Song Música Free Gaza, Free Palestine
“It was necessary that millions of men in whose hands lay the real power - the soldiers who fired, or transported provisions and guns - should consent to carry out the will of these weak individuals...” Lev Nikolaievitch Tolstói, in "War and peace".
If Israeli soldiers REFUSED to oppress the Palestinians and to fire, peace would flourish and evil would wither in no time.
Abby Martin Breaking the Set
Israeli refuseniks
Reservistas de Tropa de Elite da IDF se rebelam
Reservistas de Tropa de Elite da IDF se rebelam
Uma interna e outra externa. Ambas em cartas privadas e abertas enviadas a dois responsáveis pelo status quo atual. No âmbito governamental e privado.
Primeiro foi a professora de Harvard Sara Roy que respondeu à carta de Eli Wiesel, Bernard Henry Levy e outros judeus simpatizantes da política expansionista do governo isaelense de extrema-direita. Depois, na sexta-feira, foi a vez de 43 reservistas de uma tropa de elite da IDF que escreveram para Binyamin Netanyahu condenando a forma e fundo da ocupação e cobrando posicionamento da sociedade israelense em relação aos abusos que os soldados cometem na Cisjordânia e na Faixa de Gaza.
"Nós, veteranos da Unidade 8200, reservistas passados e presentes, declaramos que recusamos participar em atividades contra palestinos e recusamos ser instrumentos de do aumento do controle militar dos territórios palestinos ocupados.... Não há distinção entre palestinos envolvidos ou não em violência, não podemos servir este sistema om a consciência tranquila, negando direitos a milhões de pessoas". Os soldados continuam na mesma linha demonstrando preocupação com abusos de direitos humanos, interferência danosa na vida quotidina dos palestinos, e escarecendo que não participarão mais de nenhum matrato de pessoas inocentes e lançaram um apelo a todos os soldados da IDF para que ajam da mesma maneira.
"Pedimos a todos os soldados que servem na Coorporação de Inteligência, presente e futuro, e aos cidadãos israelenses, que se manifestem contra estas injustiças e façam o necessário para que elas parem".
Um dos soldados disse ao Canal 10 de Tel Aviv que a maior parte do trabalho que a IDF tem feito foi motivada por razões políticas, de cimentar o controle de Israel da Cisjordânia e não por razões de segurança.
A Unidade 8200 da IDF é uma das mais conceituadas e mais elitizadas, para onde vão os soldados mais inteligentes. Ela é encarregada da vigilância e do monitoramento de comunicações, além de compartilhar inteligência com agências civis israelenses.
O general de brigada Hanan Gefen acusou os assinantes da carta aberta de "grave quebra de confiança" e declarou" If this is true and if I were the current unit commander, I would put them all on trial and would demand prison sentences form them, and I would remove them from the unit" "If this is true and if I were the current unit commander, I would put tem all on trial and would demand prison sentences for tem, and I would remove them from the unit".
Mas os soldados pensaram bem antes de dar este passo. Deram porque não aguentam mais começar a vida adulta com verdugos e terminarem os três anos de serviço militar tão desequilibrados por causa do que fazem que passam um ano enterrados em drogas na India ou lavando a alma pelo mundo afora antes de conseguir integrar a sociedade.
Carta dos objetores de consciência. Israeli refuseniks' letter:
Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu
Chief of General Staff, Benny Gantz
Military Intelligence Director, Major General Aviv Kochavi
Commander of Unit 8200
We, veterans of Unit 8200, reserve soldiers both past and present, declare that we refuse to take part in actions against Palestinians and refuse to continue serving as tools in deepening the military control over the Occupied Territories.
It is commonly thought that the service in military intelligence is free of moral dilemmas and solely contributes to the reduction of violence and harm to innocent people. However, our military service has taught us that intelligence is an integral part of Israel's military occupation over the territories. The Palestinian population under military rule is completely exposed to espionage and surveillance by Israeli intelligence. While there are severe limitations on the surveillance of Israeli citizens, the Palestinians are not afforded this protection. There's no distinction between Palestinians who are, and are not, involved in violence. Information that is collected and stored harms innocent people. It is used for political persecution and to create divisions within Palestinian society by recruiting collaborators and DRIVING parts of Palestinian society against itself. In many cases, intelligence prevents defendants from receiving a fair trial in military courts, as the evidence against them is not revealed. Intelligence allows for the continued control over millions of people through thorough and intrusive supervision and invasion of most areas of life. This does not allow for people to lead normal lives, and fuels more violence further distancing us from the end of the conflict.
Millions of Palestinians have been living under Israeli military rule for over 47 years. This regime denies the basic rights and expropriates extensive tracts of land for Jewish settlements subject to separate and different legal systems, jurisdiction and law enforcement. This reality is not an inevitable result of the state's efforts to protect itself but rather the result of choice. Settlement expansion has nothing to do with national security. The same goes for restrictions on construction and development, economic exploitation of the West Bank, collective punishment of inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, and the actual route of the separation barrier.
In light of all this, we have concluded that as individuals who served in Unit 8200, we must take responsibility for our part in this situation and it is our moral duty to act. We cannot continue to serve this system in good conscience, denying the rights of millions of people. Therefore, those among us who are reservists, refuse to take part in the state's actions against Palestinians. We call for all soldiers serving in the Intelligence Corps, present and future, along with all the citizens of Israel, to speak out against these injustices and to take action to bring them to an end. We believe that Israel's future depends on it.
Signed by: Senior Academic Officer Or, First Sergeant Ori, Sergeant Ella, Sergeant ***, Sergeant First Class Amitai, Captain Assaf, Lieutenant Assaf, First Sergeant Ariel, First Sergeant Guy, Sergeant First Class Galia, Lieutenant Gilad, First Sergeant Doron, Captain D, Professional Academic Officer H, First Sergeant T, First Sergeant Tal, Sergeant First Class Yair, First Sergeant Yoav, First Sergeant Yuval, Lieutenant Yonatan, Sergeant First Class Lior, Sergeant Liron, Sergeant Maya, Sergeant Michal, First Sergeant Menahem, First Sergeant Nadav, Sergeant Noa, First Sergeant Sa'ar, First Sergeant Eden, Sergeant Idan, Professional Academic Officer Amir, First Sergeant Amit, Sergeant K, Sergeant Keren, Sergeant First Class Regev, First Sergeant Roi, Sergeant R, First Sergeant Rotem, First Sergeant Shira, Major Shmulik, First Sergeant Schraga, Sergeant Sheri, Senior Academic Officer Tomer.
D., 27, who served from 2003-11 and rose to be capitain, said he was jolted into questioning his role when after completing his service he saw the movie The Livez of Others about intelligence gathering by the Stasi in East Germany? He added that his thinking was influenced by the experiences of his father, an immigrant from Argentina, who had been imprisoned without trial by the military dictatorship there in 1977.
Primeiro foi a professora de Harvard Sara Roy que respondeu à carta de Eli Wiesel, Bernard Henry Levy e outros judeus simpatizantes da política expansionista do governo isaelense de extrema-direita. Depois, na sexta-feira, foi a vez de 43 reservistas de uma tropa de elite da IDF que escreveram para Binyamin Netanyahu condenando a forma e fundo da ocupação e cobrando posicionamento da sociedade israelense em relação aos abusos que os soldados cometem na Cisjordânia e na Faixa de Gaza.
"Nós, veteranos da Unidade 8200, reservistas passados e presentes, declaramos que recusamos participar em atividades contra palestinos e recusamos ser instrumentos de do aumento do controle militar dos territórios palestinos ocupados.... Não há distinção entre palestinos envolvidos ou não em violência, não podemos servir este sistema om a consciência tranquila, negando direitos a milhões de pessoas". Os soldados continuam na mesma linha demonstrando preocupação com abusos de direitos humanos, interferência danosa na vida quotidina dos palestinos, e escarecendo que não participarão mais de nenhum matrato de pessoas inocentes e lançaram um apelo a todos os soldados da IDF para que ajam da mesma maneira.
"Pedimos a todos os soldados que servem na Coorporação de Inteligência, presente e futuro, e aos cidadãos israelenses, que se manifestem contra estas injustiças e façam o necessário para que elas parem".
Um dos soldados disse ao Canal 10 de Tel Aviv que a maior parte do trabalho que a IDF tem feito foi motivada por razões políticas, de cimentar o controle de Israel da Cisjordânia e não por razões de segurança.
A Unidade 8200 da IDF é uma das mais conceituadas e mais elitizadas, para onde vão os soldados mais inteligentes. Ela é encarregada da vigilância e do monitoramento de comunicações, além de compartilhar inteligência com agências civis israelenses.
O general de brigada Hanan Gefen acusou os assinantes da carta aberta de "grave quebra de confiança" e declarou" If this is true and if I were the current unit commander, I would put them all on trial and would demand prison sentences form them, and I would remove them from the unit" "If this is true and if I were the current unit commander, I would put tem all on trial and would demand prison sentences for tem, and I would remove them from the unit".
Mas os soldados pensaram bem antes de dar este passo. Deram porque não aguentam mais começar a vida adulta com verdugos e terminarem os três anos de serviço militar tão desequilibrados por causa do que fazem que passam um ano enterrados em drogas na India ou lavando a alma pelo mundo afora antes de conseguir integrar a sociedade.
Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu
Chief of General Staff, Benny Gantz
Military Intelligence Director, Major General Aviv Kochavi
Commander of Unit 8200
We, veterans of Unit 8200, reserve soldiers both past and present, declare that we refuse to take part in actions against Palestinians and refuse to continue serving as tools in deepening the military control over the Occupied Territories.
It is commonly thought that the service in military intelligence is free of moral dilemmas and solely contributes to the reduction of violence and harm to innocent people. However, our military service has taught us that intelligence is an integral part of Israel's military occupation over the territories. The Palestinian population under military rule is completely exposed to espionage and surveillance by Israeli intelligence. While there are severe limitations on the surveillance of Israeli citizens, the Palestinians are not afforded this protection. There's no distinction between Palestinians who are, and are not, involved in violence. Information that is collected and stored harms innocent people. It is used for political persecution and to create divisions within Palestinian society by recruiting collaborators and DRIVING parts of Palestinian society against itself. In many cases, intelligence prevents defendants from receiving a fair trial in military courts, as the evidence against them is not revealed. Intelligence allows for the continued control over millions of people through thorough and intrusive supervision and invasion of most areas of life. This does not allow for people to lead normal lives, and fuels more violence further distancing us from the end of the conflict.
Millions of Palestinians have been living under Israeli military rule for over 47 years. This regime denies the basic rights and expropriates extensive tracts of land for Jewish settlements subject to separate and different legal systems, jurisdiction and law enforcement. This reality is not an inevitable result of the state's efforts to protect itself but rather the result of choice. Settlement expansion has nothing to do with national security. The same goes for restrictions on construction and development, economic exploitation of the West Bank, collective punishment of inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, and the actual route of the separation barrier.
In light of all this, we have concluded that as individuals who served in Unit 8200, we must take responsibility for our part in this situation and it is our moral duty to act. We cannot continue to serve this system in good conscience, denying the rights of millions of people. Therefore, those among us who are reservists, refuse to take part in the state's actions against Palestinians. We call for all soldiers serving in the Intelligence Corps, present and future, along with all the citizens of Israel, to speak out against these injustices and to take action to bring them to an end. We believe that Israel's future depends on it.
Accompanying the letter published in the Israeli media on Friday 12/09/14 and organised several months before the recent operation Protective Edge on Gaza, are a serie of testimonies provided by the signatories.
A., 32, sergeant major who served between 2006 and 2006 said, "We don't want to come out as having a very general pacifist message. We are saying that intelligence gathering on people who have no civil or political rights is not something we can take part of".
D., 27, who served from 2003-11 and rose to be capitain, said he was jolted into questioning his role when after completing his service he saw the movie The Livez of Others about intelligence gathering by the Stasi in East Germany? He added that his thinking was influenced by the experiences of his father, an immigrant from Argentina, who had been imprisoned without trial by the military dictatorship there in 1977.
A common complaint, made in both the testimonies and in interviews given by some of the signatories, is that some of the activities the soldiers were asked to engage in had more in common with the intelligence services of oppressive regimes than of a democracy.
Among allegations made in the statements are that:
. A significant proportion of the unit's Palestinian objectives "are innocent people unconnected to any military activiy. They interest the unit for other reasons, usually without having the slightest idea that they're intelligence targets and they are not treated differently", from the resistants.
. Personnel were instructed to keep any damaging details of Palestinians' lives they came across, including information on sexual preferences, infidelities, financial problems of family illnesses that could be "used to extort/blackmail the person and turn them into a collaborator".
. Former members claim some intelligence gathered by the unit was not collected in the service of the Israeli state but in pursuit of the "agendas" of individual Israeli politicians. In one incident, for which no details have been provided, one signatory recalls: "Regarding one project in particular, many of us were shocked... Clearly it was not something we as soldiers were supposed to do. The information was almost directly transferred to political players and not to other sections of the security system".
. "Any such case, in which you 'fish out' an innocent person from whom information might be squeezed or who could be recruited as a collaborator was like striking gof for us".
. Another reservist recounted how to boost morale, commanders of unit 8200 would play for the troops intercepted conversations of Palestinian couples arguing or of Palestinians having phone sex. "Sex talk was considered entertainment. Phone sex was always considered a hit".
. "I was once made to listen to talk an Israeli security officer had with a Palestinian he tried to recruit. It's an excellent talk for instruction and learning and was used by the unit for some years. There's a point where he says 'your wife's brother has cancer'. The Palestinian says 'so?' And they go on to speak about something else but hte Israeli keeps going back to the cancer issue. He said something like 'our hospitals are good' and he was clearly offering something to the Palestinain or threatening him".
. "If you're homosexual and know womeno who knows a wanted person and we need to know about it, Israel will make your life miserable. If you need emergency mledical treatment in Israel, the West Bank or abroad, we se'arched for you. The state of israel will allow you to die before we let you leave for treatment without giving information on your wanted wousin. If you interest Unit 8200 as a technological unit and don't have anything to do with any hostile activiy, you'an an objective.
Any such case, in which you 'fish out' an innocent person from whom information might be squeezed or who could be recruited as a collaborator was like striking gold for us and Israel's entire intelligence community".
They all described a culture of impunity where soldiers were actively discouraged in training lessons from questioning the legality of orders, and of being deliberately misled by commanders about the circumstances of a case in which one member of their unit refused to cooperate in the bombing of a building with civilians in it in retaliation for an attack in Israel. They said that there were in effect "no rules" governing which Palestinians could be targeted and that the only restraint on their intelligence gathering in the occupied territories was "resources".
A spokesperson for the IDF criticised the soldiers for making their complaints public, and attempted to cast doubt on the claims using their infamous policy of deception. "The intelligence corps has no record that the specific violations in the letter ever took place"... " Regarding claims of harm caused to civilians, the IDF maintains a rigorous process which takes into account civilian presence before authorizing strikes agains targets".
Just like the world saw they doing in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge...
Unit 8200 is one of the most prestigious in the Israeli public's mind, with many who serve in it going on to high-flying jobs after their military service, many in Israel's hi-tech sector.
According to an article this year in Haaretz, former unit members include a supreme court justice, the director general of the finance ministry, an internacionally successful author, the chief executive of one of Israel's largest accountancy firms and the economy ministry's chief scientist.
Operating a signals interception base, the unit is also at the front of Israel's cyberwar capabilities. According to some reports - never officialy confirmed - it was involved in developing the Stuxnet virus used to attack Iran's nuclear programme.
All the reserve soldiers who spoke said they were "higly motivated" to join the unit and had volunteered to serve extra time in it beyond their national service.
Although there have been "refusenik" letters before - most famously more than a decade ago when a group of reserve pilots refused to participate in targeted assassinations - such complaints from within Israel's intelligence are highly unusual.
Three of those involved, two sergeants and a captain, were at pains to make clear they were not interested in disclosing state secrets.
Naday, 26, a sergeant who is now a philosophy and literature student in Tel Aviv, said that "In Israel intelligence regarding Palestinians they don't really have rights. Nobody asks that question... The intelligence gathering about Palestinians is not clean. When you rule a population that does not have political rights, laws, like we have, [then] the nature of this regime of ruling over people, especially when you do it for many years, [is that] it forces you to take control or infiltrate every aspect of their life".
Nadav made reference to the last major refusenik episode in Israel to grab the public's attention in 2002, mentioned above, when 27 reserve pilots refused to fly assassinations sorties over Gaza after 14 civilians, including children, were killed alongside Salah Shehade (the leader of Hamas's military wing at the time) and the outcry that surrounded it. "When you look at what happened this summer, when building after building were destroyed and the inhabitants and hundreds of innocent people were killed and no one raised an eyebrow, as opposed to just one decade ago when the killing of a family of a commander of Hamas shocked people"....
"D", a 29-year-old captain who served for eight years, added: "[That] question is one of the messages that we feel it is very important to get across mostly to the Israeli public. That is a very common misconception about intelligence... when we were enlisting in the military [we thought] our job is going to be minimising violence, minimising loss of lives, and that made the moral side of it fell much easier. What the IDF does in the occupied territories is rule another people. One of the things you need to do is defend yourself from them, but you also need to oppress the population. You need to weaken the politics. You need to strengthen and deepen your control of Palestinian society so thtat the [Israeli] state can remain [there] in the long term. We can't talk about specifics... [but] intelligence is used to apply pressure to people to make them cooperate with Israel... I decided to refuse long before the recent [Gaza] operation. It was when I realized that what I was doing was the same job that the intelligence services of every undemocratic regime are doing. This realisation was what made me [realise] personally that I'm part of this large mechanism that is trying to defend or perpetuate its presence in the occupied territories".
Censorship in US Universities over Palestinian issue
Mr. Wiesel,
I read your statement about Palestinians, which appeared in The New York Times on August 4th. I cannot help feeling that your attack against Hamas and stunning accusations of child sacrifice are really an attack, carefully veiled but unmistakable, against all Palestinians, their children included.
As a child of Holocaust survivors—both my parents survived Auschwitz—I am appalled by your anti-Palestinian position, one I know you have long held. I have always wanted to ask you, why? What crime have Palestinians committed in your eyes? Exposing Israel as an occupier and themselves as its nearly defenseless victims? Resisting a near half century of oppression imposed by Jews and through such resistance forcing us as a people to confront our lost innocence (to which you so tenaciously cling)?
Unlike you, Mr. Wiesel, I have spent a great deal of time in Gaza among Palestinians. In that time, I have seen many terrible things and I must confess I try not to remember them because of the agony they continue to inflict. I have seen Israeli soldiers shoot into crowds of young children who were doing nothing more than taunting them, some with stones, some with just words. I have witnessed too many horrors, more than I want to describe. But I must tell you that the worst things I have seen, those memories that continue to haunt me, insisting never to be forgotten, are not acts of violence but acts of dehumanization.
There is a story I want to tell you, Mr. Wiesel, for I have carried it inside of me for many years and have only written about it once a very long time ago. I was in a refugee camp in Gaza when an Israeli army unit on foot patrol came upon a small baby perched in the sand sitting just outside the door to its home. Some soldiers approached the baby and surrounded it. Standing close together, the soldiers began shunting the child between them with their feet, mimicking a ball in a game of soccer. The baby began screaming hysterically and its mother rushed out shrieking, trying desperately to extricate her child from the soldiers’ legs and feet. After a few more seconds of “play,” the soldiers stopped and walked away, leaving the terrified child to its distraught mother.
Now, I know what you must be thinking: this was the act of a few misguided men. But I do not agree because I have seen so many acts of dehumanization since, among which I must now include yours. Mr. Wiesel, how can you defend the slaughter of over 500 innocent children by arguing that Hamas uses them as human shields? Let us say for the sake of argument that Hamas does use children in this way; does this then justify or vindicate their murder in your eyes? How can any ethical human being make such a grotesque argument? In doing so, Mr. Wiesel, I see no difference between you and the Israeli soldiers who used the baby as a soccer ball. Your manner may differ from theirs—perhaps you could never bring yourself to treat a Palestinian child as an inanimate object—but the effect of your words is the same: to dehumanize and objectify Palestinians to the point where the death of Arab children, some murdered inside their own homes, no longer affects you. All that truly concerns you is that Jews not be blamed for the children’s savage destruction.
Despite your eloquence, it is clear that you believe only Jews are capable of loving and protecting their children and possess a humanity that Palestinians do not. If this is so, Mr. Wiesel, how would you explain the very public satisfaction among many Israelis over the carnage in Gaza—some assembled as if at a party, within easy sight of the bombing, watching the destruction of innocents, entertained by the devastation? How are these Israelis different from those people who stood outside the walls of the Jewish ghettos in Poland watching the ghettos burn or listening indifferently to the gunshots and screams of other innocents within—among them members of my own family and perhaps yours—while they were being hunted and destroyed?
You see us as you want us to be and not as many of us actually are. We are not all insensate to the suffering we inflict, acceding to cruelty with ease and calm. And because of you, Mr. Wiesel, because of your words—which deny Palestinians their humanity and deprive them of their victimhood—too many can embrace our lack of mercy as if it were something noble, which it is not. Rather, it is something monstrous.
Sara Roy is a senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University. 09/09/2014
I read your statement about Palestinians, which appeared in The New York Times on August 4th. I cannot help feeling that your attack against Hamas and stunning accusations of child sacrifice are really an attack, carefully veiled but unmistakable, against all Palestinians, their children included.
As a child of Holocaust survivors—both my parents survived Auschwitz—I am appalled by your anti-Palestinian position, one I know you have long held. I have always wanted to ask you, why? What crime have Palestinians committed in your eyes? Exposing Israel as an occupier and themselves as its nearly defenseless victims? Resisting a near half century of oppression imposed by Jews and through such resistance forcing us as a people to confront our lost innocence (to which you so tenaciously cling)?
Unlike you, Mr. Wiesel, I have spent a great deal of time in Gaza among Palestinians. In that time, I have seen many terrible things and I must confess I try not to remember them because of the agony they continue to inflict. I have seen Israeli soldiers shoot into crowds of young children who were doing nothing more than taunting them, some with stones, some with just words. I have witnessed too many horrors, more than I want to describe. But I must tell you that the worst things I have seen, those memories that continue to haunt me, insisting never to be forgotten, are not acts of violence but acts of dehumanization.
There is a story I want to tell you, Mr. Wiesel, for I have carried it inside of me for many years and have only written about it once a very long time ago. I was in a refugee camp in Gaza when an Israeli army unit on foot patrol came upon a small baby perched in the sand sitting just outside the door to its home. Some soldiers approached the baby and surrounded it. Standing close together, the soldiers began shunting the child between them with their feet, mimicking a ball in a game of soccer. The baby began screaming hysterically and its mother rushed out shrieking, trying desperately to extricate her child from the soldiers’ legs and feet. After a few more seconds of “play,” the soldiers stopped and walked away, leaving the terrified child to its distraught mother.
Now, I know what you must be thinking: this was the act of a few misguided men. But I do not agree because I have seen so many acts of dehumanization since, among which I must now include yours. Mr. Wiesel, how can you defend the slaughter of over 500 innocent children by arguing that Hamas uses them as human shields? Let us say for the sake of argument that Hamas does use children in this way; does this then justify or vindicate their murder in your eyes? How can any ethical human being make such a grotesque argument? In doing so, Mr. Wiesel, I see no difference between you and the Israeli soldiers who used the baby as a soccer ball. Your manner may differ from theirs—perhaps you could never bring yourself to treat a Palestinian child as an inanimate object—but the effect of your words is the same: to dehumanize and objectify Palestinians to the point where the death of Arab children, some murdered inside their own homes, no longer affects you. All that truly concerns you is that Jews not be blamed for the children’s savage destruction.
Despite your eloquence, it is clear that you believe only Jews are capable of loving and protecting their children and possess a humanity that Palestinians do not. If this is so, Mr. Wiesel, how would you explain the very public satisfaction among many Israelis over the carnage in Gaza—some assembled as if at a party, within easy sight of the bombing, watching the destruction of innocents, entertained by the devastation? How are these Israelis different from those people who stood outside the walls of the Jewish ghettos in Poland watching the ghettos burn or listening indifferently to the gunshots and screams of other innocents within—among them members of my own family and perhaps yours—while they were being hunted and destroyed?
You see us as you want us to be and not as many of us actually are. We are not all insensate to the suffering we inflict, acceding to cruelty with ease and calm. And because of you, Mr. Wiesel, because of your words—which deny Palestinians their humanity and deprive them of their victimhood—too many can embrace our lack of mercy as if it were something noble, which it is not. Rather, it is something monstrous.
Sara Roy is a senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University. 09/09/2014
Reservista da IDF Eran Efrati denuncia crimes de guerra em Shejayea
Former Israeli soldier Eran Efrati speaks about Israeli War crimes
in Shejayea massacre in July
I
in Shejayea massacre in July
I
Eran Efrati fala sobre a opressão e a repressão diária na Cisjordânia
II
Part 2: Former Israeli Soldier Eran Efrati Speaks Out About Documenting IDF Abuse in Gaza, West Bank
Germany treats Gaza's wounded children
Ainda não houve nenhuma investigação dos crimes de guerra cometidos em Gaza. Um documento vazou deixando entender um pouco do porquê.
Segundo funcionários da Corte Criminal Internacional a Autoridade Nacional Palestina tem impedido investigação formal dos crimes que Israel cometeu nos 50 dias da recente Operação militar Protective Edge.
There has been no international investigation into war wrimes in Gaza so far. Leaked document may hold clues as to why.
The Palestinian Authority has so far prevented the launch of a formal investigation into the alleged war crimes committed by isarel and Palestinian factions during the 50-day Israeli Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip lmast July and August, according to officials at the International Criminal Court.
Is the Palestinian National Authority stalling Gaza war crimes?
"Absent a referral by the Security Council, it is now accepted that the ICC Prosecutor could have jurisdiction to investigate the Gaza conflict if: (i) Palestine becomes a State Party to the ICC or (ii) Palestine signs a declaration giving the ICC jurisdiction over its territory for the conflict, or a defined period of the conflict, without becoming a State Party for all time. The latter procedure requires the Palestinian Authority to lodge such a declaration pursuant to Article 12(3) of the ICC Statute with the Court. It must of course be a genuine declaration on behalf of the Palestinian Authority which is lawful and binding.
The Palestinian Authority, then purporting to be a State, lodged such a declaration with the Court in January 2009 giving the ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory since July 1, 2002 (the date when the ICC Statute came into force). There was no question that the declaration was validly signed on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Indeed, the Prosecutor at the time opened a preliminary examination to consider whether to start a full investigation into the alleged crimes. In the end, the declaration was rejected because the Prosecutor determined in April 2012 that Palestine was not a State capable of making such a declaration to accept the ICC's jurisdiction.
However, as explained in the Deputy Prosecutor's letter of August 14, 2014, the situation has changed since 2009 due to the UN General Assembly's decision in November 2012 to accord to Palestine non-member observer State status in the UN. The Deputy Prosecutor notes that as a result of this resolution Palestine can "activate the Court's jurisdiction either through accession to the Statute or by lodging a new declaration".
It appears from his letter that an attempt had already been made to a lodge a new declaration on July 30, 2014 by the Palestinian Minister of Justice. Yet, it too has now been rejected by the Prosecutor as a basis for the ICC to seize jurisdiction.
This is because the Deputy Prosecutor states in his letter that he "did not receive a positive confirmation" from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Palestine that the declaration was submitted on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The current position is thus the opposite of the situation when the Prosecutor found the ICC lacked the authority to act in 2012 - statehood is no longer the issue, but the validity of the declaration is.
There is no indication in the letter about whether any consideration was given to obtaining the necessary confirmation and, if so, in what time period so that the ICC's jurisdiction would be effective once and for all. The public is in the dark about what steps may have been discussed, if any, to facilitate the ICC's intervention, and thus whether this is the overall intention.
It is known that the Prosecutor gave a strong response in her article in the Guardian on August 21, 2014 (only a short time after the meeting with the Foreign Minister) to the claims that her office has persistently avoided opening an investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza as a result of US and other western pressure. The Prosecutor emphasised that her office is powerless to act as a matter of law because Palestine is not yet a state Party and has signed no declaration. Her argument is that "the simple truth is that my office has never been in a position to open such an investigation due to lack of jurisdiction".
There is a vibrant debate unfolding about whether the Prosecutor could and should rely on either the 2009 or 2014 declarations. What the Prosecutor has not mentioned is that she does have a clear legal jurisdictional basis to act in respect of alleged war crimes in Gaza as a result of the referral by the Government of the Comoros (a State Party of the ICC) as long ago as May last year. The Comoros referred to the ICC for investigation the attack on May 31, 2010 by the Israeli Defence Forces on the Humanitarian Aid Flotilla which was sailing on the high seas bound for Gaza. It is alleged that the crimes committed during this attack form part of a planned and widespread pattern of unlawful conduct in the continuing armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, including the recent hostilities in Gaza. The ICC's jurisdiction for the May 2010 attack stems from alleged crimes occurring on a ship registered to the Comoros. It is reported that persons on board were killed, injured, tortured, mistreated and unlawfully detained by Israeli forces. Crimes allegedly took place on other ships in the flotilla as well, including on board ships registered to Greece and Cambodia over which the ICC has jurisdiction as they are both States Parties.
Thus the Prosecutor's assertion that there is nothing that she can do in respect of Gaza, and that it is not her fault, is not quite the whole story. She has an active State referral which does permit her to act in respect of investigating crimes committed in the same overall conflict. Yet to date she has failed even to open an investigation for nearly a year and a half. The Comoros has stressed to the Prosecutor that the delay in opening an investigation continues to waste the potential deterrent effect on the commission of further crimes in Gaza that knowledge of her willingness to investigate Israel's military conduct could achieve. It could be said that alleged perpetrators may be reassured that their actions will not be subjected to the ICC's jurisdiction.
Of note, another way in which an ICC investigation could be delayed may lie in Israel's hands: by telling the Prosecutor as Israel has done that they are investigating war crimes themselves, the Prosecutor is compelled to shift her focus from investigation of the alleged crimes within the ICC's jurisdiction. Instead she has to concentrate on whether an investigation by Israel is genuine, and covers the same persons and conduct of any potential ICC investigation. If she is satisfied of these requirements, the Prosecutor may well lose jurisdiction to investigate. This process itself can take time and can cause delay".
Rodney Dixon QC is a barrister specialising in International law. He has acted in many cases before international criminal courts, having both prosecuted and defended, and represented governments, international organisations and victims.
Israel orders criminal investigation into Gaza Operation Protective Edge
"incidents" in an attempt to counterfire International investigation
Custo altíssimo da reconstrução da Faixa de Gaza
e Israel vai lucrar, como vimos na semana passada
"Palestinians demonstrating in East Jerusalem are not a police [Israeli] problem.
Detentions at night and brutal oppresion will not stop an independence struggle.
East Jerusalem is an Occuppied Territory. In peace it will be the captial of Palestine".
"Palestinos fazendo passeata em Jerusalém Oriental não é problema de polícia [israelense].
Detenções noturnas e opressão brutal não pararão a luta pela independência.
Jerusalém Oriental é um território ocupado. Quando houver paz vai ser a capital da Palestina".
Gush Shalom, published in Haaretz, September 12, 2014
Back to school in Gaza. Volta às aulas em Gaza
Apartheid Adventures
IV
The Lives of Others, mentionned above.
A Vida dos outros, mencionado acima no depoimento de um dos reservistas da Unidade 8200 da IDF.
Em versão original, legendado em español
Em versão original, legendado em español
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