It is beginning
http://raenergy.igc.org/onepeople.html
Dear friends,
Last night was an interesting evening. I spoke on a panel at Hebrew University that was sponsored by a campus group called, "The Campus Will Not Be Silent." The audience was a group of Israeli professors and students. The panel also included a supporter of the Geneva Accords (Professor Klien), and an Israeli combat soldier that served in Hebron and upon being released from the army formed an org called "Breaking the Silence". The soldier's group website is at: http://www.shovrimshtika.org/files.asp
and although most of the info is in Hebrew, they do list the testimony of soldiers who served in the Palestinian areas.
Last night, a soldier read outloud some of these testimonies...it was emotionally hard for me to hear our reality of the last 4 years from the voices of those that were behind the guns, tanks and jeeps, but these soldiers acknowledge their mistakes, they are calling for a serious change in Israeli society. What was shocking was that the audience was not aware of what their own soldiers are being ordered to do against us - - and this was an audience that unites around calling for an end to the occupation! In talking to some of the audience, I learned that the Israeli society at large is being blocked from the mere knowledge of the human right abuses their own children are executing. We live literally 20 minutes away, but we are still a world apart from each other.
What a world we live in. War crimes are a matter of discussion and opinion, "democracy" is word that has been emptied of its meaning, and "security" has become an oxymoron all by itself.
As we witness the events around us, we are numb to the suffering and pain of others and overwhelmed by the amount of death and destruction in all corners of the world, especially Iraq.
Here in Palestine, the World Bank issued a report today that squarely depicts the effects of Israeli occupation on the Palestinian economy. The actual report may be found at:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWESTBANKGAZA/Resources/wbgaza-4yrassessment.pdf
I pass below two shocking pieces. One is from a renowned International Law Professor, FRANCIS A. BOYLE. He calls the events in Iraq as they are. The US should be ashamed! Where are the citizens of the "free" world? Has "We the People" been replaced with "We the Sheep?"
The second article below is from the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. Finally, charges are being brought against the Israeli soldier that emptied his automatic rifle in the 13 year old girl on her way to school in Gaza last month. She had a name and a face and a family, although most media missed that part. I attach the picture of this sweet girl. My heart is heavy as I see my own 10 and 4 year old daughters in her innocent eyes. Note in the article below the following sentence:
"He is not being charged with manslaughter since there is no evidence that R.'s bullets were those that killed the girl."
No further comment.
Onward,
Sam
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November 15, 2004
A War Crime in Real Time
Obliterating Fallujah
By FRANCIS A. BOYLE
http://www.counterpunch.org/boyle11152004.html
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http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/504926.html
Last Update: 23/11/2004 10:38
IDF officer indicted for shooting 13-year-old girl
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
An indictment was brought Monday in the Southern Command's Military Court Monday against Captain R., a Givati company commander accused of illegally using his weapon to kill 13-year-old Imam al Hamas, a Palestinian girl who was on her way to school near the Girit outpost in southern Gaza. Military prosecutors issued a five- count indictment against the officer, including two counts of illegally using his weapon, and one count each of obstruction of justice, conduct unbecoming an officer, and improper use of authority. The officer, who has been suspended, was not identified.
Channel Two's documentary show Fact broadcast Monday night the army communications tape recording of the real-time events, including videotape, in which R. is heard explicitly stating he "verified the kill." The tape showed that the soldiers at the outpost kept firing at the girl even after she had been identified by soldiers as "about 10 years old."
The October 5 event took place around 7 in the morning, when a soldier on duty at the outpost spotted a "suspicious figure" about 100 meters from the outpost. Soldiers immediately began firing at the figure while R., the outpost commander, together with some officers and soldiers, left the outpost and took up a position behind a sand rampart next to the outpost.
The soldiers said they thought she was planting a bomb. The girl's family said she was on her way to school when she was shot. According to the indictment, R. charged the girl after she was shot and fired two rounds at her from close range. He began walking away, then turned around and shot her again.
"The accused stood similarly to the way he stood when he shot her twice - pointed his weapon downward and shot, this time on automatic, approximately 10 bullets until he emptied his magazine," the indictment says. It is not known whether the girl was already dead when he shot her. At the time, Palestinian hospital officials said the girl was shot at least 15 times, mostly in the upper body.
The accused officer initially said he came under fire from Palestinian gunmen at least 300 yards (meters) away as he approached the girl's body and shot at the ground to deter the fire, a military official said. The official could not explain why the officer shot into the ground rather than at the source of the fire.
The military prosecutor said the military law does not include "verification of the kill" as a crime, so they decided to charge R. with "illegal use of a weapon." He is not being charged with manslaughter since there is no evidence that R.'s bullets were those that killed the girl.
The decision not to charge the other soldiers at the outpost was because they acted on the assumption that the suspicious figure was a terrorist and not a young girl. R. however, is heard in the tape specifically saying he shot "the girl," and had heard on the communications radio that the figure was a young girl.
CAPTION: Iman Alhamas, 13, was shot dead by soldiers near the IDF's Girit outpost in western Rafah in the Gaza Strip on October 5. (Reproduction)
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