WSWS: Report denounces Israel’s human rights abuses

[IndianaGreen]

Report denounces Israel’s human rights abuses
By Jean Shaoul
31 July 2003

The State of Human Rights in Israel 2003, the newly released annual report of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), provides a picture of the systematic abuse of social, economic and political freedoms.

The report says of the Likud-led government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, “Although this government cannot be held solely responsible for the decline, it is clearly guilty of perpetuating and even exacerbating the situation through acts such as denying legitimate rights to the Arab minority, devaluing the courts’ status as a guardian of democracy, favouring the welfare of the few over the many, and delivering an almost fatal blow to vital social services such as health, housing, education and social welfare.

“Government actions have also led to the lack of gainful employment, and the right of workers to fight for their working and retirement conditions, the delegitimisation of political rivals at the cost of fundamental democratic principles of freedom of speech and equality before the law. And in the territories, a complete decimation of human rights has taken place, as well as unprecedented injury to innocent civilians.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/isra-j31.shtml

[whirlygigspin]

1. Blame Arafat

somehow this will be blamed on him,
"it's the dirty arabs, they MADE us do this"

waaaaa waaaaaa, it never ends.zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Wonder]

2. This Last Three Years Has Had Little to Do with Arafat

this was a systemic and methodical execution of strategy aimed at completely dismantling the PA and initiating another Palestinian exodus. The blatant disproportionate use of military power against massive rock throwing is a war crime in and of itself as far as I am concerned. A pathetic use of might to further denigrate an already impoverish people.

another snip
The author, Naama Yashuvi, received help from a number of Israeli lawyers in compiling the report. She said that human rights abuses have become a daily reality in the Occupied Territories, and that “most of these abuses occur not as a result of operational necessity on the part of the IDF , but from vindictiveness on the part of the soldiers, who receive implicit approval to denigrate the dignity, life and liberty of innocent Palestinian civilians.”

While the army claims that such actions are contrary to official policy and any complaints are investigated thoroughly, the military judge’s own data shows that most incidents and even deaths are not investigated. Firstly, incidents resulting in deaths are not investigated if they occur during combat. Secondly, of the 362 internal investigations between September 2002 and June 2003, fewer than 13 percent resulted in formal charges and most of these were for property crimes rather than the crimes of violence and misuse of firearms that constituted the majority of the complaints.
end snip


Interestingly, when these roadblocks cut off humanitarian and medical Aid that is where Hamas comes in. It is Hamas that is responsible for getting both food and humanitarian/medical aid to these people. One of the functions of their welfare services and soup kitchens. It appears if not for Hamas those cut off would starve outright or die of medical maladies.


snip
While the security forces claim in court that they allow Palestinians through the roadblocks to receive emergency medical treatment, they rarely do so in practice.


Man I can not even get through this article. It is disgusting. I have to come back to it. How more blatantly clear does this have to be?

[Wonder]

3. Attack on Jewish Israelis: the article just gets worse

This is not a democracy - this is a paramilitary apartheid elitist state of nationalism gone seriously awry. IMHO, Rabbi Tamaret's criticisms from the grave (he died in 1931) regarding the racism inheritant in this Zionist Nationalist project where by the Jews of Israel, in his opinion were set up as the more superior, seem to be dead on.


snip
The very opposite is the case today. The report states, “As the Declaration of Independence reaches its 55th year, we still have no freedom, no justice and no peace, no equality of social and political rights, no freedom of religion or conscience, and most certainly no loyalty to the principles laid out in the Charter of the United Nations”.

"The tragic irony of the nationalist project as the solution to the anti-Semitism and oppression that culminated in the Holocaust is Israel’s association of the Jewish people—for so long connected with a progressive struggle for tolerance, freedom and equality—with the brutal suppression of another people. It demonstrates that the root causes of anti-Semitism and other forms of religious, racial and ethnic discrimination are to be found in economic, social and political not psychological factors."

THE END ALL IS THE LAST PARAGRAPH...

"But there is a further point to be made. Washington’s support for Sharon’s determination to hold on to, by what ever means necessary, the three-year-long illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza signals that no human rights abuses are too gross for the US and Western leaders to contemplate in the name of “the war on terrorism”—or, more accurately, in pursuit of their main client state’s interests in the Middle East. It indicates the kinds of methods that the US will employ to subjugate the entire Middle East in its bid to gain control of the rich resources of the region. It also signals that in the not too distant future such methods will be employed against the working class in the advanced metropolitan countries."

DEMOCRACIES (COUGH) SPELT F-A-S-C-I-S-M!

both cut from the same cloth --- pull in Berlusconi what we got?

[Wonder]

4. And I also have to say This is a Very Scary Article

:nuke:

[Name removed]

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