skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Part One is here.
Part Two here.
Part Three is here.
First vid below has Col. Desmond Travers talking about the munitions used by Israel on Gaza's population.
Second vid is from one of the question periods during the conference.
From RussellTribunalOnPalestine:
Palestinian witnesses prevented from leaving Gaza to testify by Israeli-Egyptian blockade
Russell Tribunal Co-ordinator Frank Barat said: “The treatment of our witnesses mirrors that of thousands of Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza. The international community holds the key to opening Gaza. Diplomatic pressure including sanctions should be applied until Israel and Egypt end their brutal eight year siege which is a crime against humanity in its’ collective punishment of 1.8 million people.”.........
Too painful to listen to but definitely an eye-opener.... especially on the oft repeated claim by Israel and Israel's supporters that Hamas uses Gazans as human shields. The truth is exactly the opposite. It is the IDF using Gazan children and civilians as human shields.
Below is testimony from Ivan Karakashian, Advocacy Unit Coordinator at Defense for Children International.
He tells of a 16 yr old who was stripped naked by the IDF and used as a human shield for 5 long days. The boy was starved .... no food, no water and no sleep.
This is one of the most horrifying testimonies given at the Tribunal. The leaders of the Western countries along with their governments, which included even the opposition parties of those countries, stood by Israel while Israel committed these atrocities knowing they had the approval and permission of the West. The deliberate targeting of civilians cannot be forgiven and should never be overlooked.
AND, according to the witness below, Dr. Mohammad Abou-Arab, a doctor at the Al Shifa Hospital, ambulances and medical personnel were deliberately targeted. He also mentioned something about "Oslo agreement" does not allow shelters to be built in Gaza. I didn't understand that bit.
Following is part of his testimony:
“One ambulance worker shot in the head and bled to death while fellow workers were told if they tried to assist him, they would be killed too. Another worker burned to death in his ambulance after a missile attack against it – his colleague was severely injured in the attack, left with life-altering burn injuries. We are talking about Gaza firefighters, police officers, ambulance workers and other emergency services workers being routinely shot at by snipers and missiles by Israeli military. Anyone who knows anything about Palestinian society knows that no Palestinian would use a child or family as a human shield. Israel however routinely used Palestinians as human shields throughout this operation and those prior.”
Part One is here.
Even though the Russell Tribunal, at this point in world history, does not carry the kind of weight that the The Hague tribunal does, everything that is stated in these sessions will go down in world history and when there's a shift in world powers (that's going to happen within a decade or less) the Russell Tribunal's rulings will become as powerful and as "legal" as any other powerful instrument of law.
Part Two:
Deliberate hits at factories and manufacturing plants in Gaza were well planned to destroy the Gazan economy, and yet the Israelis and the supporters of Israel in the West, blame the Palestinians for not improving their economy and their standard of living. The doublespeak and the doublethink from the Jewish Israelis and their supporters here in the West is straight out of Orwell's 1984.
220 factories were deliberately hit and destroyed by Israel, the worst nation on Earth. In my eyes, Saudi Arabia has fallen to 2nd worst nation, Israel has taken the top spot.
Part One:
I have posted here in this Part One, only the few of the vids that I have already seen of the people called to give witness before the Russell Tribunal. According to one of the witnesses, Dr. Mads Gilbert, 75% of those who wanted to attend the Russell Tribunal held in Brussels were blocked by Israel from leaving the open air prison Gaza.
From RussellTribunalonPalestine:
Russell Tribunal finds evidence of incitement to genocide crimes against humanity in Gaza
September 25th 2014
For Immediate Release
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine’s Emergency Session on Israel’s Operation Protective Edge held yesterday in Brussels has found evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of murder, extermination and persecution and also incitement to genocide.
The Jury [1] reported: ‘The cumulative effect of the long-standing regime of collective punishment in Gaza appears to inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the incremental destruction of the Palestinians as a group in Gaza.’
‘The Tribunal emphasises the potential for a regime of persecution to become genocidal in effect, In light of the clear escalation in the physical and rhetorical violence deployed in respect of Gaza in the summer of 2014, the Tribunal emphasises the obligation of all state parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention ‘to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide.’
The Jury heard evidence from eyewitnesses to Israeli attacks during the Gaza war 2014 including journalists Mohammed Omer, Max Blumenthal, David Sheen, Martin Lejeune, Eran Efrati and Paul Mason, as well as surgeons Mads Gilbert, Mohammed Abou Arab, Genocide Expert Paul Behrens, Col Desmond Travers and Ivan Karakashian, Head of Advocacy and Defence for Children International.
In terms of the crime of incitement to genocide, the tribunal received evidence ‘demonstrating a vitriolic upswing in racist rhetoric and incitement’ during the summer of 2014. ‘The evidence shows that such incitement manifested across many levels of Israeli society, on both social and traditional media, from football fans, police officers, media commentators, religious leaders, legislators, and government ministers.’
The Tribunal also found evidence of the following war crimes:
Willful killing
Extensive destruction of property not justified by military necessity
Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population and civilian objects
Disproportionate use of force
Attacks against buildings dedicated to religion and education
The use of Palestinians as human shields
Employing weapons, projectiles, and material and methods of warfare which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering which are inherently indiscriminate
The use of violence to spread terror among the civilian population
The Tribunal further stated: ‘It is recognised that in a situation where patterns of crimes against humanity are perpetrated with impunity, and where direct and public incitement to genocide is manifest throughout society, it is very conceivable that individuals or the state may choose to exploit the conditions in order to perpetrate the crime of genocide...........
