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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 2009, pages 58-59 Human Rights Attorneys Report on Israeli War Crimes in Gaza
AMERICAN MUSLIMS for Palestine (AMP) hosted a dinner and presentation by attorneys Reem Salahi and Noura Erakat upon their return from Gaza as members of the National Lawyers Guild fact-finding delegation. Dr. Hatem Bazian, professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of California at Berkeley and an AMP founder, introduced the activists, who shared their findings with a rapt audience at Newark’s Chandi Restaurant on March 13. “Our legal delegation traveled to Gaza to document violations of the laws of war, but this is still a political issue regardless of how many legal terms we use to describe it,” said Erakat, an attorney teaching at Georgetown University and a fellow with the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights (see following item). In Gaza, the delegation investigated whether Israel, during its 22-day incursion which began Dec. 27, deliberately targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, whether its military deliberately impeded the access of medical personnel, and if its army used illegal or experimental weapons. “We found there were strong indications of all three of our investigatory themes,” Erakat noted. Salahi, an attorney and Bridge Fellow for the National Security and Immigrants’ Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, presented statistics on the buildings destroyed by the Israeli military: 2,400 homes, 60 police stations, 30 mosques, 28 public facilities, 126 industrial centers, and 36 schools, media and health care centers. “The complete civilian infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed,” she deplored. “They primarily targeted homes and schools and basically left Gaza with nothing.” They even destroyed the American International School, displacing 200 to 300 students. Even grimmer was the human toll. “Civilians were constantly under attack,” the attorney said. “Of the 1,366 people killed, 895 were civilians, 180 police officers, 431 children, and 126 women. The numbers show that, contrary to Israel’s protestations, this was not a targeted attack against Hamas.” Israel’s use of illegal weapons was also investigated. “Israel used white phosphorus very, very extensively in this invasion,” Salahi said. As opposed to a normal burn, a white phosphorus burn, if exposed to oxygen, keeps burning and eating away at the flesh and, if not treated immediately and properly, causes death. Salahi also spoke to doctors who had removed flechettes from patients. Flechettes are metal darts that are sharply pointed at the front, with four fins at the rear. Some 8,000 are packed into 120 mm shells which explode and scatter over an area about 984 feet wide and 328 feet long. They go deep into the skin and are hard to remove. “Flechettes are completely illegal to use in a civilian area, especially a densely populated one,” explained Salahi. Doctors also treated patients with injuries that could be consistent with the use of DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive). This experimental weapon causes deep cuts and amputations. Erakat recounted testimonials from many Gazans, including the heartbreaking story of Ahmed, one of several children discovered by Red Cross workers beside their mothers’ corpses. The tragedy was described in a Jan. 8 New York Times article. She also related conversations with medical personnel who, for days, were denied access to help victims. —Elaine Pasquini |
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