Critical Times

War-Crimes and terrorism

Israel is using terrorist tactics to punish the people of Lebanon and Palestine. Deliberate targeting of civilians or indifference to their death or injury is a war-crime. So is mass destruction of civil infrastructure, which will lead to further death and illness very soon. The deliberate creation of a mass of refugees in Southern Lebanon (not only admitted, but boasted about by the Israeli government) is also a war-crime. The blockading of ports and borders, destruction or closing of airports and roads prevent many people from working, farming, collecting food and water or fleeing bombing or ground attacks. This is mass terror. Under the Nuremberg standard used to sentence Nazi war criminals to death, the Israeli government is clearly guilty of war crimes.

Let’s see if we have this right. Hizbollah and Hamas attack military units, take soldiers prisoner, destroy at least one tank – and this is terrorism. Israel launches aerial, naval, and artillery bombardments on civilian areas in neighbouring countries – and they are engaging in self-defense. Hamas and Hizbollah attack Israeli civilians, causing unacceptable but far less civilian deaths – and they are once again the terrorists.

The deliberate targeting of civilians in any country must be condemned, and we at NoWar do condemn this, but the massive hypocrisy and double standards of many western governments and much of their media cheapens the use of the word terrorism to vanishing point. Unless government and military actions like those of Israel (and the US in Iraq) are also called terrorist, the people of the Middle East cannot be blamed for ignoring those governments’ claims to basic morality.

Palestine, Lebanon and the futility of Military Oppression

Entire populations in Palestine (particularly in Gaza) and in Lebanon (particularly in the South) are being collectively punished for making the “wrong” democratic choices. Despairing at long years of Israeli occupation and corrupt and ineffective home governments, many Palestinians and Lebanese turned to support militant Islamicist organisations – Hamas and Hizbollah. The occupation of Palestine continues, while that of Southern Lebanon ended 5 years ago – but its population has continued to fear an Israeli return. We may not like the politics of these groups, we may fear their religious radicalism – but we haven’t been living under a brutal military occupation. Democracy is a joke when your choice is only respected if it suits Israel or the US.

There is clear evidence that the Israeli assault on Lebanon has very little to do with the kidnapping or killing of Israeli soldiers, or rocket attacks on Northern Israel, except as sheer excuse. They are executing a plan 5 years old, created by former PM and war criminal Ariel Sharon and his generals. Veteran US network TV correspondent Martin Fletcher (NBC) says “It was a plan just looking for a pretext.” He added, “It will go on until someone steps in and stops them.”

But what of Hizbollah’s motives in provoking this massive Israeli attack? It was clearly a terrible risk, and the human and material costs are being paid by all of Lebanon. But it seems likely that a major reason was to take some of the pressure off the Gaza Strip, whose people have been suffering greatly for weeks now. And this indicates the ultimate futility of the Israeli approach, just as with that of their US backers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The more people killed, the more towns devastated, the more these armies show the stark reality of occupation and oppression – the more they recruit for the opposition, and the more radical it becomes.

The threat of escalation and Australian involvement

Israel and their US backers are risking a wider Middle Eastern war. They are courting Syria and Iran being drawn in, when conflict would rage from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the borders of China. This is madness: and since the Australian government is an unquestioning supporter of US and Israeli actions, the chances of Australia being drawn in are growing. This country must not be recruited to fight alongside war-criminals and oppressors. Instead we must demand an immediate ceasefire and negotiations between all parties to end the killing and destruction.

NoWar SA GPO Box 1156 Adelaide SA 5001 Ph: 0414773918 nowar@ihug.com.au www.nowar-sa.net