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Posts Tagged ‘Palestinian territories’

Militant group issues threat over Bruno film

July 27th, 2009 | No Comments

A Palestinian militant organisation that was ridiculed in the new Sacha Baron Cohen film has threatened to “respond in the way we find suitable” against the London-born satirist.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, has condemned the film, Bruno, in which Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashionista, as “part of a conspiracy” against them. There was no comment from Cohen.

In the film, Cohen attempts to get himself kidnapped and arranges a meeting with Ayman Abu Aita, who, it is claimed, is a leader in the Martyrs Brigade, which is designated as a terrorist group in the US and European Union. While promoting the film, Cohen spoke of the clandestine meetings at shadowy locations and bodyguards required to set up the scene.

Cohen tells Abu Aita: “I want to be famous, and I want the best guys in the business to kidnap me,” before adding: “Al-Qaida are so 2001″. He then advises Abu Aita to shave off his moustache, “because your King Osama looks like a kind of dirty wizard or homeless Santa”.

According to Abu Aita and the Martyrs Brigade, Abu Aita is not a member of the organisation, although he reportedly has had links in the past. He is a political representative for the Fatah party in Bethlehem and a board member of the Holy Land Trust, a non-governmental organisation promoting Palestinian rights with a commitment to non violence. He said it took a couple of phone calls for Cohen to locate him, and that the meeting was held in a private section of a popular restaurant.

While Abu Aita is pursuing legal action, the Martyrs Brigade issued a statement, through Jerusalem-based journalist Aaron Klein, of the WorldNetDaily website, saying: “We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man. The movie was part of a conspiracy against the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

“According to what we checked, there was no meeting about the real context of the film. This was a dirty use of our brother Ayman.” The statement added Abu Aita was not a member of the Brigades. “And we don’t accept that the name of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is part of the film”.

Abu Aita has said he does not carry weapons, and the person who accompanied him to meetings with Cohen was not a bodyguard but the American manager of the Holy Land Trust.

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US presses Israel on settlements

July 27th, 2009 | No Comments

Middle East envoy George Mitchell reportedly discussing deal to allow completion of homes currently under construction

Barack Obama has dispatched a clutch of senior American officials to Jerusalem to press his demand for an end to Jewish settlement construction and move along a diplomatic process aimed at imposing a blueprint for peace if negotiations fail.

Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is reportedly discussing a deal with the Israeli leadership that would allow the completion of several thousand homes for Jewish settlers already under construction but impose a total halt to building once they are complete. Such an agreement would amount to a concession by Obama, who laid down an immediate and complete freeze on construction as a marker of a more interventionist policy at a testy meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in Washington in May.

But American sources close to the negotiations say that getting Netanyahu to agree that no new construction can begin is an important step toward forcing a new diplomatic process that is no longer hostage to Israeli intransigence.

The diplomatic moves came as the Israeli military announced that the number of Jewish settlers on the West Bank has risen above 300,000 for the first time with about 200,000 more in East Jerusalem. About 2.5 million Palestinians live in the same territory.

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, is also in Israel as part of the drive to secure a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement.

The aim is to win a regional consensus on Iran’s nuclear programme but also reassure the Israelis that Washington has not gone soft on the issue in an effort to dampen Israeli threats of military action. Gates said he did not believe that Barack Obama’s timetable would “increase the risks to anybody” — a reference to Israeli concerns that its nuclear monopoly may soon be challenged by the Islamic republic.

Israel has hinted at a pre-emptive attack on Iran should it deem diplomacy to be at a dead end. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said today that he reaffirmed to Gates “the need to use all means to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear military capability”.

While the Obama administration continues to say that negotiation is the way forward, Gates today said that the promise of talks with Iran “is not an open-ended offer”.

Two other US officials are also visiting Jerusalem as part of the diplomatic push – Obama’s national security adviser, James Jones, who in an Israeli diplomatic memo was reported to have told European officials that the administration will take a hard line with the Israelis, and Dennis Ross, Bill Clinton’s special envoy to the peace process who was brought back to focus on Iran.

The immediate effort is around a settlement freeze.

Tel Aviv newspapers report that Israeli officials say that talks are moving toward a deal in which the Americans will permit the completion of 700 buildings with nearly 2,500 new homes in them that are already well under construction, mostly in two settlements close to the green line which are likely to fall inside the Jewish state’s border under a final agreement.

But as part of the agreement, the US intends to rigorously monitor the building work to ensure that the Israelis do not push it beyond the agreed limits.

The Americans are acutely aware that in the past Israel has agreed to contain settlement expansion and then promptly broken its word. This time the US is insisting on detailed plans of what would amount to a final bout of construction before a total halt to building comes in to force.

Mitchell is also pressuring Arab countries for gestures in response to an Israeli settlement freeze such as trade delegations or overflight rights.

Mitchell said at a press conference that the disagreement over settlement construction is a “discussion among friends” but it is also a test of Obama’s authority.

One former official who monitors the negotiations closely said that the US is prepared to give ground because it sees a settlement freeze as an important step toward reviving Israeli-Palestinian talks.

There is no great expectation in Washington that talks will go anywhere but that they should have been tried and failed once again will help smooth the diplomatic path for the administration’s plan to force its own proposals on to the table later this year which could force Israel to make significant territorial concessions.

The Palestinians have been insistent that there can be no talks without a settlement freeze.

That still leaves the question of Jerusalem as a major obstacle.

Netanyahu very forthrightly spurned US demands to block a new settlement project in the occupied east of the city where an American millionaire plans to bulldoze an old hotel and build Jewish-only housing.

The prime minister said that Israel will not be dictated to on where its citizens can live in what it says is its eternal and indivisible capital. Netanyahu later said that all of Jerusalem will remain under Israeli jurisdiction even after a peace settlement.

Some American officials think Netanyahu may be overplaying his hand because if he puts himself in a position where he is unable to give ground on Jerusalem, that will require others to lay down Israel’s final borders.

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US moves to reassure Israel over Iran

July 27th, 2009 | No Comments

Defence secretary among four senior officials in the Middle East advocating a diplomatic solution to festering crisis with Tehran

The United States today sought to reassure Israel that it was worth attempting to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions — but made clear that Washington expected Tehran to reply to its diplomatic overtures by September.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, is one of four senior Obama administration officials visiting Israel this week, underlining the president’s determination to secure a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement.

Gates said he did not believe that Barack Obama’s timetable would “increase the risks to anybody” — a reference to Israeli concerns that its nuclear monopoly may soon be challenged by the Islamic republic.

Israel has hinted at a pre-emptive attack on Iran should it deem diplomacy to be at a dead end. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said today that he reaffirmed to Gates “the need to use all means to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear military capability”.

George Mitchell, the president’s special envoy, flew to Cairo today and was due back later for more meetings in Israel. On Saturday he was in Damascus meeting President Bashar al-Assad, who is being wooed by Obama after being shunned by the Bush administration.

The US envoy said restarting talks between Israel and Syria was a “near-term goal” for Washington. “I told President Assad that President Obama is determined to facilitate a truly comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace,” he told reporters.

Indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel, mediated by Turkey and centred on the occupied Golan Heights, were suspended during Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip in December. Turkey said this month it was ready to resume mediation efforts.

But there has been no public sign from Syria that Assad has agreed to influence Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls Gaza, and the bitter opponent of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Hamas, listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and Britain, is based in Damascus.

The US is sending an ambassador back to Syria after withdrawing the previous incumbent in 2005 in protest at the Beirut assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, which was widely blamed on Damascus, despite repeated denials.

Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, said in London on Friday that Damascus – Tehran’s only Arab ally – could help find a way out of the impasse over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, complicated by domestic turmoil since last month’s disputed presidential elections.

As well as Iran, Gates’s talks in Israel centre on missile defence and bilateral security issues. General Jim Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, and Dennis Ross, a senior Middle East and Iran expert, are also due in Israel.

The flurry of high-level activity follows Obama’s long-heralded speech to the Arab and Muslim worlds in Cairo in June, when the president made clear his strategic commitment to working to achieve Middle East peace. These latest moves are intended to achieve concrete results.

Mitchell and the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, have been trying to agree a delicate compromise on freezing Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank – a hot potato in Israeli domestic politics but vital if Arab countries are to take any steps, at the urging of the US, to “normalise” their relations with Israel.

Netanyahu has pledged not to build new outposts or expropriate territory in the West Bank. But he insists construction must continue to accommodate “natural” Jewish population growth. The precise definition of a moratorium has yet to be agreed, though Israeli officials speak of exempting 2,500 housing units that are still being built. Palestinians and Arabs say a total freeze is the minimum required and accuse Netanyahu of bad faith. Mitchell is also due to see Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, at his Ramallah headquarters.

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Obama envoy in Syria for peace talks

July 26th, 2009 | No Comments

US special envoy George Mitchell tells Syrian president that US wants ‘truly comprehensive’ Arab-Israeli deal

The White House will step up efforts to revive the near-moribund Middle East peace process this week, with senior Obama administration officials deployed to seek progress between Israel, Syria and the Palestinians.

George Mitchell, the president’s special envoy, flew to Tel Aviv today after “candid and positive” talks in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad, who is being wooed by Obama after being shunned by the Bush administration. Mitchell went straight into a meeting with Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister.

The US envoy said restarting talks between Israel and Syria was a “near-term goal” for Washington. “I told President Assad that President Obama is determined to facilitate a truly comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace,” he told reporters.

Indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel, mediated by Turkey and centred on the occupied Golan Heights, were suspended during Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip in December. Turkey said earlier this month it was ready to resume mediation efforts.

But there has been no public sign from Syria that Assad has agreed to influence Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls Gaza, and the bitter opponent of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Hamas, listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and Britain, is based in Damascus.

The US is sending an ambassador back to Syria after withdrawing the previous incumbent in 2005 in protest at the Beirut assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, which was widely blamed on Damascus, despite repeated denials.

Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, said in London on Friday that Damascus – Tehran’s only Arab ally – could help find a way out of the impasse over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, complicated by domestic turmoil since last month’s disputed presidential elections.

Underlining intensifying US diplomacy in the region, the defence secretary, Robert Gates, is also due in Israel tomorrow for talks with Barak and Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, on missile defence, Iran and bilateral security issues.

General Jim Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, and Dennis Ross, a senior Middle East and Iran expert, are also due to in Israel.

The flurry of high-level activity follows Obama’s long-heralded speech to the Arab and Muslim worlds in Cairo in June, when the president made clear his strategic commitment to working to achieve Middle East peace. These latest moves are intended to achieve concrete results.

Mitchell and Barak have been trying to agree a delicate compromise on freezing Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank – a hot potato in Israeli domestic politics but vital if Arab countries are to take any steps, at the urging of the US, to “normalise” relations with Israel.

Netanyahu has pledged not to build new outposts or expropriate territory in the West Bank. But he insists construction must continue to accommodate “natural” Jewish population growth. The precise definition of a moratorium has yet to be agreed, though Israeli officials speak of exempting 2,500 housing units that are still being built. Palestinians and Arabs say a total freeze is the minimum required and accuse Netanyahu of bad faith.

Mitchell is also due to see Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, at his Ramallah headquarters.

In London, meanwhile, the all-party Commons foreign affairs committee urged the British government to talk to moderates within Hamas. Russia is the only member of the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers – which also comprises the US, UN and EU – which talks to Hamas. “We conclude that there continue to be few signs that the current policy of non-engagement is achieving the Quartet’s stated objectives,” the committee said. “The credible peace process for which the Quartet hopes, as part of its strategy for undercutting Hamas, is likely to be difficult to achieve without greater co-operation from Hamas itself.”

Israel remains implacably opposed to any dealings with Hamas, but pressure has been growing elsewhere for change. In March, Britain changed tack by announcing that it would end its boycott of the political wing of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah – which is represented in the Lebanese parliament – but it remains opposed to talking to the Palestinian group.

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Obama envoy in Syria for peace talks

July 26th, 2009 | No Comments

US special envoy George Mitchell tells Syrian president that US wants ‘truly comprehensive’ Arab-Israeli deal

The White House will step up efforts to revive the near-moribund Middle East peace process this week, with senior Obama administration officials deployed to seek progress between Israel, Syria and the Palestinians.

George Mitchell, the president’s special envoy, flew to Tel Aviv today after “candid and positive” talks in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad, who is being wooed by Obama after being shunned by the Bush administration. Mitchell went straight into a meeting with Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister.

The US envoy said restarting talks between Israel and Syria was a “near-term goal” for Washington. “I told President Assad that President Obama is determined to facilitate a truly comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace,” he told reporters.

Indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel, mediated by Turkey and centred on the occupied Golan Heights, were suspended during Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip in December. Turkey said earlier this month it was ready to resume mediation efforts.

But there has been no public sign from Syria that Assad has agreed to influence Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls Gaza, and the bitter opponent of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Hamas, listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and Britain, is based in Damascus.

The US is sending an ambassador back to Syria after withdrawing the previous incumbent in 2005 in protest at the Beirut assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, which was widely blamed on Damascus, despite repeated denials.

Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, said in London on Friday that Damascus – Tehran’s only Arab ally – could help find a way out of the impasse over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, complicated by domestic turmoil since last month’s disputed presidential elections.

Underlining intensifying US diplomacy in the region, the defence secretary, Robert Gates, is also due in Israel tomorrow for talks with Barak and Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, on missile defence, Iran and bilateral security issues.

General Jim Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, and Dennis Ross, a senior Middle East and Iran expert, are also due to in Israel.

The flurry of high-level activity follows Obama’s long-heralded speech to the Arab and Muslim worlds in Cairo in June, when the president made clear his strategic commitment to working to achieve Middle East peace. These latest moves are intended to achieve concrete results.

Mitchell and Barak have been trying to agree a delicate compromise on freezing Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank – a hot potato in Israeli domestic politics but vital if Arab countries are to take any steps, at the urging of the US, to “normalise” relations with Israel.

Netanyahu has pledged not to build new outposts or expropriate territory in the West Bank. But he insists construction must continue to accommodate “natural” Jewish population growth. The precise definition of a moratorium has yet to be agreed, though Israeli officials speak of exempting 2,500 housing units that are still being built. Palestinians and Arabs say a total freeze is the minimum required and accuse Netanyahu of bad faith.

Mitchell is also due to see Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, at his Ramallah headquarters.

In London, meanwhile, the all-party Commons foreign affairs committee urged the British government to talk to moderates within Hamas. Russia is the only member of the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers – which also comprises the US, UN and EU – which talks to Hamas. “We conclude that there continue to be few signs that the current policy of non-engagement is achieving the Quartet’s stated objectives,” the committee said. “The credible peace process for which the Quartet hopes, as part of its strategy for undercutting Hamas, is likely to be difficult to achieve without greater co-operation from Hamas itself.”

Israel remains implacably opposed to any dealings with Hamas, but pressure has been growing elsewhere for change. In March, Britain changed tack by announcing that it would end its boycott of the political wing of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah – which is represented in the Lebanese parliament – but it remains opposed to talking to the Palestinian group.

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MPs call for talks with Hamas

July 26th, 2009 | No Comments

Commons foreign affairs committee says policy of non-engagement is achieving little

The government is facing fresh calls today from MPs to open contacts with the militant Palestinian Hamas movement in an attempt to inject new momentum into the Middle East peace process.

The Commons foreign affairs committee said the current policy of non-engagement with Hamas – which controls the Gaza strip – appeared to be achieving little.

It reiterated its call of two years ago for the government to “urgently” consider ways of engaging politically with “moderate elements” within the group.

The government refuses to talk to Hamas until it accepts the principles of the international Quartet – the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia – of non-violence and acceptance of the existence of the state of Israel.

“There continues to be few signs that the current policy of non-engagement is achieving the Quartet’s stated objectives,” the committee said.

“We further conclude that the credible peace process for which the Quartet hopes, as part of its strategy for undercutting Hamas, is likely to be difficult to achieve without greater co-operation from Hamas itself. We are concerned that the Quartet is continuing to fail to provide Hamas with greater incentives to change its position.”

The committee contrasted the government’s continued unwillingness to talk to Hamas with its decision to open contacts with the political wing of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It criticised both Hamas and Israel over the Gaza conflict at the end of last year, accusing Hamas of targeting civilians in its rocket attacks on Israel while describing the Israeli military action as “disproportionate”.

The committee also condemned Israel’s continuing refusal to allow unrestricted humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.

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Israel to demolish 23 illegal settlements

July 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Israel is planning to remove 23 “illegal outposts” from the West Bank in the course of a single day in response to mounting US demands that it halt all settlement activity, it was reported today.

These outposts are defined as illegal by the Israeli government because they have not received planning permission. But under international law all settlements built on occupied territory are illegal. According to the Ha’aretz newspaper the outposts, housing 1,200 people, will all be evacuated and dismantled simultaneously following a decision by the Likud prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli army denied receiving any orders for a “lightning evacuation”. Settler spokesmen warned of a furious response if any such move took place.

Israel has only twice evacuated Jewish settlements since the 1967 war: in 1981 when the Sinai desert was returned to Egypt, and in 2005, when Israel unilaterally withdrew troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip. Removing settlers from the West Bank will be far more controversial.

Israel has told the US it would remove “illegal” outposts built after March 2001. The current activity is in response to unprecedented pressure from Washington, where President Barack Obama has departed sharply from the informal acquiescence of the Bush administration.

Dan Meridor, a deputy prime minister with a reputation for moderation, insisted that tacit “understandings” with Bush still bound the Obama administration.

Netanyahu has insisted that construction must be permitted in existing settlements to accommodate what he calls “natural growth” in their populations. In all, nearly 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both claimed by the Palestinians as part of their future independent state.

Tensions have flared in recent days since Netanyahu said the US had no right to demand that Israel halt plans to develop 20 apartments in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. On Monday, campaigners protesting at the planned eviction of Palestinian families to make way for it appealed to Obama to stop the settlement.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said today: “What is required from Israel is to freeze all settlement activity. When Israel meets these demands, we will be ready to go to the final negotiations.”

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile summoned the Israeli ambassador to Paris to complain about Jewish settlements. “These activities must be stopped,” warned Kouchner, “otherwise there will be no chance to found an independent Palestinian state that administers itself and also guarantees Israel’s security.”

Britain’s foreign office minister, Ivan Lewis, told MPs: “Israel should freeze all settlement activity, including the natural growth of existing settlements, and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.”

Sweden, current president of the EU, also urged Israel “to refrain from provocative actions in East Jerusalem, including home demolitions and evictions.” It added: “Such actions are illegal under international law.”

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Israel to demolish 23 illegal settlements

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments

Israel is planning to remove 23 “illegal outposts” from the West Bank in the course of a single day in response to mounting US demands that it halt all settlement activity, it was reported today.

These outposts are defined as “illegal” by the Israeli government because they have not received planning permission. But under international law all settlements built on occupied territory are illegal. According to the Ha’aretz newspaper the outposts, housing 1,200 people, will all be evacuated and dismantled simultaneously following a decision by the Likud prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli army later denied receiving any orders for a “lightning evacuation.” Settler spokesmen warned of a furious response if any such move took place.

Israel has only twice evacuated Jewish settlements since the 1967 war: in 1981 when the Sinai desert was returned to Egypt, and in 2005, when Israel unilaterally withdrew troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip. Removing settlers from the West Bank will be far more controversial.

Israel has told the US it would remove “illegal” outposts built after March 2001. The current activity is in response to unprecedented pressure from Washington, where President Obama has departed sharply from the informal acquiescence of the Bush administration.

Dan Meridor, a deputy prime minister with a reputation for moderation, insisted that tacit “understandings” with Bush still bound the Obama administration.

Netanyahu has insisted that construction must be permitted in existing settlements to accommodate what he calls “natural growth” in their populations. In all, nearly 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both claimed by the Palestinians as part of their future independent state.

Tensions have flared in recent days since Netanyahu said the US had no right to demand that Israel halt plans to develop 20 apartments in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. On Monday, campaigners protesting at the planned eviction of Palestinian families to make way for it appealed to Obama to stop the settlement.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said today: “What is required from Israel is to freeze all settlement activity. When Israel meets these demands, we will be ready to go to the final negotiations.”

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile summoned the Israeli ambassador to Paris to complain about Jewish settlements. “These activities must be stopped,” warned Kouchner, “otherwise there will be no chance to found an independent Palestinian state that administers itself and also guarantees Israel’s security.”

Britain’s foreign office minister, Ivan Lewis, told MPs: “Israel should freeze all settlement activity, including the natural growth of existing settlements, and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.”

Sweden, current president of the EU, also urged Israel “to refrain from provocative actions in East Jerusalem, including home demolitions and evictions.” It added: “Such actions are illegal under international law.”

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‘Open fire and don’t ask questions’

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Anonymous testimonies collated by human rights group also contain allegations that Palestinians were used as human shields

Israeli soldiers who served in the Gaza Strip during the offensive of December and January have spoken out about being ordered to shoot without hesitation, destroying houses and mosques with a general disregard for Palestinian lives.

In testimony that will fuel international and Arab demands for war crime investigations, 30 combat soldiers report that the army’s priority was to minimise its own casualties to maintain Israeli public support for the three-week Operation Cast Lead.

One specific allegation is that Palestinians were used by the army as “human shields” despite a 2005 Israeli high court ruling outlawing the practice. “Not much was said about the issue of innocent civilians,” a soldier said. “There was no need to use weapons like mortars or phosphorous,” said another. “I have the feeling that the army was looking for the opportunity to show off its strength.”

The 54 anonymous testimonies were collated by Breaking the Silence, a group that collects information on human rights abuses by the Israeli military. Many of the soldiers are still doing their compulsory national service.

Palestinians counted 1,400 dead but Israel put the death toll at 1,166 and estimated 295 fatalities were civilians. Ten soldiers and three Israeli civilians were killed.

Israel launched the attack after the expiry of a ceasefire designed to halt rocket fire from Gaza and crush the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the coastal strip.

Witnesses described the destruction of hundreds of houses and many mosques without military reason, the firing of phosphorous shells into inhabited areas, the killing of innocents and the indiscriminate destruction of property.

Soldiers describe a “neighbour procedure” in which Palestinian civilians were forced to enter suspect buildings ahead of troops. They cite cases of civilians advancing in front of a soldier resting his rifle on the civilian’s shoulder.

“We did not get instructions to shoot at anything that moved,” said one soldier. “But we were generally instructed: if you feel threatened, shoot. They kept repeating to us that this is war and in war opening fire is not restricted.”

Many testimonies are in line with claims by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations that Israeli actions were indiscriminate and disproportionate.

Another soldier testified: “You feel like a stupid little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them. A 20-year-old kid should not have to do these kinds of things to other people.”

The testimonies “expose significant gaps between the official army version of events and what really happened on the ground”, Breaking the Silence said.

“This is an urgent call to Israeli society and its leaders to sober up and investigate anew the results of our actions.”

Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, said: “Criticism directed at the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) by one organisation or another is inappropriate and is directed at the wrong place. The IDF is one of the most ethical armies in the world and acts in accordance with the highest moral code.”

An IDF spokesman told the Ha’aretz newspaper: “The IDF regrets the fact that a human rights organisation would again present to the country and the world a report containing anonymous, generalised testimony without checking the details or their reliability, and without giving the IDF, as a matter of minimal fairness, the opportunity to check the matters and respond to them before publication.”

An internal investigation by the Israeli military said troops fought lawfully although errors did take place, such as the deaths of 21 people in a house that had been wrongly targeted.

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UK revokes licences for Israeli navy guns

July 13th, 2009 | No Comments

Exports of spare parts halted in response to Gaza Strip attacks in December-January

Britain has revoked export licences for weapons on Israeli navy missile boats because of their use during the offensive against the Gaza Strip.

The licences apparently covered spare parts for guns on the Sa’ar 4.5 ships, which reportedly fired missiles and artillery shells into the Palestinian coastal territory during the three-week war, which started in late December.

Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, shrugged off what he called one of “many embargoes”. The foreign office in London insisted the rare move did not constitute an embargo but was the application of normal UK and EU export licensing criteria. Still, it linked the decision directly to Operation Cast Lead – the Israeli codename for the attacks – and described it as similar to action taken against Russia and Georgia after their conflict last year.

A spokesman for Amnesty International, citing the “weight of evidence” that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza, said: “It’s a step forward but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.”

Israel’s defence ministry made no comment but Lieberman told state radio: “We’ve had many embargoes in the past. This shouldn’t bother us.”

Israel gets the bulk of its military requirements from the US, more than 95% according to some estimates. The UK accounts for less than 1% or about £30m worth of exports a year.

The decision came after a review of UK defence exports to Israel announced in April by David Miliband, the foreign secretary. Israel’s London embassy ascribed the revocation of the licences to pressure from MPs and human rights organisations, the Ha’aretz newspaper reported.

Israeli officials confirmed the UK had reviewed 182 export licences, including 35 for exports to the navy. It decided to cancel five, all relating to spare parts for Sa’ar weapons. The arms involved include anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles, cannons and heavy machine guns.

Israel launched its Gaza attack after the expiry of a ceasefire put in place to halt the firing of missiles into Israel, and as part of a strategy to weaken the Islamist movement Hamas. More than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

Ha’aretz said the British decision was not expected to have any impact on the navy’s operational capability. But it added: “It has great political significance and could encourage other countries to halt defence exports to Israel. The country considered most likely to be next is Belgium, which sells Israel equipment used to disperse demonstrations.”

Amnesty had previously highlighted Britain’s role in supplying engines for Hermes drone aircraft. In another report this month, it detailed how Israeli forces killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of homes in attacks that breached the laws of war.

“Amnesty has uncovered evidence of war crimes committed by both sides in the conflict,” it said. “We are calling on all countries to suspend all transfers of military equipment, assistance and munitions, to Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups until there is no longer a substantial risk that it will be used for serious violations of human rights.

“We will also be monitoring closely to ensure that the UK does not renege on its promises. In the past we have seen a tightening of restrictions against Israel in the wake of a major offensive, only for them to be loosened again once the issue falls out of the public eye.”

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UN hearing broadcasts Gaza war stories

June 28th, 2009 | No Comments

• Inquiry held by Jewish South African judge
• Israeli witnesses to attend next round in Geneva

The UN has held an unprecedented public hearing in Gaza to broadcast live witness accounts from Palestinians who described seeing their relatives killed and injured during Israel’s January war.

One after another, they detailed Israeli rocket strikes and artillery shelling near a mosque, a UN school and on several homes across Gaza during the three-week war. The two-day hearing is part of an inquiry by the UN human rights council into the war led by the respected South African judge, Richard Goldstone.

Israel has refused entry for the inquiry team, accusing the UN council of an anti-Israel bias even though Goldstone himself is Jewish. But another round of hearings will be held in Geneva next week, for which some Israeli witnesses are expected to be flown in. They may include residents of Sderot, near Gaza, which has suffered repeated Palestinian rocket attacks.

“The purpose of the public hearings in Gaza and Geneva is to show the faces and broadcast the voices of victims – all of the victims,” Goldstone said last week. He had sat on South Africa’s constitutional court after the fall of apartheid and was a chief prosecutor on the UN criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Yesterday’s public hearing was the first in a UN fact-finding mission, though there is little chance it will lead to prosecutions. Up to 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the war.

Mousa Silawi, 91, described an explosion at the entrance to a mosque in the Jabaliya refugee camp late on 3 January, which killed 17 people, including three of his sons and two grandchildren.

“After evening prayer a huge shell hit the mosque,” he said. “It was absolutely incredible. We starting screaming and calling for God.” Silawi, who is blind, was led away to safety and was then told that his sons had died. “Where is law? Where is justice? I have lived 91 years. I have seen everything, but nothing of this sort. It was such a catastrophe,” he said. His son, Moteeh, the mosque’s sheikh, said there had been no warning before the missile struck. “People came to the mosque for safety and we saw bloodshed,” he said. “I was leading my father out when my own foot stepped on the head of a small child,” he said. “I saw people carrying decapitated heads and parts of bodies. I cannot describe what I saw … What crime did the children commit?”

In another case Ziad al-Deeb, a university student, described how an Israeli shell struck in the courtyard of his family home in Jabaliya on 6 January. The blast killed 11 of his relatives and sliced off both his legs. First he heard an explosion just outside the wall of the house and then moments later a second shell landed in their yard.

“In a single instant we had all of our joys replaced with blood,” he said. “There was a severe whistling in my ears and a pillar of smoke and dust and that obliterated what happened. When I looked up I found I had lost both my legs. I was sprawled over the body of my own brother. I looked for my father and others, and I found them motionless. Most of them were dead.”

He lost his father, grandfather, two brothers and a sister in the blast, which was one of several mortar shells that fell in quick succession that afternoon near a UN prep school being used as a shelter for those fleeing the fighting. Between 30 and 40 Palestinians were killed near the school. An earlier UN inquiry has already found Israel responsible for the shelling.

After hearing his evidence, Goldstone said: “We extend our deep condolences to you and your family for your terrible loss and it makes your coming here all the more painful for you.”

Yesterday’s hearing was held at a UN office in Gaza City and then broadcast live to a hall at a nearby cultural centre, deserted save for a handful of journalists. However, the hearing was broadcast on some television stations, including one al-Jazeera channel. The UN inquiry team will issue a final report in August.

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