[News] Candy for Israeli soldiers, cancer for Gaza’s civilians
Anti-Imperialist News
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Tue Jul 29 10:32:40 EDT 2014
Candy for Israeli soldiers, cancer for Gaza’s civilians
Submitted by Adri Nieuwhof on Tue, 07/29/2014 - 13:46
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/candy-israeli-soldiers-cancer-gazas-civilians*
In an especially grotesque piece of propaganda, an Israeli weapons
manufacturer has boasted
<http://www.iai.co.il/2013/32981-46067-en/MediaRoom_News.aspx> of
distributing candy to soldiers attacking Gaza
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza>.
Israel Aerospace Industries
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israel-aerospace-industries>, the
company in question, is a leading supplier of drones to the Israeli
military.
Such drones are, of course, not bringing candy to Palestinians. They are
being used to drop weapons which cause horrific injuries.
A new briefing
<http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/topics/gaza/835-briefing-note-ii-the-illegality-of-israels-use-of-dime-weapons>
from Al-Haq <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-haq>, a Palestinian
human rights group, details how Hellfire rockets connected to drones are
firing DIME <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/dime> (dense inert metal
explosives) into residential areas of Gaza. Mads Gilbert
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mads-gilbert>, a Norwegian doctor
working in Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-shifa-hospital>, has spoken
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israel-firing-experimental-weapons-gazas-civilians-say-doctors>
of how injuries he has seen in recent weeks appear to have been caused
by DIME.
Bodies cut in half
A DIME bomb usually contains a mixture of explosive material, cobalt,
nickel, iron and tungsten alloy. The bomb leaves almost no metallic
fragments in the human body. The injuries of victims who have been hit
by DIME bombs are therefore distinguishable from injuries from
traditional, metal-coated weapons. Physicians in the Gaza Strip have
observed how entire bodies have been cut in half, bones shattered, and
skin, muscle and bones turned into charcoal due to the heavy burns
caused by these bombs. Furthermore, DIME bombs have dangerous biological
effects on the victims and cause tissue to be torn from flesh.
Amputations caused by the bombs are extremely difficult to treat and
frequently result in death. Work on treating such injuries has been made
all the more difficult by how Israel has attacked more than twenty
health facilities.
Palestinians who survive the DIME injuries are at high risk of
contracting cancer <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/cancer>. Exposure
to a mixture of tungsten and cobalt are linked
<http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/clusters/fallon/tungstenfaq.htm> to early signs
of lung cancer, according to the US Center for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Criminal
Al-Haq argues that Israel’s use of DIME bombs against the people of Gaza
violates international humanitarian law.
A key tenet of international law, the principle of proportionality
<http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_cha_chapter4_rule14>,
prohibits the causing of death and injuries to civilians. More than 80
percent of all Palestinians killed so far have been civilians
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10491:statistics-victims-of-the-israeli-offensive-on-gaza-since-08-july-2014&catid=145:in-focus>,
according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/pchr>. Children comprise one-fifth
of the victims.
In addition, the 1980 convention on chemical weapons prohibits the use
of weapons which “cause superfluous injury or excessive suffering.”
Israel has signed <http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/ccwc> that
convention.
The convention also prohibits the use of any weapon which aims to injure
by placing fragments in the human body that escape detection. Al-Haq
argues that Israel is using Palestinian civilians in Gaza to test DIME
bombs. By doing so, Israel violates the principle of humanity
<http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule92> in
international law, which requires that all persons be treated humanely
in all circumstances.
Conducting experiments on civilians is also recognized
<http://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf>
as a war crime by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-criminal-court>.
This leads to an inescapable conclusion: Israel must be prosecuted for
its cruel and criminal behavior in Gaza.
--
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