Take Action: House Resolution Provides Israel Impunity for Gaza Crimes

[ktlight]

The UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict found that Israel committed violations of human rights and international law, war crimes and possible crimes against humanity before, during, and after "Operation Cast Lead," Israel's Dec. 2008 to Jan. 2009 onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians.

Even before the fact-finding mission was established, and ever since, the Obama Administration and Congress have worked hard to discredit the UN mission and prevent the international community from acting upon its findings.

Now, the House of Representatives is upping the ante by considering a resolution to withhold payment of U.S. dues to the UN until it retracts the final report of the fact-finding mission.

Make no mistake about it: this is part of a deliberate, concerted strategy by the U.S. to throw around its diplomatic weight, shielding Israel from accountability for any outrage it inflicts on Palestinians, no matter how grave.

source
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=2961

[K626]

"NOAM CHOMSKY: Mr. Mandell will confirm, there was an explicit condition for this debate. That is, that neither participant try to evade the issue by deceitful allegations about the other. So, I, therefore, congratulate Mr. Dershowitz on having made a true statement. I was a counselor at Massad. About the rest, there happens to be an ample record in print, or if you like, you can ask a question, but I'll keep to the topic and the rules.

The topic is: Where do we go from here? The answer to that is largely up to us. Evidently, it requires some understanding of how we got here. The question of where we're going now has a clear answer. It's given accurately by the leading academic specialist on the occupation, Harvard's Sara Roy, as she writes that under the terms of disengagement, Gazans are virtually sealed within the Strip, while West Bankers, their lands dismembered by relentless Israeli settlement, will continue to be penned into fragmented geographic spaces, isolated behind and between walls and barriers.

Her judgment is affirmed by Israel's leading specialist on the West Bank, Meron Benvenisti, who writes that 'the separation walls snaking through the West Bank will create three Bantustans (his words): north, central and south, all virtually separated from East Jerusalem, the center of Palestinian commercial, cultural and political life. And he adds that this, what he calls the soft transfer from Jerusalem, that is an unavoidable result of the separation wall, might achieve its goal. Quoting still, 'the goal of disintegration of the Palestinian community, after many earlier attempts, have failed.' 'The human disaster being planned,' he continues, 'will turn hundreds of thousands of people into a sullen community, hostile, and nurturing a desire for revenge.' So, another example of the sacrifice of security through expansion that's been going on for a long time."

Long but a good read.


http://www.chomsky.info/debates/20051129.htm


K