UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Criticizes Israel Over Civilian Deaths
Various | 27.11.2006 04:19 | Anti-racism | World
Israel's question is irrelevant, since the IDF admitted that it intentionally targeted civilians. What stumps me is that Israel has counter-measures against these rockets, yet chooses not to employ them.
Arbour criticizes Israel for civilian deaths
Last Updated: Friday, November 24, 2006 | 8:21 PM ET
CBC News
Israel is no less culpable than Hezbollah when it comes to the deaths of civilians, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said, adding it makes little difference whether the killing was intentional.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post Thursday, the former Supreme Court of Canada justice was asked whether there is a distinction under human rights law between missile attacks aimed at killing civilians and military strikes in which civilians are unintentionally killed.
She said that according to criminal law, "there is very little distinction between recklessness and intent."
"It is a small distinction as to whether you desire the result, or you foresee it as virtually certain and you do not care," Arbour said. "In terms of culpability, there is not a lot of difference between recklessness and intent."
More than 800 Lebanese and at least 150 Israelis were killed during the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon last summer.
Hezbollah launched thousands of rockets into populated areas of Israel, but Israeli officials claimed its attacks were against military targets and that any civilian killings were unintentional.
Arbour, who has wrapped up her five-day trip to Israel, said attacks that target civilians and attacks in which civilians are inadvertently killed cannot be equated.
"In one case you could have, for instance, a very objectionable intent — the intent to harm civilians, which is very bad — but effectively not a lot of harm is actually achieved," she said.
Nevertheless, she continued, "… how can you compare that with a case where you may not have an intent but you have recklessness [in which] civilian casualties are foreseeable? The culpability or the intent may not sound as severe, but the actual harm is catastrophic."
She suggested that Israel could be guilty of human rights violations for its actions during its conflict with Hezbollah.
"When you kill civilians virtually each time [in a military attack], at some point you have to ask yourself, 'Wasn't that foreseeable that so many would be killed?" she said. "That is where I think you start having to engage in the possibility that it is somewhat culpable."
She had kicked off her Middle East tour in the area of Beit Hanoun, a northern Gaza town where 19 members of the Al Athamna family were killed earlier this month in an Israeli artillery attack. Israeli officials have claimed it shelled the town in error.
She said the violation of human rights in that area was "massive" and urged both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stop the "cycle of violence" and do more to protect civilians.
www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/11/24/arbour-israel.html
It's interesting that the AP, in a story which further supports the UN posoition that Israel deliberately targeted civilians, characterizes the conflict as fighting between a benign "Jewish state" (as opposed to Zionism's Apartheid, military creation) and a "terrorist group", even though most of the Lebanese people Israel slaughtered were civilians, many in areas where Hezbollah holds little power.
U.N. mine group: Israeli forces laid mines in Lebanon during summer war
The Associated Press
Published: November 25, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon: A U.N. agency said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group — the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during BEIRUT, Lebanon: A U.N. agency said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group — the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest fighting.
A report by the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center followed an investigation of a land mine explosion that wounded two European disposal experts and a Lebanese medic on Friday.
Later Saturday, the agency reported that a British demining expert who was trying to clear mines from the same area where Friday's explosion occured also was injured in a separate land mine blast.
The explosions were caused by Israeli anti-personnel mines placed in fields newly laid during the fighting in July and August in south Lebanon, the center said.
"This is the first evidence we have that the Israeli forces laid new mines in south Lebanon in 2006," the U.N. agency said in a statement.
Israeli military officials said they weren't convinced the mine in Friday's explosion was Israeli. There was no immediate comment from Israel on Saturday's reported incident.
"It could be a Hezbollah land mine or a mine laid by another country, and might not even be from the latest conflict. Many armies have fought there over many years," the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the inquiry into the incident was still at an initial stage.
The officials, however, were evasive when asked whether Israel had laid new mines in Lebanon this summer.
Dalya Farran, a spokeswoman for the U.N. agency, said its experts found the land mines and were able to tell they were new Israeli anti-personnel mines based on their "type, shape and condition."
"The entire area where the mine fields were found had been cleared by agency experts between 2002 and 2004, so clearly these are new ones," Farran said.
Lebanon's south is riddled with land mines, laid by retreating Israeli soldiers who pulled out of the region in 2000, after an 18-year occupation. Hezbollah has also planted mines to ward off Israeli forces.
U.N. experts say up to one million cluster bombs dropped by Israeli aircraft during the July-August war against Hezbollah remain unexploded in south Lebanon, where they continue to threaten civilians. At least 24 people have died in cluster bomb explosions since the war ended Aug. 14.
Friday's blast seriously wounded ordnance disposal experts David Alderson of Britain and Damir Paradzik of Bosnia — both of whom lost a foot — and a Lebanese medic, as they tried to rescue a shepherd from an unmarked minefield in the village of Deir Mimas, two miles northwest of the Israeli border.
Farran said the shepherd had led a herd of goats into an unmarked minefield when one of the animals detonated a land mine. Alderson, Paradzik and the medic heard the explosion, and on trying to help the shepherd, inadvertently detonated a second land mine.
The shepherd was unscathed.
The three wounded men worked for ArmorGroup, a London-based company that has been clearing unexploded ordnance and cluster bombs in south Lebanon since September for the center.
Later Saturday, the U.N. agency said a British deminer tasked with trying to clear mines in the village where Friday's explosion occured stepped on another land mine that detonated Saturday morning. The deminer, who worked for the British-based land mine clearing company BACTEC, had to have his foot amputated. The agency did not give the deminer's name.
Lebanon has long called for Israel to hand over maps of the minefields.
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/25/africa/ME_GEN_Lebanon_Israel_Land_Min
Israel Admits Lebanese Civilians Were Targeted With Cluster Bombs
hamilton.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1718/index.php
Arbour criticizes Israel for civilian deaths
Last Updated: Friday, November 24, 2006 | 8:21 PM ET
CBC News
Israel is no less culpable than Hezbollah when it comes to the deaths of civilians, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said, adding it makes little difference whether the killing was intentional.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post Thursday, the former Supreme Court of Canada justice was asked whether there is a distinction under human rights law between missile attacks aimed at killing civilians and military strikes in which civilians are unintentionally killed.
She said that according to criminal law, "there is very little distinction between recklessness and intent."
"It is a small distinction as to whether you desire the result, or you foresee it as virtually certain and you do not care," Arbour said. "In terms of culpability, there is not a lot of difference between recklessness and intent."
More than 800 Lebanese and at least 150 Israelis were killed during the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon last summer.
Hezbollah launched thousands of rockets into populated areas of Israel, but Israeli officials claimed its attacks were against military targets and that any civilian killings were unintentional.
Arbour, who has wrapped up her five-day trip to Israel, said attacks that target civilians and attacks in which civilians are inadvertently killed cannot be equated.
"In one case you could have, for instance, a very objectionable intent — the intent to harm civilians, which is very bad — but effectively not a lot of harm is actually achieved," she said.
Nevertheless, she continued, "… how can you compare that with a case where you may not have an intent but you have recklessness [in which] civilian casualties are foreseeable? The culpability or the intent may not sound as severe, but the actual harm is catastrophic."
She suggested that Israel could be guilty of human rights violations for its actions during its conflict with Hezbollah.
"When you kill civilians virtually each time [in a military attack], at some point you have to ask yourself, 'Wasn't that foreseeable that so many would be killed?" she said. "That is where I think you start having to engage in the possibility that it is somewhat culpable."
She had kicked off her Middle East tour in the area of Beit Hanoun, a northern Gaza town where 19 members of the Al Athamna family were killed earlier this month in an Israeli artillery attack. Israeli officials have claimed it shelled the town in error.
She said the violation of human rights in that area was "massive" and urged both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stop the "cycle of violence" and do more to protect civilians.
www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/11/24/arbour-israel.html
It's interesting that the AP, in a story which further supports the UN posoition that Israel deliberately targeted civilians, characterizes the conflict as fighting between a benign "Jewish state" (as opposed to Zionism's Apartheid, military creation) and a "terrorist group", even though most of the Lebanese people Israel slaughtered were civilians, many in areas where Hezbollah holds little power.
U.N. mine group: Israeli forces laid mines in Lebanon during summer war
The Associated Press
Published: November 25, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon: A U.N. agency said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group — the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during BEIRUT, Lebanon: A U.N. agency said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group — the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest fighting.
A report by the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center followed an investigation of a land mine explosion that wounded two European disposal experts and a Lebanese medic on Friday.
Later Saturday, the agency reported that a British demining expert who was trying to clear mines from the same area where Friday's explosion occured also was injured in a separate land mine blast.
The explosions were caused by Israeli anti-personnel mines placed in fields newly laid during the fighting in July and August in south Lebanon, the center said.
"This is the first evidence we have that the Israeli forces laid new mines in south Lebanon in 2006," the U.N. agency said in a statement.
Israeli military officials said they weren't convinced the mine in Friday's explosion was Israeli. There was no immediate comment from Israel on Saturday's reported incident.
"It could be a Hezbollah land mine or a mine laid by another country, and might not even be from the latest conflict. Many armies have fought there over many years," the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the inquiry into the incident was still at an initial stage.
The officials, however, were evasive when asked whether Israel had laid new mines in Lebanon this summer.
Dalya Farran, a spokeswoman for the U.N. agency, said its experts found the land mines and were able to tell they were new Israeli anti-personnel mines based on their "type, shape and condition."
"The entire area where the mine fields were found had been cleared by agency experts between 2002 and 2004, so clearly these are new ones," Farran said.
Lebanon's south is riddled with land mines, laid by retreating Israeli soldiers who pulled out of the region in 2000, after an 18-year occupation. Hezbollah has also planted mines to ward off Israeli forces.
U.N. experts say up to one million cluster bombs dropped by Israeli aircraft during the July-August war against Hezbollah remain unexploded in south Lebanon, where they continue to threaten civilians. At least 24 people have died in cluster bomb explosions since the war ended Aug. 14.
Friday's blast seriously wounded ordnance disposal experts David Alderson of Britain and Damir Paradzik of Bosnia — both of whom lost a foot — and a Lebanese medic, as they tried to rescue a shepherd from an unmarked minefield in the village of Deir Mimas, two miles northwest of the Israeli border.
Farran said the shepherd had led a herd of goats into an unmarked minefield when one of the animals detonated a land mine. Alderson, Paradzik and the medic heard the explosion, and on trying to help the shepherd, inadvertently detonated a second land mine.
The shepherd was unscathed.
The three wounded men worked for ArmorGroup, a London-based company that has been clearing unexploded ordnance and cluster bombs in south Lebanon since September for the center.
Later Saturday, the U.N. agency said a British deminer tasked with trying to clear mines in the village where Friday's explosion occured stepped on another land mine that detonated Saturday morning. The deminer, who worked for the British-based land mine clearing company BACTEC, had to have his foot amputated. The agency did not give the deminer's name.
Lebanon has long called for Israel to hand over maps of the minefields.
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/25/africa/ME_GEN_Lebanon_Israel_Land_Min
Israel Admits Lebanese Civilians Were Targeted With Cluster Bombs
hamilton.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1718/index.php
Various
