3.8.06

HRW Report

HRW Report: (Via UrShalim)
Human Rights Watch produced a 53 page report on Israel's atrocities and violations in Lebanon. The report can be viewed online or downloaded from their site. Following are excerpts from the summary of the report:

This report documents serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana... the cases documented here reveal a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have consistently launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military gain but excessive civilian cost. In dozens of attacks, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.

The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah, and that fighters from the group are using civilians as human shields, thereby placing them at risk. Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack. Hezbollah occasionally did store weapons in or near civilian homes and fighters placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near U.N. observers, which are serious violations of the laws of war because they violate the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. However, those cases do not justify the IDF’s extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so many civilian lives. In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF targeted during or just prior to the attack.

7 Comments:

At Friday, August 04, 2006 4:02:00 AM, Blogger Marroush said...

Lovers of human rights.

If we don't love Israel, we must love Hizballah?

We are lovers of human rights.

We don't need to support either side.

 
At Friday, August 04, 2006 4:02:00 AM, Blogger Marroush said...

An (ironically) great article.

 
At Friday, August 04, 2006 5:52:00 AM, Blogger Akiva M said...

FYI - The IDF has now said that the Qana strike was an intelligence failure, and that they were aiming at an area that had been previously used by Hezbollah based on intelligence that said the buildings were empty, but that there were no Hezbollah operatives near the building at the time of the strike.

Which means that I was wrong in my comments earlier.

I happen to believe that there was no knowledge that there were civillians in the building - both because of the lack of ability to obtain that information and the sheer idiocy that would be involved in knowingly attacking a civillian shelter (not to mention the inhumanity - but dear god what a mistake. And yes, people are human and mistakes are made in war, with great cost. And no, this doesn't make me support this war any less (certainly not with Ahmadinejad openly proclaiming today that an immediate ceasefire was step one on a path towards the destruction of Israel).

But mistake or not, whoever was responsible for that intelligence needs to stand trial. Maybe the mistake was justified based on information coming in, that's why we have trials, not just executions. But if it was pure recklessness, then whoever provided that intelligence or recklessly authorized the strike needs to spend years in jail.

 
At Friday, August 04, 2006 1:24:00 PM, Blogger Marroush said...

A mistake.

"Mistakes are made in war."

That is so comforting.

 
At Saturday, August 05, 2006 1:42:00 AM, Blogger Akiva M said...

Truth rarely is, Marwa. Reality is seldom warm and fuzzy.

But you know what? The day I see you post comments protesting attacks on Israeli civillians, the day I see you call down pro-Hezbollah folks on these blogs who continue to rant and rave about how Israel needs to be destroyed . . . that's the day you can start to lecture. Until then, you're part of that not so warm and fuzzy reality. Because as long as that attitude remains widespread in the Arab world, as long as Arab and muslim "heroes" can openly and longingly speak of the dream of reversing 1948, as long as that's true, Marwa - then Israel has every right to react to an attack on it as an existential threat, as part of an openly declared campaign to destroy it.

 
At Saturday, August 05, 2006 2:23:00 PM, Blogger Marroush said...

I oppose any attacks against innocent civilians - Israeli or Lebanese. I have said this numerous times and feel it so strongly. Israel does not need to be destroyed. And Lebanon must not be either.

It seems akiva, your attitude needs the correcting:

While you ask of me to protest attacks on Israeli civilians, you argue that Israel has the right to attack the Lebanese.

Attacks on BOTH Israeli and Lebanese innocents must be stopped.

Israel does not need to be destroyed. And Lebanon does not need to be either. But I guess you only want to hear the first statement. The second statement makes me a Hizballah lover.

 
At Friday, March 03, 2017 12:41:00 AM, Blogger داليا said...

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