Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Israel's War Crimes

    * The Nation
    * Foreign Affairs
    * Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
Israel's War Crimes
By Richard Falk
December 29, 2008
Editor's Note: This statement was issued December 27 in response to Israel's 
attack in Gaza by Professor Richard Falk, United Nations special rapporteur 
for human rights in the Occupied Territories and a longtime member of The 
Nation's editorial board.
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive 
violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva 
Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in 
the requirements of the laws of war.
      Those violations include:
. Collective punishment: The entire 1.5 million people who live in the 
crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.
. Targeting civilians: The airstrikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of 
the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely 
populated area of the Middle East.
. Disproportionate military response: The airstrikes have not only destroyed 
every police and security office of Gaza's elected government, but have 
killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit 
groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the 
university.
Earlier Israeli actions, specifically the complete sealing off of entry and 
exit to and from the Gaza Strip, have led to severe shortages of medicine 
and fuel (as well as food), resulting in the inability of ambulances to 
respond to the injured, the inability of hospitals to adequately provide 
medicine or necessary equipment for the injured, and the inability of Gaza's 
besieged doctors and other medical workers to sufficiently treat the 
victims.
Certainly the rocket attacks against civilian targets in Israel are 
unlawful. But that illegality does not give rise to any Israeli right, 
neither as the Occupying Power nor as a sovereign state, to violate 
international humanitarian law and commit war crimes or crimes against 
humanity in its response. I note that Israel's escalating military assaults 
have not made Israeli civilians safer; to the contrary, the one Israeli 
killed today after the upsurge of Israeli violence is the first in over a 
year.
Israel has also ignored recent Hamas diplomatic initiatives to re-establish 
the truce or ceasefire since its expiration on December 26.
The Israeli airstrikes today, and the catastrophic human toll that they 
caused, challenge those countries that have been and remain complicit, 
either directly or indirectly, in Israel's violations of international law. 
That complicity includes those countries knowingly providing the military 
equipment including warplanes and missiles used in these illegal attacks, as 
well as those countries who have supported and participated in the siege of 
Gaza that itself has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
I remind all Member States of the United Nations that the UN continues to be 
bound to an independent obligation to protect any civilian population facing 
massive violations of international humanitarian law--regardless of what 
country may be responsible for those violations. I call on all Member 
States, as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United Nations 
system, to move on an emergency basis not only to condemn Israel's serious 
violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real protection for 
the Palestinian people.
About Richard Falk
Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law and practice at 
Princeton University, is the United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur in the 
Occupied Territories and a member of The Nation editorial board. He is the 
author of many books, including The Costs of War: International Law, the UN, 
and World Order After Iraq. more...
 

 re-establish the truce or ceasefire since its expiration on December 26.
Iniziative .... smentite dalla stessa Hamas.
-Stefano