Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Top 5 Lies About Israel's Assault on Gaza

Lie #1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to 
protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the 
world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under 
international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and 
hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants 
is, in fact, a war crime.
Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of 
Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been 
responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely 
inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within 
Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli 
civilians, it is a war crime.
Hamas has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military 
organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the democratically 
elected representatives of the Palestinian people. Dozens of these elected 
leaders have been kidnapped and held in Israeli prisons without charge. 
Others have been targeted for assassination, such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas 
official. To kill Rayan, Israel targeted a residential apartment building. 
The strike not only killed Rayan but two of his wives and four of his 
children, along with six others. There is no justification for such an attack 
under international law. This was a war crime.
Other of Israel's bombardment with protected status under international law 
have included a mosque, a prison, police stations, and a university, in 
addition to residential buildings.
Moreover, Israel has long held Gaza under siege, allowing only the most 
minimal amounts of humanitarian supplies to enter. Israel is bombing and 
killing Palestinian civilians. Countless more have been wounded, and cannot 
receive medical attention. Hospitals running on generators have little or no 
fuel. Doctors have no proper equipment or medical supplies to treat the 
injured. These people, too, are the victims of Israeli policies targeted not 
at Hamas or legitimate military targets, but directly designed to punish the 
civilian population.
Lie #2) Hamas violated the cease-fire. The Israeli bombardment is a response 
to Palestinian rocket fire and is designed to end such rocket attacks.
Israel never observed the cease-fire to begin with. From the beginning, it 
announced a "special security zone" within the Gaza Strip and announced that 
Palestinians who enter this zone will be fired upon. In other words, Israel 
announced its intention that Israeli soldiers would shoot at farmers and 
other individuals attempting to reach their own land in direct violation of 
not only the cease-fire but international law.
Despite shooting incidents, including ones resulting in Palestinians getting 
injured, Hamas still held to the cease-fire from the time it went into effect 
on June 19 until Israel effectively ended the truce on November 4 by 
launching an airstrike into Gaza that killed five and injured several others.
Israel's violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in retaliation from 
militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in response. The increased 
barrage of rocket fire at the end of December is being used as justification 
for the continued Israeli bombardment, but is a direct response by militants 
to the Israeli attacks.
Israel's actions, including its violation of the cease-fire, predictably 
resulted in an escalation of rocket attacks against its own population.
Lie #3) Hamas is using human shields, a war crime.
There has been no evidence that Hamas has used human shields. The fact is, as 
previously noted, Gaza is a small piece of property that is densely 
populated. Israel engages in indiscriminate warfare such as the assassination 
of Nizar Rayan, in which members of his family were also murdered. It is 
victims like his dead children that Israel defines as "human shields" in its 
propaganda. There is no legitimacy for this interpretation under 
international law. In circumstances such as these, Hamas is not using human 
shields, Israel is committing war crimes in violation of the Geneva 
Conventions and other applicable international law.
Lie #4) Arab nations have not condemned Israel's actions because they 
understand Israel's justification for its assault.
The populations of those Arab countries are outraged at Israel's actions and 
at their own governments for not condemning Israel's assault and acting to 
end the violence. Simply stated, the Arab governments do not represent their 
respective Arab populations. The populations of the Arab nations have staged 
mass protests in opposition to not only Israel's actions but also the 
inaction of their own governments and what they view as either complacency or 
complicity in Israel's crimes.
Moreover, the refusal of Arab nations to take action to come to the aid of 
the Palestinians is not because they agree with Israel's actions, but because 
they are submissive to the will of the US, which fully supports Israel. 
Egypt, for instance, which refused to open the border to allow Palestinians 
wounded in the attacks to get medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals, is 
heavily dependent upon US aid, and is being widely criticized within the 
population of the Arab countries for what is viewed as an absolute betrayal 
of the Gaza Palestinians.
Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been regarded as a traitor to 
his own people for blaming Hamas for the suffering of the people of Gaza. 
Palestinians are also well aware of Abbas' past perceived betrayals in 
conniving with Israel and the US to sideline the democratically elected Hamas 
government, culminating in a counter-coup by Hamas in which it expelled Fatah 
(the military wing of Abbas' Palestine Authority) from the Gaza Strip. While 
his apparent goal was to weaken Hamas and strengthen his own position, the 
Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East are so outraged at Abbas that 
it is unlikely he will be able to govern effectively.
Lie #5) Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it warned the 
Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted.
Israel claims it sent radio and telephone text messages to residents of Gaza 
warning them to flee from the coming bombardment. But the people of Gaza have 
nowhere to flee to. They are trapped within the Gaza Strip. It is by Israeli 
design that they cannot escape across the border. It is by Israeli design 
that they have no food, water, or fuel by which to survive. It is by Israeli 
design that hospitals in Gaza have no electricity and few medical supplies 
with which to treat the injured and save lives. And Israel has bombed vast 
areas of Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and other sites with 
protected status under international law. No place is safe within the Gaza 
Strip.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/01/top-5-lies-about-israel%E2%80%99s-assault-on-gaza/
 

 No place is safe within the Gaza Strip.
Altra *STRONZATA*
-Stefano