one voice. We doubted each others’ intentions and agendas, we criticized each others’ martyrs, and heroes. We forgot our common flag and fought each for our own colour. And from democracy we went to internal division. After the Nakba and the Naksa and Palestinian resurrection. After years of struggle, after Jordan, Lebanon, and two Intifadas. After imposing the Palestinian cause around the globe. After having lost so many of our historical leaders and so many of our resistants. We betrayed ourselves. We stopped believing. We lost faith in our own capacity to create miracles.

As I am watching these revolutions so close to us, and yet so far from us, I can not but ask myself, how come we became bystanders of a history we were at the forefront of. The Palestinian people fought for so long and made such sacrifices that it is normal to have fatigue or despair. It happened in the past and we always overcame. We disappeared from geography and we were on the verge of being erased from history. And defying all odds, we built a national movement that has changed all the past equations. But this time is different. People still fight every day for their dignity, their hopes and dreams, they continue demonstrating against the wall; in Jerusalem their fight for their homes is a fight for the Palestinian presence, and Palestinians remain in Palestine despite the siege in Gaza, and settlement activity and settlers’ harassment in the West Bank. And Palestinians in Israel continue fighting discriminations. And refugees continue to nourish their Palestinian identity even when the political bodies seem to have forgotten them. But where is our collective hope?

“Are you Gazan or West Banker, Jerusalemite or Israeli Palestinian, are you a refugee or not, are you…?” I am a Palestinian from Jaffa, my parents were Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a country they left following the Israeli invasion in 1982. After 1948, some of my family went to Gaza, others to West Bank, other in exile. I was born in exile and grew up in Ramallah and studied in Jerusalem. I have been living for the last years in Europe. This is a typical Palestinian story. It shows that our identity is linked to a cause not to geography.

I am a Palestinian. Simple words that need to be embodied. We still have it in us. The hope, the willingness to fight once again despite decades of sacrifices, the capacity to overcome our divisions and to reshape our unity. But for all of this to be possible, we need to do what others have done in Tunisia and Egypt and elsewhere around the globe. Confront our fears, choose our fights, and empower the people. We need to do it now, as the wheels of history are turning and instead of being on the vehicle, we are under it!

There are ideas, and experiences and examples all over the globe of Palestinian resistance. There is so much to learn from other peoples who have risen up to defend their rights. Political leaders should stop thinking that populations can not understand, or are by definition unreasonable. A population that is invested in decision-making understands compromises, and efficiency, and result-oriented approach. A population that is not invested in decision-making turns to ideologies, and simplifications. Look how reasonable where the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Despite past and future difficulties, and uncertain transition periods, the peoples of these countries continue doing their utmost to preserve the fragile balance of a revolution that seeks hope and not chaos. And while making the impossible possible, they were ready to achieve compromises on the instruments, not on the goals.

The major question now is how to change the balance of power on the ground, how to better confront this occupation and the injustice imposed on us 6 decades ago? The first element of any equation is to restore our unity, not based on void speeches or slogans, but on a deep understanding of our common belonging, respect for Palestinian pluralism, upholding human rights, and working towards genuine democracy where power can not be seized or hijacked and all political bodies remain accountable to the people on a regular basis. Palestinians want to be fully involved in the decision-making process. As they offer huge sacrifices in their quest for freedom, they can not tolerate for this freedom to be diminished by people that are supposed to represent them and their struggle. Unity is too serious a matter to be left for political parties to discuss it behind closed doors, and with undeclared agendas, or focus on power sharing. Only peoples can be entrusted with unity and democracy, they should pursue and shield them, as they are essential conditions for the success of any struggle for justice, and any debate on these questions, and all decisions, should be made with the full involvement of the people.

In Palestine and abroad, it is time for the people to take action and nobody should stop it. A power that fears its own people does not deserve to last and this is something that all political entities and all states should understand. We are ready once again to rise against the Israeli occupation, under its different forms: siege, settlements, exile, checkpoints, house demolitions, discriminations. We are ready to fight once more to protect our cause, to be faithful to the past, and to pave the way for another future. We are ready…and we await a signal to go beyond a fragmented destiny, land and resistance, and to launch a common fight for freedom! But looking closer, I think I saw a signal.

I look at my TV and I see crowds of people in the streets chanting and demonstrating peacefully. They have little slogans, many jokes and an unbreakable will. They carry one flag and one cause despite their differences. They defied their fear and overcame their divisions to ensure freedom will prevail. In a few weeks they have done what nobody else was able to do in decades. They did not wait for reforms, or political parties, trade unions or NGOs to set their game straight. The people went to the streets and knew everybody would have to follow.

I have nothing more to say…and there is so much left for us to do!

Yasser Arafat memorial (Majed Bamya)

Yasser Arafat memorial (Majed Bamya)

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Palestine Today: A Reality of Justice Denied

Photo courtesy of Palestine Solidarity Project

Stephen Lendman, 30 Dec 2010

On December 24, Mondoweiss co-editor Adam Horowitz wrote:

“Israeli military kills 20-year old Gazan for herding animals too close to buffer zone.”

On December 23, Israeli forces shot and killed Salama Abu Harhish without warning while herding sheep and goats in Beit Lahya. Civilized nations don’t murder nonviolent civilians in cold blood, this time leaving a widow and day-old unnamed baby.

What “democracy” thrives on violence, spurns peace, and wages preemptive wars like Cast Lead. Besides America, only Israel, a global menace like its Washington paymaster/partner, together with Britain the real axis of evil.

December 28 was Cast Lead’s second anniversary, a three week continuing onslaught. Against Palestine, Israel’s wars never end. The 2008-09 horror evoked memories of Franklin Roosevelt’s December 8, 1941 moment, telling a joint session of Congress:

“Yesterday, December 7,1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that Nation, (and) look(ed) toward maintain(ing it) in the Pacific….I ask that the Congress declare that….a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.”

Historical analysis exposed America’s real intent, its desire for war, its foreknowledge of the attack, its tracking of the Japanese fleet across the Pacific but not warning Pearl Harbor’s commander to ensure surprise and public anger, and Roosevelt’s imperial aims. Nonetheless, his powerful words expressed outrage about any nation attacking another preemptively, even if goaded to do it.

Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah remembered Cast Lead in his December 27 article headlined, “The Gaza massacre and the struggle for justice,” saying:

“It was not only a massacre of human bodies, but of the truth and of justice.” Goldstone and other investigations uncovered irrefutable evidence of high crimes of war and against humanity – willful slaughter of
nonviolent men, women and children.

Also targeted were schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, industrial and government facilities, police stations, fishing boats, agriculture and residential homes – all unrelated to military necessity in violation of fundamental international law.

Moreover, Israel was guilty of committing the “supreme international crime” against peace, an Israeli and American specialty though neither’s been held accountable. As a result, justice remains denied, begging for redress.

Israel’s attack was merciless. “The names of the dead fill 100 pages, but nothing can fill the void they left in their families….Two years after the crime, Gaza remains a giant prison….Israel’s violence (continues) like its violence against Palestinians” throughout the Territories – sustained state terrorism against nonviolent civilians. It’s “the logical outcome of the racism that forms the inseparable core of Zionist ideology and practice” that claims Israel belongs exclusively to Jews, no matter how many Palestinians have to die to prove it.

As a result, peace is consistently avoided, justice denied, and atrocities continue daily. Cast Lead highlighted Palestinian victimization, decades of occupation, besieged Gaza, persecuted Israeli Arabs, and the diaspora population prohibited from returning, a right enshrined in international law.

It also exposes a lawless society and bogus democracy, arousing millions globally to demand justice. Failure insults victims and the rule of law. Yet international community silence endorses rogue state lawlessness. Impunity encourages continuity, an endless cycle of persecution, violence, slaughter and destruction, seeking new pretexts to sustain it or inventing them when don’t exist.

Israel’s Self-Destructive Politics

Last March 16, Haaretz writer Bradley Burston headlined, “Israel’s Titanic Moment: Does Obama Want Bibi’s Head,” saying:

Perhaps after years of trial and error, Hamas finally knows “the secret of how to bring down the Jewish state: Let the ship sink itself….One of the curses of endless war, is the tendency to become one’s worst enemy,” a skill Israel honed through years of practice, alienating Jews besides millions of others globally.

On December 28, Burston headlined, “Israel’s government is turning into a settlement,” saying:

Netanyahu works overtime for it, “letting Avigdor Lieberman and Arab-hating rabbis run wild, humiliating the United States in the settlement freeze fiasco, while exacerbating tensions with the Muslim world.” His government thus meets five essential settlement criteria:

– it obstructs peace;

– denies fault for its absence;

– allies with religious extremists at the expense of secular Israelis, the majority;

– alienates allies and angers enemies; and

– does anything, even at extreme internal risk, “to avoid being dislodged.”

Burston denounced Avigdor Lieberman, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, for “drill(ing) new holes directly into (the) ship of state,” a man Newsweek called “Israel’s most popular politician.” Interviewing him last October, Lieberman:

– called “peace for territory” the wrong approach;

– wants half of the 1.5 million Israeli Arabs removed, believing all represent a fifth column threat; saying they refuse to be integrated but enjoy “all the advantages of a democratic country,” the same ones reserved solely for Jews;

– calls Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “exactly like Hitler;” says “of course” Iran will get a nuclear bomb, then will “de facto or de jure (occupy) the Gulf countries,” and Israel, no matter that the Islamic Republic hasn’t attacked another country in over 200 years; by comparison, Israel’s entire history is bloodstained, its politics based on sustained violence;

– calls himself “the mainstream;” and

– achieving a peace settlement in a year is “impossible.”

On that issue, he’s right because Israel spurns it, choosing violence over diplomacy, democratic values and equal justice. Eventually it’s self-destructive as Burston believes.

It’s no surprise that Haaretz believes “Lieberman must go,” a December 28 editorial calling him “an opportunistic figure competing in the guise of a diplomat for the leadership of the Israeli right wing.”

An earlier article presented a profile of his ultranationalist extremism, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/10/avigdor-lieberman-profile-in.html

Haaretz believes that “If Netanyahu expects to be taken seriously….he must dismiss Lieberman immediately.” Israel needs a legitimate foreign minister, not a fractious lunatic vindicating Israel’s adversaries. Perhaps he should dissolve his coalition and call new elections, though shuffling the deck won’t matter, given the the loyal opposition’s makeup – as belligerent and hard-line as Netanyahu at a time Israel’s Knesset is its most extreme ever.

Besides an array of extremist passed or proposed legislation, it sanctions racism and violence, including the December 28 attacks against Beitin village. Sandwiched between Bet El and Ofra settlements, the main road between Beitin and Ramallah is closed, forcing residents to travel 30 minutes to the city, not five by the main road.

On December 28, hundreds protested and were attacked by Israeli forces, using rubber bullets, pepper spray, and high-velocity tear gas rounds fired, from close range, directly at protestors as well as into nearby homes.

Near Jerusalem, Palestinians protesting against Israel’s Separation Wall were also attacked. Nine arrests were made, including international activists and an al Quds correspondent. After release, they got several days to leave the country.

Further, protestors against occupation and separation from Al Masara and other villages were assaulted. Together with international activists, they faced sound and tear gas bombs. Sixteen year old Ali Hamdan was struck in the chest and injured. Others suffered from inhilation effects. At Ni’lin’s weekly anti-Wall protest, confrontations there occurred, as well as at Nabi Saleh where one protestor was shot 13 times with rubber bullets, was seriously injured and hospitalized.

On December 29, Haaretz writer Amira Hass headlined, “Israel’s Qassam strikes on Gaza,” saying:

Months ago, Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai warned of “a bigger shoah (genocide)” if Palestinians fired rockets in self-defense, responding to Israeli attacks. He now calls Gaza “an abscess, troublesome pus)” and gets away with it.

“What was he trying to convey,” asked Hass? “That Israel needs to use radical surgery to fully remove the localized infection? Vilnai (like other Israeli hard-liners) renounced any Israeli responsibility for the volatility, placing all the blame on Hamas. ‘Instead of worrying about its own people, Hamas is trying to conquer Jerusalem,’ he said.”

In fact, Israeli soldiers “nearly daily fir(e) on Gaza civilians, regularly wounding (or) killing them.” Vilnai, however, claims “They started it, so we have the right to respond.” Yet in January 1991, as GOC Southern Command, he signed an infamous military order, revoking exit permits granted years earlier. As a result, Gazans lost free movement under military closure, a policy deeply hardened today under siege.

“It was Vilnai’s signature, not a persistent infection, that fated the Gaza Strip to be the world’s largest and most overcrowded detention camp. And we, the Israelis, are its wardens,” in violation of fundamental international law, ruthlessly spurned for over six decades.

A Final Comment

NGO Monitor (NGOM) is a Jerusalem-based pro-Israeli front group, disseminating propaganda and hate. It debases legitimate human rights organizations, independent journalists, other advocates for truth, equity and justice, and, on Cast Lead’s second anniversary, the Goldstone and other reports exposing Israeli crimes of war and against humanity against Gazans.

Calling irrefutable evidence “unsupported allegations (and) false investigations,” it demanded acknowledgement of “the degree to which (they’re) unsupported.”

By backing Israeli lawlessness, NGOM’s audacity gives chutzpah new meaning. Moreover, it’s staff defile the dead and injured, wanton destruction, and human misery. They represent a frontal attack on truth, decency, and reality of 1.5 million Gazans under suffocating siege, denied life, liberty, and for many the ability to survive. Punishing repression and daily assaults are shocking crimes, begging for redress, highlighted by remembering Cast Lead’s slaughter. NGOM forgets and desecrates.

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/