Gaza Destruction Shocks US Congressmen
By IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
CAIRO - American lawmakers were shocked by the scale of Israeli destruction they saw on Thursday, February 19, during a rare visit to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip..
"The amount of physical destruction and the depth of human suffering here is staggering," Democratic representatives Brian Baird and Keith Ellison said in a joint statement cited by Agence France Presse (AFP). After touring destroyed areas and meetings with UN officials, the lawmakers said the situation was "shocking and troubling beyond words."
"The personal stories of children being killed in their homes or schools, of entire families wiped out, and relief workers prevented from evacuating the wounded are heart wrenching," Baird said.
Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the US Congress, harshly criticized restrictions on the delivery of desperately-needed goods into the coastal strip that has been under a long-running crippling Israeli blockade.
"People, innocent children, women and non-combatants, are going without water, food and sanitation, while the things they so desperately need are sitting in trucks at the border, being denied permission to go in," he said. "The stories about the children affected me the most," added Ellison. "No parent, or anyone who cares for kids, can remain unmoved by what Brian and I saw here."
The Israeli air, sea and ground attacks killed nearly 1,400 people, half of them women and children. The 22-day onslaught destroyed nearly 20,000 homes, 48 government offices, 31 police stations and 30 mosques across the impoverished territory.
"Good Step"
"By seeing for themselves, they can get a more balanced view than that of the previous administration," said Youssef. (Google)
US Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate's powerful Foreign Committee and former presidential candidate, also toured Gaza Thursday. He visited the American school left in ruins by Israel's offensive and Izzbet Abed Rabbo, a northern Gaza community ravaged by the Israeli bombing.
The separate visits were the first by US lawmakers since Hamas, which Washington blacklists as a terrorist organization, seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
The three lawmakers made it clear that their visits did not have the official sanction of the Barack Obama administration. They held talks with civilians and relief workers but did not meet with any representatives of Hamas. Kerry insisted the visit "does not indicate any shift whatsoever with respect to Hamas."
Hamas officials saw the visits in positive terms nonetheless. "This is a very good step reflecting the seriousness of this administration to follow up and get information about what is happening on the ground," said Ahmed Youssef, the deputy foreign minister in the Hamas-led Gaza government.
He believes it gives hope that the new US administration might depart from the policies of its predecessor. "By seeing for themselves, they can get a more balanced view than that of the previous administration."
The Bush administration has spearheaded an international campaign to isolate Hamas , which came to power after sweeping the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. It has rejected any contacts with Hamas and backed a crippling Israeli siege on Gaza, home to 1.6 Palestinians. The Bush administration placed the responsibility for the Israeli onslaught squarely on Hamas.
"We know that we are still on the terrorist list and we know their position about not engaging with Hamas," said Youssef. "But we are still happy that they are the ones evaluating the scale of the Israeli crimes and the destruction caused by Israel."
____________
Rep. Ellison toured Gaza for nine hours,
will visit Israeli towns Friday
By Kevin Diaz
February 19, 2009
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/house/39851042..html
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Keith Ellison, one of the first high-level U.S. officials to enter the Gaza Strip in more than three years, said he is haunted by the scenes of destruction from Israel's recent military incursion.
"I have an image of a woman sitting in the rubble of her home burned in my head," the Minnesota Democrat said in a cell phone interview Thursday on his way back to an Israeli check-point.
The second floor of the house he visited had collapsed at an angle. Where a family with five children had once lived, "all that remains is a lean-to," Ellison said.
Ellison, who met with Gaza civilians and relief workers for about nine hours Thursday, said he was not there to assign blame for the violence, though he said the civilian devastation he witnessed was hard for him to understand.
On Friday, he plans to tour the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon, which have been targets of numerous rocket attacks by Hamas forces in Gaza. "I've always believed we need to resolve this thing by diplomacy," said Ellison. "I'm even more convinced of that now."
The trip came amid heightened tensions as Israel declared that it will not open the Gaza Strip's blockaded borders until Hamas insurgents free a captured Israeli soldier. The visit did not have the official sanction of the Obama administration, and the U.S. State Department warned Ellison about its security concerns.
For Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, the Gaza tour is the latest of a series of trips he has made to the Middle East, including a tour of Israel at the behest of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a U.S. lobbying group that advocates for pro-Israel policies.
Steve Hunegs, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said he is interested in learning how Ellison's trip will shape his views about Israel's conflict with Hamas. "We'll look forward to speaking with him upon his return," Hunegs said.
Ellison, who ran in 2006 as a supporter of Israel, said he is no less so now. "I'm a supporter of Israel, but I'm a supporter of the Palestinians too," he said. "One does not preclude the other."
Ellison, traveling with Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., passed through an Israeli checkpoint a little before 7 a.m. local time and was met by relief workers from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Although it took Ellison several days to obtain a clearance from the Israeli government, he said the formalities at his entrance checkpoint took only 10 minutes. "The Israeli government could have stopped us, but they didn't," he said.
Inside Gaza, they saw first-hand the devastation from Israel's Dec. 27 invasion, which was meant to stem the Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli border towns. He said he saw damaged schools, hospitals and factories, including a manufacturer of sweets and cookies that has had to lay off most of its 250 workers.
Guiding his tour was University of Minnesota graduate Stephanie Fox, of Breckenridge, Minn., who was a member of the U.N. team that accompanied Ellison and Baird. "I feel very honored to help these refugees," Fox said.
Ellison said he was struck by how little hostility he encountered among Gaza's civilians, some who offered him sweet tea along the way. "I was a little reluctant to tell people I am an American congressman, but I experienced no hostility or derision," he said. "People were extremely gentle and dignified."
Nor, he said, did he hear much criticism of Hamas, whose rocket attacks Israel blames for the weeks-long Israeli air and ground attacks. "A lot of people said they aren't part of Hamas, and they don't feel responsible for them."
Ellison said his sharpest exchange was with a television reporter who asked him if he felt responsible for the U.S. arms that are supplied to the Israeli Defense Forces.
"I said I'm just here to learn," said Ellison, who recently joined the House Foreign Relations Committee. "As a member of Congress who is called on to make decisions about U.S. policy, I need to see it, lay eyes upon it, and bear witness."
Baird called the experience "profoundly moving and deeply troubling." Ellison and Baird did not meet with Hamas officials on their tour. But prior to entering Gaza from Jerusalem, they travelled to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Riad Malki, foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority.
In January, Ellison was one of 22 House members who abstained from voting for a congressional resolution backing Israel's right to self-defense in its conflict with Hamas.
Though Ellison said he recognizes the Jewish state's right to protect its citizens, he questioned the resolution for making little mention of the human suffering in Gaza. On Thursday, Ellison called for an easing of the Israeli blockade, particularly for food and humanitarian goods, and for an end to the rocket attacks against Israel.
Staff Writer Mitch Anderson contributed to this report.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
_____________________
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88101§ionid=351020202
ICC Zeroing in on Israeli War Crimes?
Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:20:59 GMT
The International Criminal Court prosecutor is exploring ways to launch an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the Hague-based ICC, said he is mulling over the prosecution case of Israeli officials responsible for the suspected crimes committed during the recent offensive in Gaza.
"We are in the analysis phase. I have not yet decided whether we will launch an investigation, but it is a possibility," Moreno-Ocampo told the Argentinean newspaper Perfil.
Israel is suspected of committing war crimes including the use of the deadly white phosphorus shells in densely populated civilian areas, as revealed in an investigation by The Times in January.
While Israel initially denied using the controversial weapon, later mounting evidence forced Israeli officials to admit to having employed the shells.
The International Criminal Court, a treaty-based court, was created in 2002 to allow legal action against war criminals that committed offences after its inception.
The Hague, however, has no jurisdiction over non-signatories to the treaty which created the court. Under such line of argument, Moreno-Ocampo had initially refused to consider the appeal, saying he lacked the legal basis to examine the case.
However, since the Palestinian Authority signed a commitment on January 22 and recognized the court's authority, the prosecutor has appeared more open to study the case.
The announcement by the ICC prosecutor came shortly after the court issued an international arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Iranian Deputy Judiciary Chief Seyyed Ebrahim Raeesi touched on the matter and criticized The Hague on Monday, saying the warrant was issued while the court has shown utter contempt for Israeli war crimes.
Raeesi described the ruling by The Hague on the Sudanese president as politically-motivated, adding that "the ICC has issued its ruling under the influence of global hegemony".
The Iranian official went on to say that the ruling on al-Bashir had been given priority over the case of Israeli crimes against the Gazan civilians despite loud international protests on the matter.
On the same day that the ICC issued the arrest warrant for the president of Sudan, an international conference opened in Tehran to press Interpol to help Iranian prosecutors arrest 15 Israeli leaders on war crimes charges related to the recent war in Gaza.
The ICC has received more than 200 requests from individuals and organizations, including Amnesty International and the Arab League to look into allegations of war crimes during the Israeli war on the Palestinian territory.
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1234631436308&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout
____________________
More?
