Medical solidarity with Gaza: in conversation with Mads Gilbert

Stefan Christoff, The Electronic Intifada, 19 April 2010



Mads Gilbert treats a wounded patient at Gaza's al-Shifa hospital during Israel's assault on Gaza. (Mohamed Al-Zanon/MaanImages)





Ahead of the English publication of his book Eyes in Gaza (co-authored with Dr. Erik Fosse), Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert spoke to The Electronic Intifada about what he witnessed during Operation Cast Lead, Israel's three-week long assault on the Gaza Strip starting in December 2008, during which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed and thousands more injured.

Gilbert was one of the few internationals admitted into Gaza during the bombardment. His work at Gaza City's main al-Shifa Hospital was followed closely around the world, as he provided updates on the medical situation to international media while working with Palestinian colleagues to treat horrific injuries, primarily among civilians.

Gilbert's medical mission built on decades of direct medical support work in Palestine but also longstanding solidarity work in Norway with the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

In conversation, Gilbert focused specifically on the legacy of those living with the wounds of war in Gaza more than a year since Operation Cast Lead, while offering a unique perspective of a medical doctor working in tandem with the growing global Palestinian solidarity movement.

Stefan Christoff: You were one of the few internationals allowed into Gaza during the Israeli bombardment last winter. Can you share with us your memories on the decision to travel from Norway to enter Gaza during the Israeli bombings just after Christmas 2008?

Mads Gilbert: Once the Israeli attack started on 27 December 2008, we set-up an emergency medical team to leave for Gaza, a long-standing tradition in the Norwegian solidarity movement. We started this in 1981 and since then we have been consistently present in Palestine including during both intifadas. For the last 15 years we have worked in Gaza on medical solidarity projects, undertaking teaching and medical training projects while doing direct medical work.

As soon as possible, we departed from Norway, myself and doctor Erik Fosse, flying to Cairo with solid backing from the Norwegian government via a grant of $1 million for the mission and also support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which negotiated our way into Gaza with Egyptian authorities.

After arriving Cairo on 29 December, we traveled to al-Arish [the Eygptian border town] and tried to enter Gaza on 30 December but there were bombings at the border and finally on New Year's Eve, we entered Gaza in the early morning.

On arriving in Gaza we reported directly to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and they informed us that we would be working at al-Shifa hospital. At al-Shifa hospital Erik Fosse worked mainly in the emergency room and I worked mainly in the operating room.

We stayed there for 12 days and nights. After 12 days we were replaced by the second NORWAC (Norwegian Aid Committee) team, so NORWAC had a presence at al-Shifa throughout the three weeks of Israeli attacks.

SC: Why did you feel it was important to offer direct medical services in Gaza during the bombing?

MG: We have experience working in Gaza for many years and have seen the usefulness of coming to the support of the Palestinians. Not that the Palestinians can't manage themselves; al-Shifa is a good hospital with an amazing staff of 400 doctors and 600 nurses. Also, they are unfortunately world-leading experts in disaster medicine, but in such circumstances a supportive presence from outside can equal more than quantitative support measured by your hands. It is about giving strength and hope. Over the years it has become clear that this is a core quality of medical solidarity.

SC: After the UN-commissioned Goldstone report was released there was some media coverage on the deaths in Gaza inflicted during the Israeli bombardment, but too often we hear statistics and not the human stories behind the numbers. You were on the ground at al-Shifa and developed relationships with the war wounded in Gaza. Could you convey the stories of those living with the wounds of war in Gaza and the long term health impacts stemming from the Israeli bombardment?

MG: Gaza was already in a very difficult position before the bombing started. I returned to Norway from Gaza in late October 2008, before the last war, from a teaching mission at al-Azhar University. During that trip I spent time at both al-Quds and al-Shifa hospitals, meeting with my colleagues, and at that time before the war everyone told me that they can't take the siege much longer because they are lacking everything, all basic medical supplies.

Both the healthcare system and the population of Gaza were forced down on their knees by the long-lasting Israeli siege. Compounding this was the bombing that killed 1,400 Palestinians and injured 5,400. In total, 13 Israelis were killed and three of those Israelis were civilians, while among the 1,400 Palestinians killed, 28 percent were children under 18 years old, and every second injured was a woman or a child.

So the losses for families in Gaza are extensive, painful and long-lasting; you will never forget that your child was killed by a human hand. It is critical to outline that this was not a natural disaster, not a tsunami or an earthquake; this was a 100 percent made-man disaster, pre-planned and executed in the most meticulous way by Israeli commanders, under the leadership of the Israeli government.

Everyone around the world can experience a sudden loss and sadness when someone in their family or a close friend dies unexpectedly, in a car accident for example. But when so many deaths in such a small population are made-man and totally preventable it only adds to the intense burden left behind.

The psychosocial impact of all these losses to a society is very hard to measure, all the children in Gaza are traumatized by the siege and this last onslaught only added to that trauma burden. The majority of children in Gaza have witnessed a rocket attack or artillery fire directly on their own homes, prior to Operation Cast Lead. Palestinians in Gaza are a very traumatized and squeezed population due to the siege. Still, the Palestinians in Gaza manage to prevail.

SC: Can you speak about your most recent trip to Gaza after the bombardment?

MG: During my last visit to Gaza, last August, I traveled all over for a few weeks and met a large number of the families and patients that I participated in the treatment of during Operation Cast Lead. What was most striking is that the Palestinians in Gaza maintain their dignity, their culture, their humanity, against all odds.

The people of Gaza always are warm and welcoming despite the siege, despite the fact that they haven't been able to rebuild their homes due to lack of building materials allowed into Gaza. All the $5.4 billion dollars that has been pledged by the international community to rebuild Gaza is sitting in the banks, given that Israel will not allow any serious amount of building material to enter Gaza.

SC: Can you outline the current situation in Gaza as the Israeli siege continues?

MG: Gaza is facing a quadruple burden; first the siege, then the attack, the human losses and the continued siege with no hope in sight for an extremely burdened population who have done nothing wrong except for being Palestinian. So there is no verdict or international judge that justifies the killing and the siege on Gaza. This is an innocent population that is being collectively punished by the State of Israel, contrary to international law. The Israeli attack was a war crime but this point has to be pronounced formally by the International Criminal Court.

The long-term physical impacts of the war are clear today in Gaza. Many wounds that have been inflicted are painful to live with, first because war wounds are painful but also because the provisions for clinics and rehabilitation resources in Gaza are quite limited.

In Gaza there is a very good artificial limb shop, the Gaza Municipality Artificial Limb Center, that was on the brink of being closed down in 2006. However it was kept open after a huge fundraising campaign in north Norway -- as one of our many outlets of solidarity work we decided to direct funds to Gaza's artificial limb shop and they make very good prostheses.

Gaza's major artificial limb shop has provided orthopedic support, technical support like limbs or wheelchairs, to more than 700 patients with direct support from north Norway as a specific example.

SC: Many injured by the Israeli bombardment last winter lost arms or legs. Can you outline the reality of the Palestinian war-wounded, those living today with serious injuries?

MG: All over Palestine, in the West Bank, in Gaza and also in Lebanon there are people of all ages without arms, legs or even eyes, like those shot in the eyes with rubber bullets during the first intifada, all of them subjected to the weaponry of the Israeli army.

So the entire process of rehabilitation for the war-wounded is a huge undertaking, a process generally left to Palestinian civil society in Gaza, which is already completely drained due to the long-lasting siege.

Also take into account that according to the Goldstone report, Israel bombed multiple schools and many have not been rebuilt, so for the young children with war wounds and physiological trauma, it's extremely important to get back to normal life, to go to school, to find a good teacher who can care of them, to find some sort of reality after the mayhem created by the bombardment. When schools aren't rebuilt it means makeshift schools, triple shifts for teachers at the schools and double classes in each classroom, adding to the burden.

Those with amputations will hopefully receive artificial limbs but even with an artificial limb they then need serious training and resources for the training are limited due to the siege. Also, when you are 14 years old, it takes a great deal of patience to learn to use an artificial limb.

So the siege doesn't only limit food and fuel but also the ability for Palestinian society to rehabilitate all the war-wounded. The ongoing collective punishment and military attacks during the siege results in huge physiological trauma for the children, so rehabilitation for all the children is really difficult.

In order to heal, children need to have space to talk about their experiences, to make drawings, to be listened to by caring adults who have the capacity and surplus energy to listen to the children. All this healing process is lost in the everyday struggle to survive, to find basic sustenance.

SC: Beyond the impacts from Operation Cast Lead what the critical points stemming from the ongoing siege?

MG: Water supplies in Gaza are extremely scarce. Gaza has the lowest annual liter-per-capita usage in the world and 80 percent of the water available is below the minimum water quality standard as defined by the World Health Organization.

Gaza's sewage systems are broken and bombed. All the sewage-cleaning machines are missing parts. Much of Gaza's infrastructure has been targeted and is not being repaired due to the siege.

Tromsoe, Norway, my hometown, is a twin city with Gaza City, so the conditions of life in the municipality of Gaza, for the 550,000 inhabitants, are known quite well to me and others in Norway. Palestinians in Gaza have nothing. There aren't even cars and trucks to take care of the solid waste collection, so the mayor was forced to rent 300 to 400 donkey carts to organize garbage collection.

Gaza is a prison for 1.5 million Palestinians. Fifty percent are under 15 years old and the average age in Gaza is 17 years, so it is largely a child population being exposed not only to a siege but also repeated military attacks from drones, airplanes and Apache helicopters.

Every night the Palestinians in Gaza relive their worst nightmares when they hear drones; it never stops and you are never sure if it is a surveillance drone or if it will launch a rocket attack. Even the sound of Gaza is frightful, the sound of the Israeli drones in the sky.

However, let's not pity the Palestinians in Gaza; mercy and pity shouldn't be the dominating feelings after learning about Gaza. What the Palestinians, as people in a dire situation, need is respect and solidarity. Palestinians in Gaza need to get back on their own feet and the way that we can support them is to try to change the policy of our own governments, so that the US and Israel are forced to lift the siege.

It is a shameful situation for the world, that in 2010 we are witness to 1.5 million people being starved. There is solid scientific evidence that child mortality is not decreasing, stunting among children is increasing, malnutrition is increasing, all this from an Israeli-made hunger for the population in Gaza, with the full support of the US.

How can we accept this in 2010?

If we can't respect and stand up for the basic human rights or humanity of the Palestinians, what is the meaning of the humanistic foundations that western society claims to be standing on? What will the history books write about Gaza?

SC: Returning to Norway after your experiences in Gaza, the shops are open, people are on the streets, but Gaza is a totally different reality. How difficult is it for you to convey the realities in Gaza, given the extreme contrast between the situation in Norway or in North America and the situation in Gaza?

MG: An important question. In a simple way we have tried to become a voice for the voiceless, for the people in Gaza and in occupied Palestine because although the Palestinians do have a strong voice and narrative they are often not listened to and don't get access to the mainstream media.

Palestinians are silenced and we are trying to break that silence, as brave people in Israel are also doing. It is really important to underscore that we should fight against the demonization of the Israeli people in the way that Israeli leaders are demonizing the Palestinian people, because at the end of the day if we can't talk to our enemies we will end in disaster worldwide. Dialogue is central to finding a real solution.

Palestine really touches on our basic human values and is in many ways the mother of all wars today. My main obligation is not my solidarity work in Gaza but my work to convey the reality in Gaza to people outside.

There is a duty I have been given by those patients, those killed, those living with amputations, all those who shared their lives with me as a doctor, as a friend. It is my duty to convey their stories to as many people in Norway and anywhere else, so that more people in Norway and globally stand up and say that they refuse to accept the current situation in Gaza, regardless of political points of view but simply on a human level.

SC: As a medical doctor, what are your thoughts on the global movement in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom today?

MG: In a sense it comes down to a simple question of solidarity, which means that we have to support not pity. We have to be critical and not frightened by threats or accusations of being anti-Semitic because critiquing the Israeli government certainly is not anti-Semitic.

Now the Canadian government is pursuing an absurd line that attempts to claim that critiquing the Israeli government is anti-Semitic, which is totally outrageous. Should Israel be the only state on earth exempted from real political criticism?

The global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign is critically important and we have been pushing forward this campaign in Norway. The Norwegian State Pension Fund divested from Elbit Systems last September, a subsidiary of the company that provides the Israeli army with unmanned aerial vehicles [drones]. Also we are working towards institutional boycott within major universities in Norway and this is moving in a positive direction.

It is key to step outside of the consumerist box of everyday life in the north, to stop always wanting more than we already have -- a good way to do that is to travel, travel to the West Bank, to Gaza and see for yourself the situation.

We are all living as history is being written -- our actions write history. Pretending to be neutral equals complicity; that is the old wisdom of history.

Everyone has the duty to be educated on the reality in Palestine and other injustices around the world, to speak out on these critical issues. Let us not take for granted that our political leaders are speaking the truth because more often than not politicians aren't speaking the truth.

Every voice counts, we must refuse to be silent because silence is the biggest enemy of justice.

Stefan Christoff, a journalist and contributor to The Electronic Intifada, is also active with Tadamon! (http://www.tadamon.ca/) and is at http://www.twitter.com/spirodon

Journalist threatened with extradition, arrest by Mossad

Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 13 April 2010

An Israeli journalist who went into hiding after writing a series of reports showing lawbreaking approved by Israeli army commanders faces a lengthy jail term for espionage if caught, as Israeli security services warned at the weekend they would "remove the gloves" to track him down.

The Shin Bet, Israel's secret police, said it was treating Uri Blau, a reporter with the liberal Haaretz daily newspaper who has gone underground in London, as a "fugitive felon" and that a warrant for his arrest had been issued.

Options being considered are an extradition request to the British authorities or, if that fails, a secret operation by Mossad, Israel's spy agency, to smuggle him back, according to Maariv, a right-wing newspaper.

It was revealed yesterday that Blau's informant, Anat Kamm, 23, a former conscript soldier who copied hundreds of classified documents during her military service, had confessed shortly after her arrest in December to doing so to expose "war crimes."

The Shin Bet claims that Blau is holding hundreds of classified documents, including some reported to relate to Operation Cast Lead, Israel's attack on Gaza in winter 2008 in which the army is widely believed to have violated the rules of war.

Other documents, the basis of a Haaretz investigation published in 2008, concern a meeting between the head of the army, Gabi Ashkenazi, and the Shin Bet in which it was agreed to ignore a court ruling and continue carrying out executions of Palestinian leaders in the occupied territories.

Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet, who has said his organization was previously "too sensitive with the investigation," is now demanding that Blau reveal his entire document archive and take a lie-detector test on his return to identify his sources, according to Haaretz. The newspaper and its lawyers have recommended that he remain in hiding to protect his informants.

Haaretz has also revealed that, in a highly unusual move shortly before Israel's attack on Gaza, it agreed to pull a printed edition after the army demanded at the last minute that one of Blau's stories not be published. His report had already passed the military censor, which checks that articles do not endanger national security.

Lawyers and human rights groups fear that the army and Shin Bet are trying to silence investigative journalists and send a warning to other correspondents not to follow in Blau's path.

"We have a dangerous precedent here, whereby the handing over of material to an Israeli newspaper ... is seen by the prosecutor's office as equivalent to contact with a foreign agent," said Eitan Lehman, Kamm's lawyer. "The very notion of presenting information to the Israeli public alone is taken as an intention to hurt national security."

The Shin Bet's determination to arrest Blau was revealed after a blanket gag order was lifted late last week on Kamm's case. She has been under house arrest since December. She has admitted copying hundreds of classified documents while serving in the office of Brig Gen Yair Naveh, in charge of operations in the West Bank, between 2005 and 2007.

Under an agreement with the Shin Bet last year, Haaretz and Blau handed over 50 documents and agreed to the destruction of Blau's computer.

Both sides accuse the other of subsequently reneging on the deal: the Shin Bet says Blau secretly kept other documents copied by Kamm that could be useful to Israel's enemies; while Blau says the Shin Bet used the returned documents to track down Kamm, his source, after assurances that they would not do so.

Haaretz said Blau fears that they will try to identify his other informants if he hands over his archive.

Blau learned of his predicament in December, while out of the country on holiday. He said a friend called to warn that the Shin Bet had broken into his home and ransacked it. He later learned they had been monitoring his telephone, email and computer for many months.

In a move that has baffled many observers, the Shin Bet revealed last week that Blau was hiding in London, despite the threat that it would make him an easier target for other countries' intelligence agencies.

Amir Mizroch, an analyst with the right-wing Jerusalem Post newspaper, noted that it was as if Israel's security services were "saying to Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Hizballah and Iranian intelligence agents in London: 'Yalla, be our guests, go get Uri Blau.'" He added that the real goal might be to flush out Blau so that he would seek sanctuary at the Israeli embassy.

Kamm is charged with espionage with intent to harm national security, the harshest indictment possible and one that could land in her jail for 25 years. Yesterday another of her lawyers, Avigdor Feldman, appealed to Blau to return to Israel and give back the documents to help "minimize the affair."

"The real question is whether this exceptionally heavy-handed approach is designed only to get back Kamm's documents or go after Blau and his other sources," said Jeff Halper, an Israeli analyst. "It may be that Kamm is the excuse the security services need to identify Blau's circle of informants."

Blau has already published several stories, apparently based on Kamm's documents, showing that the army command approved policies that not only broke international law but also violated the rulings of Israel's courts.

His reports have included revelations that senior commanders approved extrajudicial assassinations in the occupied territories that were almost certain to kill Palestinian bystanders; that, in violation of a commitment to the high court, the army issued orders to execute wanted Palestinians even if they could be safely captured; and that the defense ministry compiled a secret report showing that the great majority of settlements in the West Bank were illegal even under Israeli law.

Although the original stories date to 2008, the army issued a statement belatedly this week that Blau's reports were "outrageous and misleading." No senior commanders have been charged over the army's lawbreaking activities.

B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said its research had shown that "in many cases soldiers have been conducting themselves in the territories as if they were on a hit mission, as opposed to arrest operations."

It added that the authorities had "rushed to investigate the leak and chose to ignore the severe suspicions of blatant wrongdoings depicted in those documents."

A group of senior journalists established a petition this week calling for Blau to be spared a trial: "So far, the authorities have not prosecuted journalists for holding secret information, which most of us have had in one form or another. This policy by the prosecution reflects, in our view, an imbalance between journalistic freedom, the freedom of expression and the need for security."

However, media coverage of the case in Israel has been largely hostile. Yuval Elbashan, a lawyer, wrote in Haaretz yesterday that Blau's fellow military reporters and analysts had in the past few days abandoned their colleague and proven "their loyalty to the [security] system as the lowliest of its servants."

One, Yossi Yehoshua, a military correspondent with the country's largest-circulation newspaper, Yedioth Aharonoth, who is said to have been approached by Kamm before she turned to Blau, is due to testify against her in her trial due next month.

Chat forums and talkback columns also suggest little sympathy among the Israeli public for either Kamm or Blau. Several Hebrew websites show pictures of Kamm behind bars or next to a hangman's noose.

A report on Israel National News, a news service for settlers, alleged that Kamm had been under the influence of "rabidly left-wing" professors at Tel Aviv University when she handed over the documents to the Haaretz reporter.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

Talking Palestine to power

Sonja Karkar, The Electronic Intifada, 12 April 2010


Israel claims exceptionalism no matter how extreme its crimes. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)


Today, there is no excuse for not knowing the truth about Palestine, especially what is happening in Gaza. Even taking into account the disinformation spread in mainstream media, there are enough glimpses one gets of a ravaged Gaza and a brutalized people that should compel us to ask questions. There are enough websites and blogs easily available for anyone to learn more, even if it requires sifting through and evaluating the available information. Certainly, the alarm bells should be ringing when our political leaders declare undying fealty to Israel or cavalierly wear it as a badge of honor, despite the documented reports of Israel's war crimes by human rights groups and official enquiries.

But the world lacks courage from government leaders, acquiescent mainstream media, nongovernmental organizations dependent on government support, academics looking for tenure and populations too long fed on a diet of Zionist myths. People are terrified of being labelled anti-Semitic, a mendacious charge against anyone criticizing Israel. Palestinians too, afraid of being further shunned and disadvantaged in countries that give them refuge, so often remain silent. Not only do people fear repercussions, but speaking the truth or even just hearing it has a way of taking people out of their comfort zones. They fear their troubled consciences may require them to act and so they bury their heads deeper into the sand where they hope even the sounds of silence might be extinguished.

This then is the challenge for advocates the world over. How does one talk Palestine to power if one cannot even talk Palestine to the people who are in fear of the powerful?

In the face of media saturation with Zionist viewpoints and the new "Brand Israel" campaigns, many wanting to advocate for Palestine might feel defeated, but time and again we see that the power of one can be enormously effective.

The great scholar and public intellectual Edward Said showed more than anyone else that individuals can make a difference in the public defense of Palestine. He particularly saw the intellectual's voice as having "resonance."

But one does not need to be an intellectual. Said's words can just as aptly apply to any one of us. He said avoidance was "reprehensible" and in his 1994 book Representations of the Intellectual, described it as "that characteristic turning away from a difficult and principled position which you know to be the right one, but which you decide not to take. You do not want to appear too political; you are afraid of seeming too controversial; you need the approval of a boss or an authority figure; you want to keep a reputation for being balanced, objective, moderate; your hope is ... to remain within the responsible mainstream ... ."

In 1993 when almost everyone else thought the handshakes at the White House steps would seal the negotiated Oslo accords and at long last give the Palestinians their freedom and bring peace to the region, Edward Said saw that these accords would merely provide the cover for Israel to pursue its colonial expansionism and consolidate its occupation of Palestine. However, he knew to criticize Oslo meant in effect taking a position against "hope" and "peace." His decision to do so flew in the face of the Palestinian revolutionary leadership that had bartered for statehood.

Although Said was denounced for his views, he was not prepared to buy into the deception that he knew would leave the Palestinians with neither hope nor peace. And just as he predicted, each fruitless year of peacemaking finally exposed the horrible reality of Oslo as Palestinians found themselves the victims of Israel's matrix of control, a term first used to describe the situation by Israeli professor Jeff Halper in 1999. And this domination of one people over another without any intention of addressing the injustices against the Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their homeland, has undeniably reduced Israel to an apartheid state.

The Palestinians have nothing left worth calling a state and they are facing an existential threat on all fronts. Yet, some intellectuals are still talking about a two-state solution in lock step with politicians, a mantra that is repeated uncritically, even mendaciously, in the mainstream media.

This pandering to an idea for decades has been undermined by the furious sounds of drills and hammers reverberating in illegal settlements throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the catastrophic societal ruptures engineered in Gaza. Now those sounds are muffled by the rhetoric of "economic peace," "institution-building," "democracy," "internal security" and "statehood." They are words that must be challenged at every opportunity, for they are not mere words, but dangerous concepts when isolated from truth on the ground.

It is no use talking about "economic peace" when industrial estates built for Palestinian workers are intended to provide Israel with slave labor and cheap goods. It is useless to support "institution-building" when Israel continues to undermine and obstruct those programs already struggling to service Palestinian society. It is a lie to speak of "democracy" when fair elections in 2006 had Israel and the "international community" denying Hamas the right to govern. It is a charade to accept "internal security" when arming and training Palestinians to police their own people covers for Israel's and America's divide-and-conquer scheme. It is hollow to speak of "statehood" when Israel keeps stealing land and building illegal settlements that deprive the Palestinians of their homes and livelihoods while herding them into isolated and walled-in ghettoes.

Edward Said was proven right. Now, it is our turn to speak the truth and act fearlessly, regardless of the censure we are likely to encounter. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is believed to have said that truth passes through three stages: "first, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Today, we are at the third stage: the 11 million Palestinians living under occupation, apartheid and as stateless refugees are the living truth. That is Israel's Achilles' heel.

The Palestinians are no longer the humble shepherds and farmers that Zionist forces terrorized into fleeing to make way for the Jewish State of Israel. A new generation wants justice and it is demanding it eloquently, nonviolently and strategically. Their message: no normal relations with Israel while it oppresses Palestinians, denies their rights and violates international law. And boycott, divestment and sanctions have to be legitimate tools for challenging a state that claims exceptionalism no matter how extreme and criminal its actions.

The temptation of course is always to opt for the path of least resistance. Therefore, we must appeal to the individual, not even to sacrifice for others, but to recognize that no matter where we live in this global village, we are all vulnerable if we do not stand up for universal human rights and uphold the principles and application of international law.

Despite his own Zionist affiliations and loyalty to Israel, Justice Richard Goldstone saw the danger of tailoring his UN-backed report on war crimes in Gaza to exonerate Israel. He had the decency and courage to put the rule of law and humanity ahead of the savage condemnation he knew would come from talking truth to power.

The same can be said of Richard Falk, the Jewish professor emeritus from Princeton University and UN special rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories, who was denied entry into Israel because he described Israel's siege on Gaza as a "Holocaust in the making" ("Israel deports American academic," Guardian, 15 December 2008). Israel's treatment was insulting enough, but now shamefully, the Palestinian Authority has asked the Human Rights Council to "postpone" his report on Gaza and, as Nadia Hijab reported, is asking him to resign ("PA's betrayal of human rights defenders the unkindest cut," Nadia Hijab, 14 March 2010).

These are honorable men, but we too can stand on principle in smaller ways, whether that is refusing to buy Israeli goods at our local store, boycotting an Israeli-government sponsored event or exposing and protesting the collusion between governments and corporations with Israel. That is what it means to become part of a worldwide civil movement that will do what our leaders will not: pressure Israel to dismantle the matrix of control on Palestine and make reparations for the decades of injustices it has perpetrated against its people.

It is indeed possible for all of us to "squeeze out of reality some of its potentialities," the reality that University of Melbourne Professor Ghassan Hage has said is found in those utopic moments that come from challenging our own thoughts, fears and biases. In that space lies the untapped power we seek, to speak the truth without fear or favor. In that space lies the potential for political change. In that space, there will always be hope for Palestine.

A version of this essay was originally published on the website of Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East (UK)

Sonja Karkar is the founder and president of Women for Palestine and one of the founders and co-convener of Australians for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia. She is also the editor of www.australiansforpalestine.com and contributes articles on Palestine regularly to various publications. She can be contacted at sonjakarkar A T womenforpalestine D O T org.

US military aid to Israel violates domestic, international law

Nahida H Gordon, The Electronic Intifada, 7 April 2010



Should the US government, based on international and domestic law, cut military aid and cease the transfer of weapons to Israel? (Luay Sababa/MaanImages)




The Middle East Study Committee of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has published "Breaking Down the Walls", a report to be submitted to the church's 219th General Assembly this July.

Some of the report's 39 recommendations have drawn harsh criticism. The Simon Wiesenthal Center declared in a 22 February action alert that "adoption of this poisonous document by the Presbyterian Church will be nothing short of a declaration of war on Israel and her supporters" ("Presbyterian Church USA Ready to Declare War Against Israel: Take Action Now").

Such attacks make exaggerated claims and misrepresent the recommendations. The Committee's intent is not to make war but rather peace.

One factually misleading claim is the Simon Wiesenthal Center's assertion that "the report calls for the US to withhold financial and military aid to Israel." In fact, the report "calls on the US government to exercise strategically its international influence, including the possible withholding of military aid as a means of bringing Israel to compliance with international law and peacemaking efforts" (p.53).

As one can easily see, the Committee's recommendation is nuanced and calls on withholding military aid as a last resort.

Within this context it is appropriate to consider whether the US government, based on international and domestic law, should cut military aid and cease the transfer of weapons to Israel.

According to the International Law Commission (ILC), the official UN body that codifies customary international law, "A State which aids or assists another State in the commission of an internationally wrongful act by the latter is internationally responsible for doing so if: (a) that State does so with knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act; and (b) the act would be internationally wrongful if committed by that State" (Article 16 of the International Law Commission, "Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts," (2001) which were commended by the General Assembly, A/RES/56/83).

In other words, if you knowingly help someone commit a crime, you are also liable for that crime. The ILC states that international law also "prohibits conduct that involves patterns of blatant abuse and complicity in such a pattern of blatant abuse."

According to Amnesty International, since 2001, the US has been by far the major supplier of conventional arms to Israel. Also since 2001, Israel launched military invasions of Lebanon and Gaza, causing extensive loss of civilian human life and destruction of property, including homes ("Fueling conflict: foreign arms supplies to Israel/Gaza," Amnesty International, February 2009, p.21).

Section 502B of the US Foreign Assistance Act stipulates that "no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights" and section 4 of the Arms Export Control Act authorizes the supply of US military equipment and training only for lawful purposes of internal security, "legitimate self-defense," or participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations or other operations consistent with the UN Charter.

Since the US government gives no military assistance to any of the Palestinian resistance groups, the question with regard to US military aid and transfer of weapons applies only to Israel.

And with regard to Israel, the UN-commissioned Goldstone report found that the Israeli forces in Gaza committed grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention which included willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, extensive destruction of property and use of human shields. Other findings were that the Israeli forces committed a series of acts that deprive Palestinians of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, that limit their rights to access a court of law and an effective remedy and that these findings could lead a competent court to find that the crime against humanity were committed.

A particularly abhorrent use by Israel of weapons provided to it by the US government is the use of white phosphorous which when it comes into contact with skin burns deeply through muscle and bone, continuing to burn until deprived of oxygen. It can contaminate other parts of the victim's body or even those treating the injuries, as documented by Amnesty International. Moreover its use in civilian areas is prohibited under international law.

Based on international and domestic US laws, and the Goldstone report's finding that Israel committed grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the US government, in providing military aid and the transfer of arms to Israel, has violated its responsibility not to participate in the internationally wrongful acts of another state.

With these observations in mind, I personally believe that the recommendation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Middle East Study Committee to withhold military aid to Israel as a last resort -- in attempting to enforce international law vis-a-vis the occupation of Palestinian territories and the human rights violations against the Palestinians -- is a mild statement, indeed. Particularly so in light of Amnesty International's "calling on the UN, notably the Security Council, to impose an immediate, comprehensive arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, and on all states to take action individually to impose national embargoes on any arms or weapons transfers to the parties to the conflict until there is no longer a substantial risk that such arms or weapons could be used to commit serious violations of international law."

As the Middle East Study Committee states, "We deeply value our relationships with Jews and Muslims in the United States, Israel and the predominantly Muslim countries of the Middle East. Yet the bonds of friendship must neither prevent us from speaking nor limit our empathy for the suffering of others. Inaction and silence on our part enable actions we oppose and consequences we grieve."

N H Gordon is a professor of statistics and member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Middle East Study Committee. Professor Gordon, a life-long Presbyterian and currently a church Elder, is a Palestinian-American who experienced, first hand, the 1948 Palestinian Nakba as a child.