[News] Palestine - Thank God, It Was Only Rumors

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/heller04012009.html
April 1, 2009


Tales of War Crimes


Thank God, It Was Only Rumors

By STANLEY HELLER


Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit has 
instructed the Military Police Investigation unit to close the 
inquiry into Israeli soldiers' accounts of serious violations of the 
army's rules of engagement during the Gaza Massacre or as the IDF so 
winningly calls it: "Operation Cast Lead". It turns out the General 
discovered all the charges "were based on hearsay and not first-hand 
experience." Just a bunch of rumors.

Thank God for that. Those shells were just rumors, the ones that hit 
the U.N. warehouse and the al-Quds Hospital. It wasn't white 
phosphorus. The jellyfish-like white tentacles that are a signature 
for a white phosphorus burst were probably a Palestinian fireworks 
display. The Abu Halima family was wrong. There was no shell that 
exploded in their house killing four children. 
<http://www.hrw.org/en/features/rain-fire-white-phosphorus-gaza>Human 
Right Watch made a mistake. It must have been a sandstorm or a jinn.

Stories that Israeli soldiers wrecked and defiled Palestinian homes 
were obviously urban legends. After claiming to visit one home near 
Jabalya camp Israeli newspaper columnist 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068989.html>Amira Hass wrote,

"There are houses where excrement was smeared on the walls, or where 
dry piles of it were found in corners. In many cases, the smells 
indicated that soldiers had urinated on piles of clothing or inside a 
washing machine. In all the houses the toilets were overflowing and 
clogged, and there was filth all around. When the Abu Eidas returned 
to house No. 5 in Jabalya, they discovered pots of urine and 
excrement in the refrigerator."

Where did she come up with this tall tale? The courageous Israelis 
who commented on her article nailed her good, "What Propaganda", said 
Gershon Reed" , "Yes, Amira War is Hell", said Baruch Gold. "More 
Hamas Propaganda", said "Rambo".

In an effort to clear up confusion Israeli army chief Gabi Ashkenazi 
announced, "I can say that the IDF is the most moral army in the 
world." Well there you have it. It comes from the Chief of Staff, 
himself. The International Red Cross complained that the Israeli army 
was firing on ambulances. No doubt the charge is a lie. An Israeli 
handwritten order on a piece of paper that stated: 
"<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072830.html>Rules of 
Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue', was obviously just a joke. 
Have humanitarian organizations no sense of humor?

Amos Harel, the Haaretz military affairs reporter, tells about the 
testimony given to Danny Zamir who interviewed soldiers who had 
graduated from his pre-military preparatory program at Oranim 
Academic College and who had fought in Gaza. Zamir claimed that 
soldiers told him accounts of soldiers killing a woman and two of her 
children, shooting and killing an elderly Palestinian woman, and 
destroying property at will. 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072475.html>Supposedly a 
soldier told Zamir, "That what's great in Gaza, you could say - you 
see someone walking down a track, not necessarily armed, and you can 
simply shoot them. In our case, it was an elderly woman." Obviously 
Harel or Zamir made it all up.

In <http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074218.html>another article 
Harel brings up testimonies about the army's use of the so-called 
"neighbor procedure". What's wrong with asking a Palestinian to 
invite his neighbors to come out for a polite chat with the Israeli 
army? Harel says Israeli soldiers force Palestinians to do this. 
Nonsense. Hearsay. Baseless slander. Israelis don't take human 
shields. By definition that's only something Arabs do.

Another Haaetz columnist 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html>Gideon Levy wrote, 
"An army whose armored corps has yet to encounter an enemy tank and 
whose pilots have yet to face an enemy combat jet in 36 years has 
been trained to think that the only function of a tank is to crush 
civilian cars and that a pilot's job is to bomb residential 
neighborhoods." What does Levy know? An old woman could be a suicide 
bomber. A six year old could be a suicide bomber. So the IDF 
destroyed 
<http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article807>20 
ambulances. Ambulances could be carrying terrorists. As a U.S. bumper 
sticker said in Vietnam days, "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."

Bleeding heart Amnesty International bellyached about the 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html>use of flechettes 
in Gaza. "Flechettes are 4cm long metal darts that are sharply 
pointed at the front, with four fins at the rear. Between 5,000 and 
8,000 are packed into 120mm shells which are generally fired from 
tanks.." They are " anti-personnel weapon designed to penetrate dense 
vegetation". Well, doesn't Israel have to fight the terrorists who 
hide in Gaza's vast jungles? Amnesty claims Wafa' Nabil Abu Jarad, a 
21-year-old pregnant mother of two, was one of those killed by 
flechettes in Gaza. Where does it come up with this science fiction?

Since the IDF is a most moral army the photos of hateful graffitti 
soldiers allegedly wrote on houses in Gaza were necessarily faked. 
Journalist <http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1071651.html>Amira 
Hass says there were sentences like "We came to annihilate you; Death 
to the Arabs; Kahane was right; No tolerance, we came to liquidate." 
She writes about scribblings cursing the prophet Muhammad. Clearly 
bogus. So what if the graffiti "appears alongside the names of army 
units and individual soldiers." Hasn't she heard of Photoshop?

And where did the Israeli journalist Uri Blau come up with 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html>this dubious 
report? "Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a 
gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few 
examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these 
days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of 
field duty." He claims "A sharpshooter's T-shirt from the Givati 
Brigade's Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a 
bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, 1 
shot, 2 kills.' He even has a photo. Still, he must have made a 
mistake. The most moral army in the world doesn't shoot pregnant 
women. It wouldn't brag about its cruelty on casual wear. Givati 
Brigade T-shirts no doubt feature purple bougainvillea flowers 
emblazoned with the slogan "Purity in Arms".

Stanley Heller is host of "<http://www.www.TheStruggle.org>The 
Struggle" TV news magazine Contact him at 
<mailto:mail at TheStruggle.org>mail at TheStruggle.org




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