Investigating the Freedom Flotilla Attack - by Stephen Lendman

On June 2, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved formation of an international committee (like the Goldstone Commission) to probe the Flotilla attack, saying it will include lawyers and international law and human rights experts, its findings to be presented in September (during the Council's three week session in Geneva) after visiting Gaza and contacting Israel, Turkey, Greece, and the Freedom Flotilla coalition.

HRC's panel includes:

-- Desmond de Silva, a UK lawyer and former chief prosecutor for the Sierra Leone Special Court  investigation into widespread killings there;

-- Karl Hudson-Phillips, a former International Criminal Court (ICC) judge and former Trinidad and Tobago attorney general and parliament member; and

-- Malaysia's Mary Shanthi Dairiam, active in gender equality issues, including on the UN Development Program's gender equity task force.

In emergency session, the HCR criticized Israel's "outrageous attack on aid ships attempting to breach a blockade on the Gaza Strip," calling it "piracy, (an) act of aggression, (a) brutal massacre, (an) act of terrorism, (a) war crime, (a) crime against humanity -unprovoked....unwarranted....atrocious, (and) brutal," calling activists "peaceful...innocent...noble...unarmed, (and) defenseless," setting the tone for what's to come, HRC president Sihasak Phuangketkeow saying:

"This is not about finger-pointing. It's about establishing the facts of what took place because the incident was a humanitarian tragedy and it's in the interests of everyone. So I'm hopeful and I'm urging all the parties concerned to render their full cooperation, because it is in their interests and it's in the interests of the international community as a whole."

"The expertise, independence and impartiality of the members of the mission will be devoted to clarifying the events which took place that day and their legality."

Israel's response was expected, a foreign ministry official saying the HRC acted in haste as part of its "obsession against Israel. The Israeli probe, conducted with transparency, makes the organization's probe completely unnecessary."

Israel, of course, won't cooperate, and plans a whitewash like its July 20 Gaza Operational Investigations: Second Update, responding to the Goldstone Commission and other reports of widespread Cast Lead crimes of war and against humanity.

No serious investigation was conducted, the report citing only four criminal indictments - two for using a minor as a human shield, one regarding an attack on a family waving a white flag, and the other for credit card theft. 

Hundreds of other serious crimes weren't addressed, including high level culpability, a few low-level soldiers marginally hung out to dry to absolve government and IDF officials - Israel's usual coverup of appalling war crimes.

Evidence of the Report's Whitewash

On January 4, 2009, the Abu Hajjaj family was attacked, despite carrying clearly visible white flags, resulting in two deaths, Majeda Abu Hajjaj and Raya Abu Hajjaj, mother and sister. Yet Israel "found gaps between (soldiers and Palestinian) testimonies," making it "impossible to make a criminal connection between the described incident," relying instead on soldier versions to whitewash the crime's severity. In addition, investigators gave no credibility to complainants' sworn affidavits, or requested corroborating evidence to confirm them.

Willfully killing civilians is murder, a grave Fourth Geneva violation. One soldier was charged with manslaughter for shooting a "man," yet none were killed, only a mother and her sister.

On January 3, Israeli forces attacked the Al-Maqadma mosque near the Jabalia camp, an air-to-ground anti-personnel missile carrying small cube-shaped fragments for maximum effect killing 15 civilians and injuring 40 others. Israel claimed it targeted a "terror operative" spotted firing rockets. 

Yet sworn affidavits and investigations showed no hostilities or military activity in the area, a conclusion Israel didn't contest, saying collateral casualties were unintentional. However, both the attack's timing, shortly after sunset prayers, and the weapon used disproves the IDF's claim, the Goldstone Commission concurring, another grave Fourth Geneva violation.

Yet the officer in charge was merely disciplined even though he willfully attacked a mosque at prayer time.

On January 5, Israeli forces fired two tank shells with flechette darts at a condolence ceremony, killing five civilians and injuring 17 others. Yet according to the commander and his forces, no civilians were present, just "visually identified....terrorist operatives," attacked while loading a "Grad rocket" on "open terrain."

None were there, just a clearly identifiable condolence tent on a sidewalk about 10 meters wide on a road around 22 miles long in a residential area, not "open terrain" as claimed. Many civilians were present, ones soldiers claimed weren't seen, saying combatants were attacked - a bald-faced lie, proved by dead and injured civilians, one of hundreds of grave Fourth Geneva violations during Cast Lead, preceded and succeeded seamlessly by many others. 

Yet no investigations were conducted, no assailants charged, and no justice rendered, including by Israel's whitewash investigation, the same kind examining the Flotilla massacre.

Israeli Cast Lead Coverup

The Goldstone Commission exposed and condemned numerous Israeli war crimes, concluding that:

"the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the (entire) population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at (civilians. These are war crimes because) no justifiable military objective" was pursued.

Yet on July 6, IDF Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit reported only the following:

-- a Lt. Colonel was summoned to a disciplinary hearing "for having deviated from military directives pertaining to the prohibition on the use of civilians for operational activity;" a mild reprimand resulted despite serious Fourth Geneva breaches;

-- a staff sergeant was indicted for manslaughter, absolving him of cold-blooded murder; his punishment will be minimal;

-- a criminal investigation was ordered "to clarify the circumstances of a specific incident;" expect no prosecutions to result; and

-- a captain was disciplined for "his failed professional judgment in authorizing an attack against a (claimed) terror operative," killing and injuring only civilians.

Gen. Mendelblit claimed over 150 incidents were examined and nearly 50 investigations launched since Cast Lead's conclusion.

Only mild disciplinary actions resulted besides one manslaughter indictment, despite a 23 day rampage, committing extensive crimes of war and against humanity, killing over 1,400, injuring over 5,000, many permanently disabled, (civilians in most cases affected), and inflicting massive destruction and devastation, unaddressed or relieved under siege. Gen. Mendelblit instead said:

"Operation Cast Lead was limited in the scope of fire and forces used. IDF soldiers operated in crowded urban areas while Hamas made deliberate and cynical use of the Palestinian population (they were protecting), creating a complex security situation. Hamas operated from within civilian homes, schools, kindergartens, mosques, hospitals and UN facilities (bald-faced lies) while the population in the Gaza Strip was made hostage" - not by Hamas, its legitimate government, by Israeli marauders, rampaging, killing and destroying lawlessly, omitted from the general's account.

Israel's Inquiry Commission - Whitewashing the Flotilla Massacre

On June 14, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced its formation, an internal probe to suppress truths, its members including:

-- former Israeli Supreme Court Justice, Jacob Turkel, heading it, a man with little inquiry commission experience;

-- Amos Horev, a retired Israeli major general, a prominent military-industrial complex figure; and two non-voting foreign observers:

-- David Trimble, head of Northern Ireland's Ulster Unionist Party, First Minister of the Good Friday Agreement's power-sharing government, Conservative Party life peer, earlier involved with loyalist death squads and Royal Ulster Constabulary killers (RUC); and

-- Former Canadian General Ken Watkin, earlier involved in whitewashing Canada's role in committing Somalia atrocities in the early 1990s.

A June 15 Haaretz editorial was unimpressed, saying:

"....the committees membership nor its authority is suited to meet the challenges posed by the affair. (It's more) a public relations tool (than a body appointed) to bring justice to bear on those found responsible. It would have....been better if the (committee) had never been born, sparing us the deceptive appearance of a real investigation," what the commission will scrupulously avoid, its findings to be willful coverup, blaming the victims, not their assassins or culpable high-level officials.

An Israeli military inquiry was also conducted, headed by retired Major General Giora Eiland, his released July 12 findings calling the Flotilla attack justified, according to an official summary made public - Eiland submitting a classified 150 page report to IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, and Ehud Barak, Israel's Defense Minister. Its conclusions were as follows:

Claim: 

"....there were no wrongdoings and no negligences in any fundamental areas during a complicated and complex operation."

Fact Check:

Nonviolent unarmed activists were delivering humanitarian aid to besieged Gazans. In an operation planned weeks in advance, they were willfully attacked in international waters, up to 15 murdered in cold blood, commandos given names and photos of targets, incriminating evidence found on board the mother ship, the Mavi Marmarra.

Claim:

-- "But on the other hand, there were mistakes that were made in decisions, including some taken at relatively high levels, which meant that the result was not as had been initially anticipated."

Fact Check:

The "anticipated" result was hostile interdiction, assassinating nonviolent activists, seizing their cargo, arresting participants on board, treating them harshly in detention, expelling them from Israel, concealing murder and barbarism in international waters, and blaming victims for their attackers' crimes.

Assassinations and related violence were carried out as planned, using commandos, trained killers as the assault force, not Israel's equivalent of America's Coast Guard, charged with maritime law enforcement, search, rescue, and other non-combat functions.

Claim

-- "not all possible intelligence gathering methods were fully implemented and (the) coordination between Navy Intelligence and the Israeli Defense Intelligence was insufficient." In addition, "the anticipated level of violence used against the forces was underestimated."

Fact Check

Faced with worldwide condemnation, the inquiry blamed intelligence failures, not a well-rehearsed operation conducted as planned.

Claim

"the operation relied excessively on a single course of action." No other was prepared for in "the event of more dangerous scenarios."

Fact Check

The attack was carried out as planned, every detail rehearsed for precision, including the pre-attack filming on a ship resembling the Mavi Marmarra, showing commandos were attacked, not activists - fiction, not fact.

Claim

"....as far as is currently known, no country in the world holds the ability to stop a vessel at sea in a non hostile manner."

Fact Check

The US Coast Guard and comparable agencies elsewhere do it routinely as necessary, seldom encountering violence and not initiating it themselves.

Claim

"....alternative courses of action could have existed had the process of preparation begun enough time in advance...."

Fact Check

Preparations began weeks in advance, including detailed intelligence on the number of ships and activists, their names and home countries, photos of targets to be assassinated, dates of departure and expected arrival, and a well-rehearsed commando interdiction operation.

Claim

The inquiry "determined that the Navy Commando soldiers operated properly, with professionalism, bravery and resourcefulness and that the commanders exhibited correct decision making....the use of live fire was justified and that the entire operation is estimable."

Fact Check

Commandos are elite combat forces trained to kill "professionally." They followed precise orders assassinating nonviolent activists in international waters - a lawless cowardly act against unarmed civilians.

Claim

The inquiry "noted with favor the various stages of medical evacuation of the injured by air and by sea, including the injured passengers of the Mavi Marmarra."

Fact Check

Commandos treated activists harshly, firing from helicopters before boarding, followed by gas bombs, other weapons, beatings, and dumping some bodies overboard. There was no provocation and no warning given. The attack was premeditated and vicious, some passengers shot multiple times in the head at point blank range. 

Dozens were injured, at least 20 seriously. Everyone was taken prisoner. The few commandos hurt were treated by the ship's doctor. He was shot in the arm while aiding victims. Wounded passengers were searched and handcuffed like the others. Throughout the ordeal, soldiers were hostile and abusive, injured activists further mistreated, kicked, struck with weapons, and in some cases shot again.

No compassion whatever was shown. Some wounded passengers weren't taken to the hospital on arrival at Israel's Ashdod Port. Although hurt, bleeding and needing treatment, they were kept on board, doctors prevented from helping them.

From interdiction to assault to seizure to detention to deportation, the entire procedure was harsh, demeaning, and degrading, the slightest reaction met by blows, some unharmed activists injured en route to the airport for deportation. Others, before and during detention, were seriously beaten, some tortured. Five stayed behind hospitalized, too injured to leave. The whereabouts of some remains unknown.

General Eiland said "the issue should be viewed with perspective," believing Israel won't incur long-term damage, saying:

"....there's a tendency to draw general conclusions based on a single incident....(In addition), the fact that the IDF examines itself and others do not, results in that only the 'errors' of the IDF are publicized."

America, Britain and other nations do self-examine, as shamelessly as the above account using coverup to suppress the truth and avoid accountability. And when abuses are too great to hide, one or more low-level soldiers are charged to absolve chain of command crimes, including high-level civilians, how Israel, America and other nations duck responsibility for lawless acts of violence, ones carefully planned in advance.

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

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

honest investigation will reveal the truth

    The War in Iraq has been a complete disaster that is about as obvious as you can get.  Following 9/11 the Bush administration used the opportunity to rush through a credible sounding excuse to go into Iraq.  This was done on the backs of people with solid reputations and years of service to their country being pressured to lend credence to shaky evidence.



 

 Prospects and Consequences of Attacking Iran - by Stephen Lendman

Hopefully its folly will prevent it. Otherwise, expect severe repercussions, including a considerable counterattack and disruption of regional oil supplies, further impacting a troubled global economy. So why consider it, given the December 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) saying:

"We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program; (perhaps it never had one); we also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons..." True or not, dozens of nations may consider one, for defense, not offense in a hostile world, America and Israel the main aggressors, threatening humanity with their weapons of mass destruction.

The NIE also said:

"We assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear program as of mid-2007, but we do not know whether it currently intends to develop (them).

Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop (them) than we have been judging since 2005."

Expect a new NIE update later this summer, hopefully with similar conclusions, then Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair saying so to Congress before his dismissal, perhaps why he was sacked, a "mistake" his successor, General James Clapper, won't make, but what's coming isn't certain, given influential forces on both sides in America, the same ones arguing them for years. Yet beyond saber-rattling rhetoric and sanctions, the administration's position is unclear.

Posturing and Provocations

Besides Washington and Israeli rhetoric, the Security Council (on June 9) imposed new sanctions on Iran, followed by America and EU nations adding others, banning transfers of refining, liquefaction, and liquid natural gas technology as well as on trade, finance, Iranian banks, transport, and against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

In addition, some large western insurers won't cover Iranian shipping, deputy manager of the Iranian company Sea Pars, Mohammad Rounaghi, saying "most ports will refuse them entry if they are not covered for possible damages."

Not according to Mohammad Hussein Dajmar, Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) saying, "The world has many ports. We will sail to those nations that want to do business with us," among them China, Russia, India, Venezuela, and Brazil, important trading partners.

In early May, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, affirming his nation's compliance, IAEA inspections confirming it, its chief, Yukiya Amano, saying Tehran hasn't diverted nuclear materials for weapons, though he can't "confirm that all nuclear material is in peaceful activities," a contradiction on its face.

In contrast, non-signatories Israel, India and Pakistan are nuclear outlaws. In addition, in 1970, when NPT was implemented, (189 nations are now parties), the five acknowledged powers - America, Russia, China, Britain and France - agreed to stringent safeguards for their commercial programs in return for progressively dismantling existing stockpiles. To date, there's little change, America asserting the preemptive right to use them against any perceived threat, a clear NPT violation and danger to global stability.

In his January 27 State of the Union address, Obama said:

"the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated....as Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: They....will face growing consequences. That is a promise" - so far, just rhetoric and sanctions, and according to Council for Foreign Relations senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Steven A. Cook, in a June 9, 2009 Foreign Policy op-ed, if Israel(i) (and by inference Washington) leaders were going to strike, they would not be broadcasting it to the world."

They're saber-rattling instead, reports saying Washington is stockpiling bunker-buster bombs in Diego Garcia (about 1,000 miles south of India). In addition, Egypt let an Israeli submarine and 11 US warships, including an aircraft carrier, sail through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea. A deliberate provocation ahead of a planned false flag attack? It bears watching as events are fluid, the most recent House Resolution 1553 on July 22: 

"Expressing Support for the State of Israel's right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within reasonable time to protect against such an immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel."

It was referred to committee, endorsed by nearly one-third of House Republicans, but not by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen, or other top Pentagon officials.

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski told the Senate that a domestic terrorist attack might be falsely blamed on Iran, and Rep. Ron Paul said he's concerned about "a contrived Gulf of Tonkin-type incident....to gain popular support for an attack on Iran." Russian analyst Alexei Vlasov disagrees, saying a "military operation on Iran" is just rumor.

The UK-Based Oxford Research Group (ORG)

ORG advocates for "non-military resolution of global conflict(s), combin(ing) in-depth political and technical expertise (with) serious analysis, dialogue and change."

In July, it published a Paul Rogers Briefing Paper titled, "Military Action Against Iran: Impact and Effects," concluding that:

"military action....should be ruled out as a means of responding to (Iran's) possible nuclear weapons ambitions. The consequences of such an attack would lead to a sustained conflict and regional instability that would....unlikely....prevent (Tehran's) eventual acquisition....and might even encourage it" for self-defense.

ORG believes US action is unlikely, but Israel's belligerence has increased, at least rhetorically, given its own voices on both sides, saner ones knowing the folly. Worrisome, however, is the IDF's improved strike capabilities, its "newly developed ability to conduct major attacks" with long-range aircraft, drones and improved tanker aircraft as well as "the probable availability of support facilities in north-east Iraq and Azerbaijan....increas(ing its) potential for action against Iran."

Israeli extremists say Iran is a threat, despite no confirming evidence, Tehran calling its commercial program legitimate. So do dozens of other nations, America and Israel included, despite continued rhetorical threats.

In February 2006, ORG published a study titled, "Iran, Consequences of a War," analyzing its possible outcomes, assuming that:

"any military action by the United States or Israel would have as its function the inflicting of severe damage on Iran's nuclear installations and medium-range missile programmes (sic), while, in the case of the United States, endeavoring to pre-empt any damaging Iranian response."

It also assumed no attempted regime change, just an action to destroy Iran's nuclear sites, supportive research, and retaliation capability, knowing Tehran "would have methods of responding....includ(ing) disruption of Gulf oil production and exports, (and by supporting) insurgents in Iraq (and) Southern Lebanon....A military operation against Iran....would set in motion a complex and long-lasting confrontation. It follows that (it) should be firmly ruled out and alternative strategies developed."

Today, ORG thinks an American attack is less likely, Israel posing a greater threat. Yet with November congressional elections approaching, neocon and other right-wing circles claim Iran is "a much greater threat to US regional and global interests than Iraq ever was." However, in March 2003, it was believed "if we get Iraq right, we won't have to worry about Iran," suggesting a convincing victory would cow Teheran into submission. 

Iraq, however, is far from "right," and won't ever be under occupation. Attacking Iran compounds it disastrously, yet right-wing US hardliners and the Israeli Lobby want it. "While the Obama administration seems unlikely at present to consider military action, its rhetoric has certainly become far tougher," so far confined to posturing and sanctions.

Israel's Military Posture

Besides a nuclear capability of 200 or more warheads, it can deliver them by aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, and possibly submarine-launched cruise missiles. "Israel currently has three German-built Dolphin-class submarines with two more" to be delivered in 2012.

In 1981, Israel destroyed Iraq's Osiraq reactor, and in September 2007 attacked a suspected (not proved) Syrian nuclear site. Using long-range versions US F-15 and F-16 aircraft (the F-15I Ra'am and F-16I Sufa), some reportedly with conformal fuel tanks for increased range, and backup tanker planes, Iran is within reach.

In addition, "Israel has been a leading developer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), used mainly for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR), the Hermit 450" a deployable variant armed with Hellfire missiles with an endurance up to 20 hours. A new UAV, the Eitan, is Israel's largest - "a 4,000 Kg high-altitude drone with a range of over 7,400 km (4,600 miles), an endurance of 36 hours, and a maximum payload of 2,000 kg."

Israel has also been involved in various operations in Iraq, especially training Kurdish commandos in the northeast, close to the Iranian border.

Besides its considerable military program, America supplies billions of dollars in annual aid, including state-of-the-art weapons and technology. It's acknowledged that Israel needs Washington's consent to attack, unilaterally or collaboratively. Doing so would involve over-flying US-controlled air space, likely via Iraq.

Despite being oil and gas rich, Iran wants (and is entitled to) a commercial nuclear capability for electricity - along with 30 other countries as of June 2010, including America, Canada, 15 European nations, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Japan and China, their programs encouraged, not opposed. Iran, alone, incurs hostility because of its suspected (not verified) military ambitions.

For years, Israel claimed Tehran is a year or two away from acquiring capability, the CIA waffling in its estimate, director Leon Panetta recently telling ABC News enough uranium is now available for two bombs, and within two years Iran will be able to deliver them. However, others inside the Agency disagree, and kidnapped Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri said Iran has no nuclear weapons program, despite high pressure to get him to say so.

At best, "all that can be said is that Iran is slowly developing the technologies and personnel (to) handle a range of nuclear-related systems." If it wants a nuclear arsenal, "three to seven years from now might be an appropriate estimate, the seven-year period being the time required to produce perhaps six usable weapons."

However, no evidence shows intent, despite rhetoric suggesting otherwise. In addition, at this time, Iran's fuel cycle is under safeguards. If not, it "would set off a major international alert many months before (it) would be able to convert the material into a weapon," or be able to have shadow facilities for large quantities of fuel through mining, milling, uranium conversion, enrichment, fabrication and weaponization.

Iran does have an ongoing ballistic missile program, ranging from short to long-range solid fuel systems. Until recently, its longest was the Shahab-3 able to hit targets up to 1,000 km away, short of reaching Israel. It's also developed a longer-range 1,600 km capability Ghadr-1 missile able to strike the Jewish state, but it's believed few so far have been produced.

Ahead may be more powerful solid fuel ballistic missiles, the Sajjil, able to reach targets up to 2,400 km away and carry a similar payload to the Ghadr-1. Tests have been conducted, but no reliable reports confirm deployments. It's estimated five years will be required to produce Sajjils in large numbers, Iran believing it needs a strong defense knowing "regimes to the east (Afghanistan) and west (Iraq) of it were terminated by large-scale (US) military action," Washington and Israel suggesting Tehran may be next.

If so, likely targets would be the following:

-- uranium enrichment plants, including their scientific and technical staff, especially near Natanz, Iran's main enrichment facility;

-- the Esfahan uranium conversion facility;

-- nuclear research and development locations in Tehran, near Arak, and the new Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant control systems, not the reactors to prevent regional contamination;

-- factories making supportive equipment, especially involved in centrifuge production;

-- military bases with missiles capable of striking Israel, including their personnel, research, development and production facilities; and

-- physics, engineering, electronics and related university departments, and their staff, with curricula  related to nuclear and missile programs.

Overall, the likely strategy would be to destroy Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities and prevent attempts to resuscitate them. The "end result would be an attack with a very broad effect," causing widespread casualties, including in Tehran.

If Israel attacks, it might first strike Hezbollah in Lebanon to prevent its retaliatory response. "There have been reliable reports that the (IDF has) developed comprehensive plans for....an all-out assault on the party's arsenals, command centres, commercial assets and strongholds throughout the country." Hezbollah may, in fact, expect one preemptively and is prepared to respond.

On July 22, the Jerusalem Post reported a planned IDF drill as part of extensive preparations for possible war with Hezbollah and Syria, the army preparing missile attacks on main roads and bases as well as infantry and armored force invasions, anticipating south Lebanon the main battleground, Hezbollah's stronghold with command centers and weapons depots.

If attacked, Iran will also respond, including by withdrawing from NPT under Article X provisions based on "extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this treaty (that) have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country." In addition, prioritizing nuclear weapons development to deter future attacks would be likely, including in below-ground secret facilities, reportedly under construction.

Other actions, over time, might include the following:

-- missile attacks against Israeli and US forces in Iraq;

-- Straits of Hormuz blockage to disrupt oil shipments, causing a sharp rise in prices, "potentially catastrophic" on a weak global economy;

-- attacks on western Gulf oil production, processing and transportation facilities - essentially soft targets despite greater security; and

-- support for Iraq and Afghanistan resistance fighters.

The Iranian public and Arab street would be supportive, perceiving Israel as a US client state, and Washington a regional menace.

"Perhaps the most important aspect of an Israel(i) attack (is) that it would almost certainly be the beginning of a long-term process of regular air strikes to further prevent the development of nuclear weapons and delivery systems," Israel and Washington believing once initiated, "it could not easily stop." Over time, Iran would respond accordingly, embroiling the entire region in conflict with catastrophic longer-term consequences.

At the same time, expect the unexpected, perhaps involving Lebanon, Syria, and regional state responses, depending on a protracted conflict's instability - not preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; in fact,  likely encouraging it.

These "dangerous consequences (clearly) militate against military action," leaving two alternative paths:

-- more robust diplomacy for peace and the prospect of a nuclear-free Middle East; and/or

-- accept an eventual nuclearized Iran, using it to start "a process of balanced regional denuclearisation," knowing the risks - an unwilling Israel and the possibility it will encourage regional proliferation, a certainty if Israel and/or Washington attacks Iran.

The catastrophic consequences of doing so makes avoiding it essential. The alternative is unthinkable.

A Final Comment

Author/political critic Webster Tarpley sees the worst in his July 21 article titled, "Obama Is Preparing to Bomb Iran," saying we approached this abyss in summer 2007, escaped, and now face it again, quoting Zbigniew Brzezinski's remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February 2007 saying:

"If the United States continues to be bogged down in a protracted bloody involvement in Iraq, the final destination....is likely to be a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the (Islamic) world....at large. A plausible scenario for a military collision....involves Iraqi failure to meet benchmarks; followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for (it); then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran; culminating in a 'defensive' US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan."

His lengthy article makes the case for war, concluding that "aggressive forces inside the United States think they have a much freer hand" than earlier, the Brzezinski cooler head faction losing ground to extremist neocons, strengthened by the possibility of General David Petraeus elected president in 2012.

He also believes the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), when released, will be "fixed around the desired war policy," coming likely during "the dark of the moon," perhaps an October 7 surprise. His advice - it's time for "persons of good will (to) get active, (otherwise) radioactive."

Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, avoiding a regional or possible world war, perhaps to divert attention from the deepening economic depression.

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

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

doing so will inflame the entire region

 Gazans Denied Medical Care under Siege - by Stephen Lendman

Two recent reports discuss it, a July Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHR-IL) one titled, "A Situation Report on Obstacles Facing Gaza Residents in Need of Medical Treatment," and a June one titled, "Who Gets to Go," jointly prepared by PHR-IL, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. All cite Israeli medical ethics and international law violations by discriminating on the basis of need, denying adequate treatment to seriously ill Gazans by:

-- preventing the restoration and development of the Strip's healthcare system; and

-- restricting travel to the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel, or neighboring countries for treatment.

In its July report, PHR-IL said Gaza's healthcare system is getting progressively worse "due to a lack of medical expertise, medicine(s) and medical equipment," the ICRC recently saying it's "at an all time low." 

In June, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Israel blocked delivery of essential equipment, including a CT scanner, defibrillators and monitors. In addition, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israel confiscated seven oxygen machines, donated by a Norwegian development agency, and blocked x-ray machine deliveries, claiming they were dual-use, meaning possibly for military purposes.

As a result, critical shortages of most everything exist, including vital medicines, essential equipment, and other supplies expected to run out this summer, harming chronic disease sufferers the most, hampered by draconian impediments for permission to leave Gaza for treatment - what PHR-IL calls "an inexcusable breach of medical ethics" based on political, not medical considerations, most non-life threatening cases denied, including ones PHR-IL calls urgent, such as for:

"Paraplegia; retinal detachement; SLE (Lupus); foreign body in vitreous; subluxated lens; chronic severe febrile anemia; fever(s) of unknown origin (FUO); traumatic macular hole; psychomotor retardation; anemia; suspected abdominal abnormal vascular pressure; suspected chronic intestinal disease; psedoarthrosis (non-union of fractured bones) - arms, hand; infected plate - hip; deformation of cornea; recurrent dislocation of shoulder; lumbar discopathy; opacity of vitreous; (and) malformation of urinary tract."

Numerous other non-urgent/non-life-threatening ones are also denied, some chronic, severe, painful and/or disabling, badly in need of treatment, including a 24 year old Gaza resident shot in the arm in October 2007, unable to use his hand because of atrophied muscle tissue around the wound area. 

As a result, he suffers severe pain, orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Yosef Leitner, saying a tendon transfer is the only hope to restore proper hand functioning, Gaza's Al Shifaa Hospital (the Strip's largest and most advanced) with neither the means or staff to perform it. 

In August 2009, an exit request was submitted to receive treatment in East Jerusalem's Al Makassed Hospital. Initially denied, it was appealed and again denied - unprincipled, unethical, illegal, and common practice against Gazans under siege, PHR-IL saying:

"....all patients are entitled to the best available medical treatment, regardless of the urgency....or the severity of their clinical state," legitimate distinctions only permissible in cases of limited resources (such as after a natural disaster), even then for the shortest time possible to restore proper care to everyone in need.

Under international law, denying medical care is illegal, Fourth Geneva's Article 3 saying all non-combatants and those having laid down their arms "shall in all circumstances be treated humanely" with no distinctions for any reasons.

Article 16 states:

"The wounded and sick, as well as the infirm, and expectant mothers, shall be the object of particular protection and respect."

The UN's Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment prohibits mistreatment in any form (including denying medical treatment), as do the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Constitution of the International Criminal Court (the Rome Statute), and civilized countries globally, Israel and America not among them. 

An Israeli Supreme Court decision provides an example, approving restrictions to exit Gaza for treatment, with narrow exceptions, ignored by government officials because the ruling left final authority in their hands, an easy cop-out to permit cruel and unusual punishment to continue, what PHR-IL calls "routine, permanent policy,"  unethical, immoral, illegal, and deplorable.

Medical training outside Gaza is also denied, Fatah in charge of Ramallah's Health Ministry, collaborating with Israel against its own people, blocking training and treatment of many, persecuting and abusing many more,  acting as Israel's enforcer, its duplicitous, self-serving agenda.

In addition, Israel prohibits its own or foreign doctors entering Gaza to provide treatment or professional training. Its authorities rejected two recent requests for a Ramallah Musallam Center team to come, to perform eye surgery and cornea transplants, most patients in need rejected or subjected to long delays.

For the past year, PHR-IL medical delegations were denied entry to Gaza, ones operating in 2008 as part of its Mobile Clinic, providing treatment, surgeries,  medications, training, counseling, and referring patients for follow-up treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Repressive Security Services

In 2009, Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, interrogated over 600 of the thousands of Gazans applying for treatment exit permission. Usually, patients are summoned "after their hospital appointment date(s) passed," causing them to lose out and have to reschedule. In addition, many face "threats and extortion....health (for) ransom," collaborate or be denied, a choice most won't accept.

In other cases, Shin Bet summons patients to Erez Crossing (on the pretext of permission to leave), arresting and detaining them instead - a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) worker as well, part of a paramedic/ambulance driver team en route to a Ramallah training course, arrested and imprisoned in Israel.

In January 2010, Adalah complained officially to Israel's Attorney General, the Prime Minister's office saying:

"The State of Israel reserves the right to detain elements who seek medical treatments in Israel following information that they are terror activists or that their entry to Israel might pose a security risk," common Israeli boilerplate - disingenuous, duplicitous, and dishonest justification for repressive state policy, including against seriously ill patients and medical workers providing care.

Israeli also denies quality care outside Gaza and the West Bank, even in East Jerusalem where treatment is better. In some cases, follow-up permission is denied (including for rehabilitation) for those initially allowed in, leaving them in limbo, unable to get what they need.

Dr. Danny Rozin, an internal medicine expert at Israel's Sheba Medical Center, said the following:

"It is important to understand that in many cases providing a complete, effective treatment requires more than a one-time appointment and many patients need follow-up, post-surgery checks, or an additional medical or rehabilitative treatment....The lack of continuity might bring about a failure of treatment in part or in full and resources allocated to treat patients might go down the drain. Sometimes there is also a real danger that the patient will suffer functional damage or even lose his life....Preventing the continuity of treatment harms patients and is inconsistent with the many efforts made by medical staff to provide full and optimal care."

It also violates international law and medical ethics, what Israeli authorities disdain and spurn. PHR-IL says it's illogical and inconsistent that a patient given permission "suddenly becomes a security threat" and is denied. It reinforces the notion that politics and repressive policy are at issue, not security, a duplicitous red herring.

Israel further denies permission for West Bank treatment, saying patients might stay with their families - their legal right, unrelated to security, entirely state-sanctioned repression, part of enforcing Gaza's siege.

Another part involves confiscating patients' belongings on returning home after treatment, forced on reentry to leave behind whatever they bought or were given, including medical equipment, clothing, toys and other non-threatening items - another way to harass and intimidate.

A Final Comment

As a result of Israel's post-January 2006 embargo, its siege since June 2007, Cast Lead, regular incursions, and its longstanding collective punishment policy, Gaza's healthcare system is "at an all time low." Many of the Strip's sick and injured lack proper care, or enough, in violation of medical ethics and international law explicitly prohibiting these practices.

"As an occupying power, (Israel bears full) responsibility for the health of Gaza's residents," including to treatment outside the Strip, unconditionally without constraints, authorities denying it as collective punishment - prohibited under international law, what, throughout its history, Israel disdainfully spurned.

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

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

more evidence of Israeli repression

 Israel's New Land Grab Master Plan - by Stephen Lendman

The new plan updates older ones, going back to the first, what Israeli historian Ilan Pappe documented in his 2006 book, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," on David Ben-Gurion's Plan D (Dalet in Hebrew), his final master plan following Plans A, B and C, what Palestinians call the Nakba, the catastrophe, commemorated annually to never forget.

By bombarding and besieging villages and population centers, destroying communities, and expelling or killing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, it planned an exclusive Jewish state, excluding Arabs by any means, including mass-murder, dispossession, and persecution, ongoing to this day, what Palestinians heroically resist.

It took six months to complete, expelling or slaughtering about 800,000 people, and destroying 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and other cities. It was barbarous ethnic cleansing, Palestinians shown no mercy, including women and children, yet it was just the beginning, much more yet to come, including new ethnic cleaning plans.

Old and New Master Plans

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) is an Israeli policy research organization, its president Dore Gold, a notorious right-wing extremist, hostile to democratic principles and Palestinian rights.

It's recent report is titled "Demography, Geopolitics, and the Future of Israel's Capital: Jerusalem's Proposed Master Plan," explaining that on October 7, 2008, the District Planning and Construction Commission for the Jerusalem region proposed one, approved by Mayor Nir Barkat, then revised "to create and preserve a stable Jewish majority in the unified capital," assure the city always stays unified, and follows Ben-Gurion's idea:

to "bring Jews to eastern Jerusalem at any cost. We must settle tens of thousands of Jews in a brief time. Jews will agree to settle in eastern Jerusalem even in shacks. We cannot await the construction of orderly neighborhoods. The essential thing is that Jews will be there." 

In large numbers they're displacing Palestinians, destroying their homes, seizing their land, and fulfilling Ben-Gurion's dream to make Israel exclusively Jewish, Jerusalem its capital.

The city's 1968 Master Plan recommended accelerated Jewish population growth. In 1973, Prime Minister Golda Meir planned to increase it by 3.7% by 1982. Various other plans followed.

Master Plan 2000 aimed to preserve a Jewish majority, its planners apprehensive about Arab population growth. As a result, they proposed "intervention tools" to counter it by:

"a sufficient supply of housing by building new neighborhoods and reinforcing and increasing the density of veteran Jewish (ones), as well as adding places of employment and services on a quantitative and qualitative basis."

The June 2009 Arbel Report proposed annexing part of Ramat Rahel, located on a hilltop halfway between  Jerusalem's Old City and Bethlehem, to accommodate a growing Jewish population.

A July 2009 Master Plan for Transportation in Jerusalem revealed 13,300 newly approved housing units and another 15,000 at other stages of planning, suggesting an urgency to complete them and add more based on population growth forecasts. 

Planned land seizures weren't mentioned. However,  Jerusalem's Master Plan 2000 said the following:

"The most severe problem in eastern Jerusalem is the absence of a system to resolve land ownership. This problem, in combination with a deliberate policy by both nationalist and criminal elements, has led to a huge volume of illegal construction (without required permits) on lands that were intended for public purposes and a takeover of privately owned lands....In order to solve the problem, a special judicial system should be established in the municipality to regulate the registration of land ownership" to assure Jews are preferentially treated.

Jerusalem Master Plan 2010

On June 28, Haaretz writers Akiva Eldar and Nir Hasson headlined, "Jerusalem master plan: Expansion of Jewish enclaves across the city," saying it calls for expanding Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, "a move largely based on construction on privately owned Arab property," meaning Palestinians will be removed to accommodate them.

On July 10, Haaretz writer Don Futterman headlined, "The Jerusalem Master Plan for destruction," saying it plans "to relocate as many Arabs as possible to the margins of the municipal boundaries; to promote overcrowding (in their areas) in the hope (they) will leave the city of their own accord," develop their own neighborhoods, encouraged by "accelerate(d) evictions and house demolitions."

"The plan plays into both the settler-led campaign to (de-Arabize) the Old City, and the government's efforts to make sure Jerusalem will never be the capital of a Palestinian state...." Will it work? Before he died, Edward Said said the following:

"There is no way for Israel to get rid of Palestinians. (They) shar(e) the land that has thrust (them) together (and must do it jointly) in a truly democratic way, with equal rights for (all) citizen(s)," Jews, Arabs, Christians, and others. No master plan will prevent it,

Yet Israel's new one includes accelerated home demolitions and land seizures, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein telling the High Court that the government plans to apply the 1950 Absentees' Property Law (ABL), authorizing the state to seize abandoned properties. At risk are thousands of acres worth billions of dollars, land legally held by Arabs.

Haaretz writer Akiva Eldar said:

"The state intends to assume control over properties of people who moved to 'enemy states' during the War of Independence (now refugees denied the right of return), as well as structures in East Jerusalem," belonging to West Bank and Gaza residents.

They'll be used for new Jewish developments besides others underway or planned, sparking protests met with attacks and arrests, a recent Silwan one assaulted with live fire, tear gas, and percussion grenades. One Palestinian lost an eye. A woman miscarriaged from tear gas, another also after her home was invaded. 

Five Palestinians were arrested, including a 12-year old child. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of al-Mubadara Palestinian National Initiative, accused Israel of attempting to Judaize East Jerusalem with "bulldozers, the expansion of the settlement units, (and) changing the demographic composition of the city to favor" Jews over Arabs, the final plan to make Jerusalem exclusively Jewish by any means.

Israel acts ruthlessly, does what it pleases with no regard for the law, internal or external pressure, or the rights and needs of indigenous Palestinians, being systematically removed for Jewish expansion, a Palestinian official saying it's to "decapitate" East Jerusalem's Arab identity by building thousands of Jewish-only apartments and homes on Arab-owned land.

They're being squeezed into narrower spaces, currently confined to about 13% of the city, the rest seized since 1967 when East Jerusalem was occupied. Palestinian Authority (PA) official Ghassan Al-Khatib called it "more than a provocation. It is actually a decapitation of the peace process. (It won't) withstand the reported plan to expand Jewish settlements in Jerusalem." Others say it's a prescription for resistance and violence. A recently released blueprint calling for expanding Jewish neighborhoods on privately owned Palestinian land assures it, especially if as widespread as envisioned to Judaize the entire city.

On July 20, the International Middle East Media Center's Brian Ennis headlined, "Palestinians in East Jerusalem Feeling Abandoned," given the "specter of more housing demolition and (Judaization) of East Jerusalem," the international community doing nothing to prevent it, or help Israeli Arabs - Israel's Blacks and Latinos, lawlessly persecuted, shamelessly denied their rights.

Targeting Israeli Arabs

On July 20, London Observer writer Harriet Sherwood headlined, "Jaffa's Arab haven of coexistence resists influx of Israeli hardliners," saying:

Its Ajami neighborhood, south of Tel-Aviv, has seen "every stone and blade of grass" bitterly contested, now "the centre of a struggle that touches on social, religious, nationalist, economic and legal questions and which - whatever the outcome - will inevitably result in further strife."

Until recently, it was one of Israel's few areas where Jews and Muslims coexisted for decades, though never easily. However, destabilization and strife threatens to erupt if a 20-apartment development is approved, an Israeli High Court ruling imminent, the result of a case brought by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), claiming it discriminates against Arabs and non-religious Jews in favor of Zionist extremists demanding it go ahead to create "a religious community free from non-Jewish and secular influences," their own exclusive gated community.

Historian Sami Abu Shehadeh said if they succeed, "the (neighborhood) will be polarized. (People who) say Jaffa is a model of coexistence will be silenced." Judaization will assure it and encourage more in Israel, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

He called the whole neighborhood "a construction site. We - the Arabs - are being forced out again, but we have nowhere else to go." Building permits aren't granted, and locals say 500 families have been issued eviction or demolition orders. Others got huge fines. The entire Arab population faces an uncertain future, like other Israeli Arabs, not wanted, denied their rights, and being systematically pressured to make way for Jews.

Another way is a proposed measure requiring they pledge loyalty to a "Jewish and Democratic state," mainly Palestinian men and women who marry Israeli citizens (an estimated 25,000), then seek citizenship on the basis of family reunification, the latter already denied without Interior Ministry approval, for most impossible to get.

On July 19, Jerusalem Post writer Herb Keinon said the measure hadn't yet passed, contrary to other accounts. He called it a way to "deter Palestinians from asking for citizenship." The government said it's only for "illegal residents," not Israeli Arabs, but if extremist Yisrael Beitneinu party officials prevail, including David Rotem, Chairman of the Knesset Constitution and Avigdor Lieberman, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, all Israeli Arabs will have to pledge loyalty to a "Jewish, Zionist, and democratic State," its emblems and values, and perform military or equivalent service as a condition for a national ID card signifying citizenship and right to stay in the country legally.

Final Comments

Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have reason to worry, Haaretz writer Amira Hass providing more evidence in her July 21 article headlined, "IDF destroys West Bank village after declaring it a military zone," saying:

The army demolished an entire Jordan Valley village after declaring it within a closed military zone, 55 structures and 120 farmers, workers, and their families left without homes in Farasiya. Earlier the Civil Administration cut off their water, and before that the military destroyed a distribution pipe from a nearby stream, what residents built for irrigation.

Last year, they were prohibited from connecting to wells belonging to Mekorot, Israel's National Water Company, forcing them to use saltwater for their livestock and buy expensive private water for themselves, what most can't afford.

B'Tselem photographer Atef Abu, arriving hours after the demolition, said "mattresses, pipes and broken furniture were lying on the ground in the debris."

On July 18, 10 Bardala village families (north of Farasiya) also got demolition orders, a farmer with 300 sheep "told to leave in 24 hours or his herd would be confiscated."

In Israel and throughout the Territories, millions of  Palestinians are endangered, their lives and livelihoods threatened by Israel's longstanding plan to Judaize all "Eretz Yisrael," no matter that indigenous Arabs lived there for centuries and have legal right to their homes and property. 

No wonder Haaretz writer Gideon Levy sees Israel "sinking into a strident, nationalistic atmosphere and darkness is beginning to cover everything, (evidenced by) jingoism, ruthlessness and vengeance, (its extremist voices) now expressing its heart," Palestinians feeling the affects, collectively punished for being Muslims under Jewish domination - racist, lawless and merciless, for Levy, a "sign of how we have lost our senses and humanity," for historians, a prescription for self-destruction.

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

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

theft of Palestinian land

 Stop the Wall: People v. Oppression - by Stephen Lendman

This article follows an earlier UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Special Report titled, "The Impact of the Barrier on Health," accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/07/israels-separation-wall-health-hazard.html

Stop the Wall.org (STW) is a "Palestinian movement against the (Separation) Wall and the settlements under Israeli repression," calling for it to be stopped, portions built dismantled, all confiscated lands returned, and compensation paid for losses.

On July 9, it released a report titled, "People versus Oppression," a March - June 2010 account of Israeli repression, including "large scale violations of the civil, political and human rights of activists and communities active against the Wall that compounds the dispossession brought upon them by (its) illegal construction."

In defiance of the International Criminal Court (ICJ) ruling it illegal, calling for it to be dismantled and reparations paid for lost homes, businesses, farmland, orchards, olive groves, and other immovable property seized, construction continues unabated, committing human rights violations against many thousands affected.

Over the past year alone, harsh repression included killings, targeted assassinations, mass arrests, travel bans, raids against Stop the Wall's offices, and other Palestinian organizations and international activists, notably Freedom Flotilla ones, up to 15 murdered in cold blood in international waters delivering humanitarian aid to besieged Gazans. 

From March - June 2010, the "extent of violence and dehumanization (has been) staggering." 

The past year "marked (a) quantitative shift in....Israel('s) overall policies and strategies," its ongoing deterrence and oppression agenda, punctuated by daily violence against defenseless civilians, including women and children, endangering their struggle for justice, self-determination and peace, notions Israel spurns, preferring conflict to conciliation, collective punishment to the rule of law, and crimes of war and against humanity over democratic freedoms and equal justice - how all rogue states operate.

Combined, they're "part of a new Israeli strategy to deal with growing international (and internal) criticism - through legislation, belligerence, and repression, including Wall construction, land theft, and isolation.

The Wall and Settlements

Projected to exceed 800 km when completed, its route is mostly within the Green Line, confiscating Palestinian land and resources by: 

"a network of walls, fences, military zones, 34 fortified checkpoints, 44 tunnels, 634 checkpoints and obstructions, and 1,661 km of settler roads." Combined with settlements, military zones, parks, commercial developments, other closed areas, and open spaces, more than 46% of the West Bank will be annexed, destroying villages and isolating others into Bantustans, surrounded and denied all rights, including free movement.

Up to eight meters high with watchtowers and a buffer zone 30 - 100 meters wide for electric fences, it included trenches, cameras, sensors, and military patrols. 

Other portions consist of razor wire topped fences, patrol roads, sand paths to trace footprints, ditches and surveillance cameras, encircling communities, others between the Wall and Green Line in the so-called Seam Zone, requiring landowners and residents have permits to stay in their homes and access their land.

The effect is devastating, isolating thousands from their property and means of subsistence, dispossessing others to facilitate construction, forcing over 266,000 in 78 communities to abandon their homes, land, and livelihoods, their ability to access health care, education, religious sites, and their right move freely and live normally in peace - a state of hellish dystopia.

"The Wall is an integral part of (Israel's plan) to control the West Bank" and East Jerusalem, while avoiding its responsibilities as an occupier, ones never observed for decades. It's part of a massive land grad, a scheme to establish and expand key settlements, seize every valued km of land, dispossess tens of thousands, make Jerusalem exclusively Jewish, and enforce its agenda by extreme belligerence, the worst of police state harshness.

Given Wall protection, settlement expansions are unimpeded, more than 500,000 occupants on confiscated land, including over 200,000 in East Jerusalem, many more to follow, dispossessing Palestinians from their land, livelihoods and futures.

During 2009, 2,316 new housing units were begun, another 2,300 completed. In the first half of 2010, East Jerusalem has been especially targeted, facilitated by evictions, home demolitions, and dispossessions.

"Palestinians are (systematically being) expelled from their capital and their lands....herded into walled-in ghettos....in a well planned, low speed ethnic cleansing operation," to be replaced by illegal settlements in violation of international law, aided by international complicity and indifference to a defenseless people, abandoning them for their own self-interest.

Popular Resistance

Along with international campaigns and legal measures, Palestinians have protested through regular demonstrations despite harsh Israeli recrimination. In 2002, they began in Qalqilya and Jenin. By 2004, they were large-scale, in 2005 weekly, and throughout 2008 and 2009 gained momentum and strength despite "extraordinary Israeli repression" against organizers and village leaders, beating and arresting them.

The "Stand up....and Break the Siege" initiative continues to demand removal of the military checkpoint, isolating 17 villages north and northeast of Ramallah. On June 18, 2010, a mass demonstration was held in front of the Bet El settlement on Beitin land, condemning the occupation, settlement expansions, checkpoint policies, Wall construction, and collective punishment of an entire people, denying their basic freedoms and self-determination.

Others occur regularly in al-Ma'sara, Wadi Rahal, al-Walaja, and Beit Jala near Bethlehem. Also around Nablus, activists conducting sit-ins against land theft, home demolitions, and isolation, despite beatings, arrests and other forms of abuse.

In addition, major resistance persists in Jerusalem  against demolitions and settlement expansions, activists flooding streets in protest. Throughout May and June, 2010, daily mobilizations occurred, resulting in over three dozen arrests, including 14 children.

The ICJ Opinion and its Implications

UN resolutions and the ICJ called the Wall and settlements illegal, the latter, according to the Security Council in "flagrant violation" of Fourth Geneva, the Court saying they were "established in breach of international law," both the Wall and settlements "tantamount to de facto annexation." 

The ICJ also said the Wall's "infringements (can't be justified) by military exigencies (or) requirements of national security or public order." In other words, the Wall and settlements are land grabs under international law.

Because of Israeli non-compliance, affected residents formed committees of human rights defenders (HRDs), staging mass civil protest actions, legitimate under Fourth Geneva and other international law against an illegal occupation, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Preamble stating:

"Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law."

Under General Assembly Resolution 2625 - Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, every state must "refrain from any forcible action which deprives people (of) their right to self-determination and freedom and independence." When denied, "such peoples are entitled to (resist) and receive support in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter."

The UN also passed numerous resolutions affirming Palestinian self-determination, including 3070 in 1973 supporting "all available means" to achieve it, including in times of conflict.

HRDs anti-Wall resistance is "unique," representing an effort to enforce international law and the ICJ ruling, especially with no outside support. They're on their own because Israel and the world community violated their legal obligations to halt construction, dismantle portions built, and make restitution for damages. 

Resistance and civil disobedience are legitimate forms of self-defense against lawlessness and repression, Henry David Thoreau saying people shouldn't let governments overrule or atrophy their consciences. They're obligated to confront injustice directly, including by defying the law when it's wrong. 

Stop the Wall.org asks:

"does the continuing confiscation of houses, destruction of property and forced evictions taking place in the West Bank in order to build the Wall constitute big enough crimes or risks to justify the measures taken by Palestinians to dismantle the Wall? And can these measures be further justified by showing that they have a notable impact on those crimes or risks?"

Forms of Repression

From April through June, 2010, STW recorded 114 arrests (mostly minors or persons in their early 20s) compared 89 during 2009 - "a dramatic increase in repression" against legitimate resistance, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a member of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, one of many affected.

On July 10, 2009, he was arrested during a weekly demonstration, spent 11 months in the Ofer Military Complex, then, on June 30, 2010, was sentenced to two years in prison for "encourag(ing) violence....activity against public order (and being) present in a closed military area," Bil'in's designation every Friday from 8AM - 8PM to prevent demonstrations.

Amnesty International (AI) expressed concern saying he could be "the first activist against the fence/wall to be brought to a full evidential trial in a case of this kind," setting a worrisome precedent for others, criminalizing their legitimate resistance, how all police states operate, Israel one of the worst, a democracy in name only like America.

Many others are also targeted, arrested, bogusly charged, imprisoned, and tortured for their legitimate right to resist, including children, one 15-year old explaining:

In January 2010, he was arrested at home, detained and tortured - shackled, blindfolded, beaten, and ordered to confess (to stone-throwing a year earlier), his interrogator saying, "I'll break (and) shock you if you" refuse. "Because of the beating, I had to confess....I wanted him to stop hitting me because" of the pain. He spent three and a half months in prison followed by eight months probation and a 1,000 shekel fine.

He wasn't alone. Defense for Children International (DCI) - Palestine section recorded at least five cases of threatened or actual inhumane treatment and sexual assaults against minors in Israeli prisons.

Violence is official Israeli policy, to intimidate and suppress resistance. "Overwhelming aggression" follows threats, including use of live ammunition, rubber-coated bullets, high-velocity tear gas canisters that can harm or disable, sound bombs, and other measures intended to willfully injure or kill.

The UNESCO Chair of An-Najah National University described the murder of two unarmed boys, aged 16 and 19, in Iraq Burin near Nablus saying:

"One Israeli soldier (came) out of one of the army jeeps and position(ed) himself (with one knee on the ground) on the road, directing his weapon toward the western end of the street and crossroad," about 60 meters from the boys. They opened fire, "hit(ting) Abd Qadus in the forehead....As Muhammad Ibrahim Abdel-Qadr Qadus rushed to his cousin (and) reach(ed) down to help him, he (was) shot in the chest...." They were both killed in cold blood. No investigations followed, Israel's usual whitewash, absolving state-sponsored terrorism. 

Rarely ever are soldiers held accountable, and almost never their commanders, effectively legalizing the murder of Arabs, even children. "Palestinians are consequently left without remedy or recourse to justice."

Tear Gas to Intimidate and Injure

On the pretext of dispersing crowds, high-velocity tear gas canisters are used as a weapon, causing a significant number of injuries, many serious, including asphyxiation, skull fractures, brain hemorrhages, and others requiring hospitalization.

Sound bombs, live fire, and rubber-coated bullets also cause casualties when fired directly into crowds, inflicting serious wounds, burns, and deaths. In addition, new weapons have been tested in real time, one in late April producing thick smoke and shrapnel in all directions after exploding. A new type tear gas was fired directly into the face of protestors, causing severe breathing problems.

Against a May demonstration, eyewitnesses described a powerful device detonated by an electrical wiring system, Rali Galli, Corporate vice president of Major Campaigns for Elbit Systems saying:

In "fighting terror," Israeli companies have an advantage when it comes to the "development of new systems, testing them in real time and adapting and fine tuning following feedback from performance in the field."

Collective Punishment

Fourth Geneva's Article 33 is unequivocal, stating:

"No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited....Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited."

Spurning the law, Israel targets villages as well as people, al-Ma'sara repeatedly raided in the past three months, mostly at night, including Muhammad Brijiyyeh's home affecting him and his family. He's the Bethlehem coordinator for the popular committee against the Wall. Israel's aim - wear him down, "wear him (and his family) out," including his elderly mother, one and a half year old daughter and infant twins.

Another tactic involves spraying phosphorous green "skunk water" into homes and workplaces, emitting an unhealthy stench lasting weeks. It not only damages property, it harms human health and constitutes humiliating and degrading treatment.

Military zones are also established, repressively closing and isolating villages, Bi'lin and Ni'lin two examples, closed every Friday from 8AM - 8PM to prevent demonstrations. Residents participating are targeted, assaulted and arrested, their property damaged, including by randomly fired tear gas into agricultural fields, igniting fires, consuming large areas of land, homes and other property.

Targeting Children

They're assaulted and arrested for their activism or presence near demonstrations, Defence of Children International (DCI) recording 335 detained in April 2010 alone, 32 aged 12 - 15, two held in administrative detention without charge. In May, another 305 were detained, 25 aged 12 - 15, two held administratively. Usually they're accused of stone-throwing whether or not true. Yet they're brutally treated in detention, as harshly as adults.

In 2009, DCI obtained 100 sworn affidavits, collected by lawyers and fieldworkers, citing the following forms of mistreatment:

-- shackling;

-- blindfolding;

-- forced confessions in Hebrew;

-- beatings;

-- midnight - 4AM home arrests;

-- threats and other forms of intimidation;

-- solitary confinement;

-- threatened or actual sexual assault; and

-- painful position abuse.

Targeting Journalists

In monthly updates, the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) reported that in April 2010, journalists covering demonstrations were assaulted, five arrested, and two injured. Affected were:

-- cameraman Hazem Bader, arrested on April 10 in Beit Safa, Hebron;

-- Al-Hayat Al Jadedah correspondent Muheeb Al-Barghouthi, arrested covering the weekly Bil'in April 23 demonstration;

-- Al-Jazeera cameraman Majdi Abu Zer and technical assistant Nadir Abu Zer on April 30 in Bil'in; and

-- APA photographer Najeh Hashlomoun on April 24 in Beit Ummar, Hebron.

In addition, AP photographer Mahfouz Abu Turk was injured in East Jerusalem on April 9 covering clashes, and other arrests and injuries were reported in May and June, part of Israel's ongoing campaign against free expression and dissent.

Targeting Human Rights Defenders (HDRs)

Recently in East Jerusalem, they've increased as a result of "significant resistance from (residents) under siege," their homes and land threatened, especially in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. 

In Silwan alone, 39 arrests were documented, including 14 children. In April, four Sheikh Jarrah families got demolition orders - the Al Kiswani home for the second time, and the Salah family, fined and forcibly evicted from the house they've lived in for over 40 years. Other raids targeted numerous residents, eight HRDs arrested including two children. One was charged with threatening Jews during Passover.

In May, 22 more raids were conducted, mostly at night, as well as other clashes with settlers, resulting in 11 arrests, including children. In June, a demolition plan passed an initial Local Planning and Construction Committee hearing, focusing on the Al-Bustan neighborhood where 88 face demolitions on the bogus grounds that they were illegally built. Protests followed, resulting in 60 or more arrests. On June 26 and 27, another 50 were injured.

Other harassments include closures, mobile checkpoints, vehicles stopped and searched, and Jerusalemites ticketed for driving unsafe cars.

Settler violence compounds the abuse. On April 5, a group of extremist Jews tried to provoke Palestinians  with racist posters, shouts of "Death to Arabs....Leave Jerusalem now....go to Amman," and stone-throwing, nearby Israeli security forces doing nothing to stop them, even arresting a targeted child.

"Israeli (violence and other abuses) in Jerusalem are increasing. However, Palestinian Jerusalemites and their international supporters are resisting the oppressive (occupation) and will continue to stand in solidarity for (their) human rights even though their activism comes at a huge cost," including their freedoms and lives.

Targeting International HRDs

The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was most prominent, causing the cold-blooded murder of up to 15 activists. In addition, international HRDs against the Wall and settlements are routinely assaulted and arrested. 

On May 31, Emily Henochowicz, a US citizen was peacefully present during a Qalandiya demonstration when she and other HRDs were assaulted by tear gas canisters. She lost an eye and sustained fractures when struck in the face. 

"They clearly saw us," said Soren Johanssen, a participating Swedish citizen. "They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face."

Although international law obligates other countries to hold human rights violators accountable, they, in fact, collaborate by supporting Israel against the rule of law and well-being of their own nationals. 

As a result, Israel gets away with beating, torture and cold-blooded murder, claiming self-righteousness and self-defense - against nonviolent men, women and children guilty of defending their rights, common decency, and the notion that laws are meant to be obeyed, not abused, the latter an Israeli specialty, mainly against the most vulnerable.

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

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

Part II of an earlier article