Israel's Human Rights Violations in the 2009 Gaza Conflict

I can't wait to see how my fellow American Jews justify and spin this one.

Late Thursday Amnesty International released the first comprehensive report on the Israeli invasion of Gaza earlier this year. The report, titled Operation "Cast Lead": 22 Days of Death and Destruction, claims that both Israel and Hamas (as well as other armed Palestinian paramilitary groups) engaged in practices that violated international laws governing wars and conflicts, as well as blatant disregard for human rights.

Israeli forces killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of homes in Gaza in attacks which breached the laws of war.

Amnesty cites several violations of international law committed by the Israelis, including, but not limited to, the following: engaging in indiscriminate attacks using white phosphorous and flechettes (tiny lethal metal darts encased in tank shells), using civilians (including children) as human shields, hindering access to medical care, engaging in firefights that placed medical personnel in direct danger, denying humanitarian aid workers access to the wounded and displaced, and destroying homes and public buildings without justification and/or warning.

It should come as no surprise that Amnesty found Hamas and the other Palestinian armed paramilitary groups guilty of human rights violations. Hamas is a terrorist organization; but Israel is a nation-state that the US claims as a close ally, often citing the Israeli government as the only democracy in the Middle East.

Among the specific Israeli violations Amnesty lists, the following may be the most disturbing:

During Operation “Cast Lead” Israeli forces repeatedly took over Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip forcing families to stay in a ground-floor room while they used the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position – effectively using the families, both adults and children, as “human shields” and putting them at risk. While soldiers wore protective body armour and helmets and shielded themselves behind sandbags as they fired from the houses, the Palestinian inhabitants of the houses had no such protection.

According to testimonies, in several cases Israeli forces also forced unarmed Palestinian civilian males (mostly adults but in two cases also children) to serve as “human shields”, including making them walk in front of armed soldiers; go into buildings to check for booby traps or gunmen; and inspect suspicious objects for explosives. These practices are not new. Numerous such cases have been documented in recent years and the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that such practices contradict international law and prohibited them in October 2005.

These examples say nothing of the destruction of schools and other public buildings. The usual justification for destroying such structures is that the Palestinians are evil people who hole up in these buildings, essentially using the civilians inside as human shields. Pot, meet kettle.

The American press has essentially ignored the story. The New York Times buried the story in its US edition, while giving it a somewhat more prominent spot in its global edition. Alternet, The Huffington Post, and The Raw Story all have stories about the report, though The Huff Post is not providing nearly as prominent a position on their site as this story merits.

There is nothing about Amnesty's report on the websites of America's leading pro-Israel groups. The website for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a haven for hawkish neo-cons and their ilk and self-described as "America's Pro-Israel Lobby", states that their offices are closed today in observance of July 4. There is no such disclaimer on the American Jewish Committee's site (AJC).

I know that many simple-minded folks blindly loyal to Israel will not only justify these actions by the Israeli military, but will also label my words as those of a self-hating Jew. This simple and mindless approach to issues involving human rights does nothing to advance the cause of Israel.

Being an ally, much like being a friend, should be about being critical when necessary; it should not be akin to being a cheerleader. This mindset is dangerous and analogous to that used to justify the US's torture of prisoners. It's time for Jews and others who consider themselves friends and advocates of Israel (I consider myself such a person) to engage in an honest and substantive conversation over human rights. The only way to justify the acts described in this report is to view Palestinians as less than human. Unfortunately, I think this is an apt description of many American Jews' thoughts and feelings about Palestinians.