About 25 of us trudged towards military prison 400, just outside of Tel Aviv, coils of razor wire and lookout towers looming above us, fields of mud and dry grass to our right. As we walked past, soldiers in the towers yelled out to us in Hebrew: “We are prisoners, too” and “We don’t like the cops either!” referring to the two police vehicles trailing us. When we reached our destination – an opening in the field, nestled between the fences marking the perimeter of the prison – we began setting up the sound system and preparing for the day’s goal of reaching earshot of Or Ben-David, a young Israeli being held in prison for refusing the army draft.

The CPCCA states baldly that “calls for the destruction of the State of Israel are inherently antisemitic.” It also states that the “new antisemitism” is exemplified by calls for “the destruction of the State of Israel and its inhabitants.” This conflates two completely different concepts. We would certainly be opposed to the violent destruction of the State of Israel and of Israel as a society, and the expulsion of its inhabitants. But we need not oppose, at least in principle, the political transformation of the State of Israel into a different kind of entity, such as a binational state.

The submission of Independent Jewish Voices (Aug. 25) to the CPCCA put it well: “To be critical of Israeli policies or even to challenge the legitimacy of the existence of a Jewish state is not equivalent to calling for the physical destruction of the State, or advocating genocide against Israeli citizens.”

The submission by the United Jewish People’s Order (Aug. 24) also put it well: “We feel that our sensitivity to the presence of anti-Semitism justifies our position that classifying criticism of Israeli government policies, by both Jews and non-Jews, as anti-Semitism is meant only as an attempt to shut down discourse and debate concerning Israel.”

and also a petition.

There is a sense of urgency to bring this investigation forward and to put those responsible on trial but one must understand that something much more sinister did not even get a mention and has since been swept under the carpet.

Let's take a closer look at some aspects of this report which certainly showed a distinct weakness in the team's ability to understand what constitutes a breach of the Geneva Convention.

Quote from item 46: the Mission finds that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killings and wilfully causing great suffering to protected persons and as such give rise to individual criminal responsibility. It also finds that the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians is a violation of the right to life.

Quote from item 47: The last incident concerns the launch of a bomb on a house resulting in the killing of 22 family members. Israel's position in this case is that there was an "operational error" and that the intended target was a neighbouring house storing weapons. On the basis of its investigation, the Mission expresses significant doubts about the Israeli authorities' account of the incident. The Mission concludes that, if indeed a mistake was made, there could not be said to be a case of wilful killing. State responsibility of Israel for an internationally wrongful act, however, would remain.

Response to item 46 and 47: Even if an operational mistake was made it still constitutes wilful killing as such bombs were dropped in areas of dense population and thus had the correct target been hit the civilians in the adjacent target area would have died or been severely injured.

Goldstone brushed aside the use of White Phosphorus and Flechette weapons and only touched briefly on DIME weapons. He totally ignored weapons containing Uranium components such as the four weapons shown in this photograph.

So let's look at DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) and how it works:

DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated "micro-shrapnel" of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA. It cuts through victims with ease and for those lucky enough to survive such an attack the outlook is fairly grim. The fragments from such a weapon once embedded in the flesh of its victim will lead to cancer and can result in death as early as three months.

Two Norwegian doctors working in the Hospital in Gaza observed the unusual injuries of its victims like none other they had witnessed before. One of the doctors had worked in such war zones for almost 30 years. This same statement was supported by Egyptian doctors who had also noticed the unusual injuries. Some of those doctors went into more detail with the following report: Norwegian doctor Mad Gilbert, the blast results in multiple amputations and "very severe fractures. The muscles are sort of split from the bones, hanging loose, and you also have quite severe burns." Most of those who survive the initial blast quickly succumb to septicaemia and organ collapse. "Initially, everything seems in order...but it turns out on operation that dozens of miniature particles can be found in all their organs," says Dr. Jam Brommundt, a German doctor working in Kham Younis, a city in southern Gaza. "It seems to be some sort of explosive or shell that disperses tiny particles...that penetrate all organs, these miniature injuries; you are not able to attack them surgically." According to Brommundt, the particles cause multiple organ failures. A footnote to these comments is that such fragments lead to an aggressive form of cancer.

In Goldstone's report it stated the following in Paragraph 49: While the Mission is not in a position to state with certainty that so-called dense inert metal explosive (DIME) munitions were used by the Israeli armed forces, it did receive reports from Palestinian and foreign doctors who operated in Gaza during the military operations of a high percentage of patients with injuries compatible with their impact. DIME weapons and weapons armed with heavy metal are not prohibited under international law as it currently stands, but do raise specific health concerns. One can see the extensive perforations of embedded fragments in this lady's face in Gaza.

One could ask the question why the investigation team didn't collect samples from the hospital or from its victims for testing in the laboratory. I am sure that these types of weapon are also banned under the Geneva Convention in regard to its usage in densely populated areas and the fact such weapons are totally indiscriminate and lethal. Again we see such matters swept under the carpet.

Now the big one - the issue of weapons containing uranium components. It was to be expected that Richard Goldstone would give an extremely brief reference to depleted uranium when his report said the following in Paragraph 49: The Mission received allegations that depleted and no depleted uranium were used by Israeli forces in Gaza. These allegations were not further investigated by the Mission!......I ask the question "Why on earth not"?

Go to the source to read the rest ...
 

It is evident that ever since this report was first tabled the powers that be have used almost every excuse to bin it. We were first led to believe that to delay it could help in a Middle East peace deal (wishful thinking). With the help of Obama, Clinton and Abbas, the three musketeers managed to convince Geneva to delay this process until next year.

Within a very short period of time it was obvious that the world was starting to respond to this decision with disgust and further pressure was applied by many of the Arabic nations. Again we saw a reversal of this decision when it was again raised in the United Nations. Despite much criticism that this report did not go far enough at least we all started to see a ray of hope in bringing this to the international court.

I have decided to print this document in its entirety so that we, the general public, can see the disgraceful attitude of those in power in the United States. Time and time again we see this power abused in the UN when the US vetoes any such proposal. The world cannot allow this US protectionism of Israel to continue. We have clearly seen the weakness of the Secretary General and the United Nations in the past and if this report is further delayed the consequences could lead to more acts of terrorism and the destabilisation of the Middle East. When one adds to this the intimidation by the Israelis at the Al-Aqsa Mosque we are starting to see clear unopposed aggression with total US support.

The only way forward is for the entire Arab League to stand firm and demand that in the name of justice this case be accelerated through the court and not delayed. The people of Gaza have been treated in the most terrible manner and this move by Congress only adds to their suffering. This surely must be a true test for the new President and will give him his only chance to show which side of the fence he sits.