[News] Israeli Extra-Judicial Executions

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Israeli Extra-Judicial Executions

March, 04 2008

By Stephen Lendman

At 8:50AM on February 27, an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a 
civilian microbus on the coastal road near Khan Yunis in the southern 
Gaza Strip. Six members of the Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades were in it 
at the time. Five of them were killed. The sixth one was seriously injured.

Twenty minutes later, another aircraft attacked a vehicle in which 
other Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades members were traveling. They 
escaped harm by fleeing before missiles struck their car and destroyed it.

On March 1, Hamas reported that Israelis killed 91 Palestinians in 
February, 83 in Gaza and eight in West Bank, and the killing 
continues to escalate. The International Middle East Media Center 
(IMEMC) said eyewitnesses confirmed that IDF troops and tanks invaded 
Jabalyia (in Gaza) before dawn on Saturday. They targeted the refugee 
camp, struck at resident homes, attacked medical relief workers, 
fired missiles at cars and in residential areas, and killed at least 
37 Palestinians (mostly civilians) and injured 120 others by midday. 
IMEMC later on Saturday raised the toll to 56 dead and updated it 
again Sunday AM to 98 as IDF forces continued rampaging without letup.

Haaretz first reported 34 deaths on Saturday, including five children 
and three women. Later in the day, it upped the total to 50, then 59 
and by Sunday noon the total known killed was "more than 70." AP 
first indicated 33 deaths, then raised it to 45, then 50 late in the 
day and 66 by Sunday morning (plus about 200 wounded) and nearly 
100  deaths since February 27.

The Palestinian Ma'an News Agency reported 84 deaths since Saturday, 
98 in total since February 27 and over 200 wounded, many with mangled 
bodies and serious life-threatening injuries. Throughout the weekend, 
Israeli aircraft struck many targets, including Hamas' headquarters 
building (unoccupied at the time) that "completely collapsed" and 
injured five people, according to witnesses.

Reports continue being updated, and the latest 6PM Gaza time one from 
the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) indicates the 
following: 101 documented deaths since February 27, including 49 
unarmed civilians. They include 25 children and five women. In 
addition, more than 250 people have been injured, mostly unarmed 
civilians, and many injuries are serious. Further, there's been 
widespread destruction of homes, other buildings and property 
throughout Gaza. As it usually does, the IDF employs 
"disproportionate and excessive lethal force in residential 
districts, with utter disregard for the lives of civilians."

Under international law, these are crimes of war and against 
humanity. On March 1, the Palestinian human rights organization, 
Al-Haq, issued a statement saying: "Many of the recent Israeli 
attacks constitute war crimes which may amount to grave breaches of 
the Geneva Conventions, for which (Israelis are) criminally 
responsible" and must face trial. Al-Haq called on the international 
community to act because "All states have criminal jurisdiction to 
try (the) accused....by virtue of the principle of universal 
jurisdiction....No excuse can therefore justify their inaction in 
view of the unlawful willful killing of (Palestinian) civilians in" 
occupied Palestine.

PCHR also reported that an Israeli aircraft bombed Abd El-Rahman 
Mohammad Ali Atallah's home in Gaza City on Saturday. It was 
completely destroyed and killed six members of his family, including 
three women. Six other  family members were injured, four of whom 
were children and one was a "two-day old" infant. The situation is 
dire, hospitals can't cope, Israeli forces prevent ambulances from 
evacuating the injured, supplies of everything are short, morgues are 
overwhelmed, coffins aren't available to bury bodies, and overall 
conditions are impossible for Gazans to handle as they continue being 
attacked without mercy.

Palestinians in the West Bank are also affected. On Sunday, Israeli 
forces assaulted protesters:

-- in Hebron with live rounds and tear gas, killing a 14 year old boy 
and injuring 45 others, including 24 children;

-- in Ramallah the same way injuring seven teenagers; and

-- in Bethlelem as well injuring two boys, one from bullet wounds to 
the leg and the other from tear gas inhalation. Other demonstrations 
took place in Jenin, Nablus and other West Bank and Gaza locations. 
Hundreds of Israeli Arabs also held one in Nazareth, Israel on Friday 
after the High Court denied a petition to overturn a police ban 
preventing Israeli Arabs from holding a memorial service for recently 
deceased George Habash, the founder of the Popular Front for the 
Liberation of Palestine and its Secretary-General until 2000. No 
violence was reported.

Meanwhile for Jews inside Israel, life proceeds normally as they 
conduct their daily affairs. So far, the toll on them and IDF forces 
is minimal:

-- a single civilian death,

-- two soldiers killed by early evening Saturday,

-- two others slightly wounded on Saturday and four others lightly on Sunday,

-- seven lightly injured Israeli civilians on Saturday from nearby 
rocket explosions, and

-- two others by shrapnel from an exploding Katyusha rocket on Sunday.

But it's just the beginning according to Defense Minister Ehud Barak. 
He said a large-scale invasion is imminent with IDF forces massed on 
the border, awaiting orders to invade and attack. It won't be the 
first time as assaults have gone on for decades. But they became 
especially frequent after the second Intifada began on September 29, 
2000. From then through late January 2008, PCHR documented the 
extra-judicial killings alone:

-- 705 in total;

-- 478 of them targeted victims;

-- 227 of them innocent civilians; and

-- 68 of them (through June 2006) children.

Total Palestinian deaths and injuries from September 29, 2000 through 
late January 2008 are as follows, according to PCHR:

-- 4419 Palestinians killed, including 794 children, 152 women, 25 
medical personnel and 10 journalists;

-- 11,700 Palestinians injured in Gaza; and

-- 13,550 Palestinians wounded in the West Bank;

Palestinians are attacked on any pretext, but February 28 wasn't 
typical. A day after a Qassam rocket killed an Israeli in Sderot, 
Israeli aircraft killed 18 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. 
Five of them were children, and it was after 11 deaths the previous 
day, including three children. One victim was the son of senior Hamas 
lawmaker, Khalil al-Haya, a top figure in Gaza and himself a target 
of previous assassination attempts. Palestinians know what they face 
- continued attacks from the air or the ground. This is state 
terrorism, collective punishment, executions without trial, 
cold-blooded killings, a serious breach of international law and 
against the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of 
Genocide. More on that below, but first some background.

In its June 4, 2001 issue, Israel's largest circulation (Hebrew) 
newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, published the following statement from 
an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman: "We set up a list of 
Palestinian names of individuals whom the Israeli government has 
approved for physical elimination, among the names are included 
members of Hamas, Fatah, Popular Front and Islamic Jihad activists."

This is official state policy, and Israel's High Court affirmed it in 
December 2006. The Court ruled that IDF targeted killings don't 
categorically violate international law, and each one must be 
evaluated on its own merit. Specifically, the three justice panel 
unanimously stated:

"The State of Israel is fighting against severe terrorism, which 
plagues it from the 'area.' The means at Israel's disposal are 
limited. The State determined that preventative strikes upon 
'terrorists' in the 'area' which cause their deaths are a necessary 
means from the military standpoint. These strikes at times cause harm 
and even death to innocent civilians....the State's struggle against 
terrorism is not conducted 'outside' of the law. It is conducted 
'inside' the law....(We) cannot determine in advance that targeted 
killing is always illegal....that it is prohibited according to 
customary international law."

This and comparable High Court rulings have stunning implications. 
They affirm Israel's claim to be above the law with the right to 
conduct willful state-sponsored killings. The Court's justification 
was that the State is waging armed conflict against Palestinian 
"terrorists." Their members are civilians who aren't protected under 
international law. To be afforded such protection, "A 
civilian....must refrain from taking a direct part in the 
hostilities." Those who violate "this principle (are) subject to the 
risks of attack like those to which a combatant is subject, without 
enjoying the rights of a combatant."

Executive Director, Hannah Friedman, of The Public Committee Against 
Torture in Israel responded to the decision. She stated: "We are 
concerned that today's High Court of Justice ruling will worsen the 
current situation and create a dangerous path that will lead to an 
increase in the number of innocent civilians who are killed or 
injured." In the past 14 months, it's been horrendous as violence 
escalates, international law is ignored, and the world community is 
mute about mass-murder crimes, overwhelming human suffering, and can 
barely say more than both sides must end violence and resume peace 
negotiations.

Israeli Violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention

Israel is a serial international law abuser. Specifically, it commits 
grave violations of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention that protects 
civilians in times of war and has done it for decades:

-- Article 2 states that "the present Convention shall apply to all 
cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise 
between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the 
state of war is not recognized by one of them. The Convention shall 
also apply to all cases of partial or total occupation of the 
territory....even if the said occupation meets with no armed resistance;"

-- Article 3 prohibits all kinds of assaults on life or physical security;

-- Article 27 refers to "protected persons" and states "They shall at 
all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially 
against all acts of violence....,"

-- Article 32 prohibits murder, torture and corporal punishment, and

-- Article 33 prohibits collective punishment and "all measures of 
intimidation or....terrorism."

Geneva and other international human rights laws guarantee what 
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: that 
everyone "has the right to life, liberty and security of person." It 
also affirms Article 6 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights of 1966 stating that every "human being has the 
inherent right to life." Violations of Geneva and other internationa 
laws are crimes of war and against humanity. Israel is a serial 
offender but has yet to be held to account.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights documented its extra-judicial 
executions from September 29, 2000 through December 2007 and updates 
it weekly on its web site - pchrgaza.org. Below are examples, but 
first some background.

Some Brief History of Israeli Targeted Killings

Without cause, these executions target specific individuals with 
explicit government approval, and Israelis have done it for decades. 
During the Mandatory Palestine period, Stern Gang (later renamed 
Lehi) and Irgun members were underground terrorists with very 
committed aims - to drive out the British (seen as occupiers), allow 
unrestricted Jewish immigration, remove indigenous Arabs, and 
establish the Jewish state of Israel. They carried out killings and 
bombings, some of which were notorious like Lehi's 1944 assassination 
of Britain's Lord Moyne, the military governor of Egypt. Another was 
Irgun's infamous 1946 King David Hotel bombing killing 91 Brits, 
Arabs and Jews and injuring many more.

Two of their leaders became future prime ministers - Lehi's Yitzhak 
Shamir (1983 - 84 and 1986 - 1992) and Irgun's Menachem Begin (1977 - 
1983), but they were wanted men before 1948. The New York Times 
called Irgun a "terrorist organization," and the World Zionist 
Congress in 1946 strongly condemned "the shedding of innocent blood 
as a means of political warfare." It was just beginning.

In the 1950s, targeted killings were common and were used to halt 
fedayeen resistance attacks from Egypt. In 1967, after Gaza and the 
West Bank were occupied, Palestinians became the favorite target, 
inside and outside the Territories, and by various means:

-- car and mail bombs,

-- air attacks,

-- commando raids,

-- undercover operations,

-- poisoning,

-- snipers, and

-- various other methods, including proxy forces to do Israeli killing.

General Ariel Sharon commanded an "anti-terror" detachment in the 
early 1970s that targeted Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza. 
Through undercover operations, the unit killed 104 Palestinians and 
arrested 742 others.

After Israeli athletes were killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Prime 
Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan established 
"Committee X" that used Mossad operatives to find the kill the 
perpetrators. Thirteen deaths resulted, including a Moroccan busboy 
in Norway by mistake.

Throughout the 1970s, Palestinians in the Territories were targeted, 
especially its leaders, and in 1982 Israelis nearly killed Yasir 
Arafat with car bombs, air attacks and at least once when a sniper 
had him targeted but got no orders to shoot. His second in command, 
Abu Jihad (Khalil el-Wazir), was less fortunate. He was key to the 
first Intifada's success, an irreplaceable leader, and had to be 
eliminated. Ehud Barak reportedly got the assignment and headed a 
commando operation that killed him.

Executions continued in the 1990s, including three major ones with 
mixed success. One killed Islamic Jihad leader, Fathi Shikaki, in 
Malta in 1995. Another eliminated Yahya Ayyash, a Hamas Izzaddin 
al-Qassam Brigades member who was known as "the Engineer" for his 
bomb-making skills. One embarrassing attempt failed. It targeted 
Hamas' Amman, Jordan political bureau chief, Khaled Meshal. Two 
Mossad agents poisoned him but were captured by Jordanian authorities 
before they could flee. To secure their release, Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to provide the poison's antidote and 
release Hamas' founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, from an Israeli prison.

With the outbreak of the second Intifada, killings escalated 
markedly. Below are examples, including several high-ranking Palestinians:

-- Abu Ali Mustafa - head of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation 
of Palestine (PFLP),

-- Mustafa Zibri - the PFLP's Secretary-General,

-- Raed al-Karmi - a Lebanese Tanzim movement leader, and

-- many mid-level resistance fighters from various Palestinian groups 
opposing the occupation.

Examples of Extra-Judicial Executions from September 29, 2000 Through 
December 2006

All three Israeli government branches support extra-judicial killings 
and require no evidence to justify them. Officials merely say those 
targeted are wanted, dangerous, and threaten State security. As a 
result, security forces kill with impunity and with no regard for the 
innocent, including women, children, the elderly or infirm.

Consider an egregious example. On July 12, 2006, IDF aircraft 
attacked the home of Dr. Nabeel Abu Silmiya in the Gaza City Sheikh 
Radwan neighborhood. The house was completely destroyed and Dr. 
Nabeel, his wife and seven children were killed - possibly in error, 
according to IDF. It claimed it targeted Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades 
leader, Mohammed al-Daif, and a number of his colleagues but struck 
the wrong house instead.

Multiple killings are common and are carried out against civilian 
homes, government buildings and structures, and by planting bombs in 
cars and targeted shootings on the ground. The death toll keeps 
rising, and PCHR documented specific examples below.

Examples of IDF Executions from January Through March 2007

Five targeted killings occurred in the period during which three 
others were injured.

On February 1, IDF soldiers killed Jaser Nader Ahmad Abut Zugheib in 
the Tulkarm refugee camp. In the same incursion, two Palestinians 
were wounded, one seriously with a bullet in the chest.

On February 21, an IDF undercover unit targeted the al-Bassatin area 
west of Jenin. It killed Mahmoud Ibrahim Qassem Obaid, an Islamic 
Jihad al-Quds Brigades leader, by shooting him in the head at close range.

On February 28, another IDF undercover unit executed three Islamic 
Jihad members as they tried to flee the Jenin refugee camp in a car.

In the examples above, arrests weren't attempted, and victims were 
either wounded or unarmed when IDF soldiers executed them Mafia-style 
by point-blank shootings. PCHR stresses that with no due process and 
the absence of evidence, there's no guarantee or even likelihood that 
targeted individuals committed crimes. They were simply Israeli 
vigilante justice victims targeting the innocent.

Selected IDF Executions from April Through June 2007

During the period, 25 killings occurred, but only 16 were actually targeted.

On April 21, an IDF undercover unit attacked a car in Jenin killing 
three Palestinians in it. Two were al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members 
and the other belonged to the al-Quds Brigades. On the same day, an 
IDF aircraft-fired missile killed an innocent civilian in his vehicle 
who had no affiliation with Palestinian resistance groups.

On May 4, Seilat al-Harthiya village, west of Jenin was attacked. Two 
al-Quds Brigades members and a mentally disabled Palestinian civilian 
were executed.

On May 20, an IDF aircraft missile struck a Gaza City al-Shojaeya 
neighborhood meeting hall killing seven members of the al-Haya family 
and a Hamas activist as well as wounding three others.

On May 29, IDF undercover units killed two Palestinian activists in 
Ramallah and Jenin and wounded five others.

On June 1, the IDF assassinated an Islamic Jihad member in Khan Yunis.

On June 12, the IDF executed an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member in 
the north Tulkarm Saida village.

On June 24, the IDF killed three al-Quds Brigades members and wounded 
three civilians.

On June 30, IDF forces executed three al-Quds Brigades members in Khan Yunis.

Selected IDF Executions from July Through September 2007

On July 26, an IDF aircraft struck a vehicle south of Gaza City 
killing three activists in it.

On August 4, an aircraft-fired missile struck a civilian car near the 
Rafah International Crossing Point on the Egyptian border. Three 
al-Quds Brigades members in it were seriously wounded but managed to 
survive. Moments later, two other missiles hit another civilian car 
killing the driver and a civilian bystander and wounding 12 others.

On August 20, IDF forces executed four Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades 
members and two additional Palestinian Ministry of Interior Executive 
Force members in central Gaza's al-Boreij refugee camp.

On August 21, IDF air and ground forces killed three Palestinians in 
al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis.

On August 22, the IDF executed an Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades member 
and wounded another east of Gaza City.

  During the last week of August, three children were 
extra-judicially killed in Beit Hanoun. There was no evidence they 
had any affiliation with a local resistance group.

On September 26, IDF forces executed five Army of Islam members in 
the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

Examples of IDF Executions from September through December 2007

On October 11, an IDF undercover unit killed one and wounded another 
al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member near al-Hamam Square in Jenin.

On November 25, IDF forces executed an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades 
member in the Tulkarm refugee camp, east of the town. Witnesses said 
he raised his hands to surrender but was shot in the neck. Seriously 
injured, two IDF soldiers beat him violently and let him bleed to 
death in a coffee shop. A second man was also seriously injured in the attack.

On November 29, IDF aircraft attacked and killed two Izziddin 
al-Qassam Brigades members northeast of Khan Yunis.

Attacks continue unabated - by air strikes and on-the-ground 
Mafia-style executions in violation of sacred international law 
explained above. And a Haaretz February 29 article suggests they 
threaten to escalate.  It quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak blaming 
Hamas for the increased violence and said it will "bear the cost of 
our response....(it's) necessary and will be carried out." On the 
same day, Knesset chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense 
Committee, Tzachi Hanegbi, said IDF forces must "quickly....topple 
the Hamas terror regime and take over all the areas from which 
rockets are fired on Israel," and they should remain in those areas for years.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai went further and threatened a 
"shoah," which is the Hebrew word for holocaust. On Israeli radio he 
said: "the more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets 
reach a longer range, (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a 
bigger 'shoah' because we will use all our might to defend 
ourselves." The comment is outrageous, it incites genocide, and it's 
a punishable crime in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Gregory Stanton's Genocide Watch site has a mission: to "predict, 
prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder 
(by) rais(ing awareness and influenc(ing) public policy concerning 
potential and actual genocide." Its aim "is to build an international 
movement to prevent and stop genocide," and it's badly needed in 
Occupied Palestine where Israel has conducted state-sponsored 
genocide for decades according to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe.

International law expert Francis Boyle agrees and proposed in a March 
20, 1998 article that "the Provisional Government of (Palestine) and 
its President institute legal proceedings against Israel before the 
International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague for violating the 
(Genocide Convention)." He categorically stated that "Israel has 
indeed perpetrated the international crime of genocide against the 
Palestinian people (and the) lawsuit would....demonstrate that 
undeniable fact to the entire world." Boyle would likely agree that 
the case today is even more compelling at a time Israeli forces are 
ravaging Gaza and assaulting West Bank communities as well.

Genocide is hideous in concept and execution, and Stanton explains 
how it progresses in eight defined stages:

1. Classification - Cultures or societies distinguish between "us and 
them" to categorize people by race, religion, nationality or other 
distinguishing characteristic;

2. Symbolization - Classifications are given names or other symbols, 
such as Jews, Latinos, blacks or Muslims.

3. Dehuminization - A dominant group denies another's humanity and 
equates its members with animals, vermin, insects, diseases or, in 
the case of Palestinian resistance fighters, gunmen or terrorists;

4. Organization - Genocide is always organized; most often it's by 
the state using militias, the military and/or other security forces 
to target victimized groups;

5. Polarization - Extremists incite hate through propaganda and other 
communication methods, and laws and other measures often target the victims;

6. Preparation - Victims are identified, separated out and targeted 
for elimination;

7. Extermination - Once it starts, it escalates to mass killing 
that's legally defined as "genocide;" and finally

8. Denial - The final stage assures continued genocide will follow 
with evidence of it suppressed or destroyed. Some genocidal regimes 
are brought to justice like the Nazis at Nuremberg. Others like 
Israeli governments since 1948 have gotten away with it for decades 
with no indication (so far) the Olmert or a future regime will be 
held to account.

Minister Vilnai affirms that killing may now escalate against a 
people who've been under a medieval siege for months. Talk of peace 
and ceasefire is hollow, Israel and Washington incite violence and 
want none of it, and IDF commanders are preparing a large-scale 
assault to target Hamas for removal. How much longer will this go on? 
When will the occupation end? How many more killings will be 
tolerated? When will world leaders take note? People who care want 
answers. It's about time they got them.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at 
lendmanstephen at sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at 
sjlendman.blogspot.com.

----------
From:
Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL:
<http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16752>http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16752





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