UN Allows Israel To Get Away With Murder
By Gul Jammas Hussain
03 September, 2011
Countercurrents.org
The long-awaited United Nations inquiry into Israel’s attack on the
Mavi Marmara, the flagship of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, on May 31,
2010 has ruled that Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is both
legal and appropriate.
The UN-mandated inquiry also ruled that Israel’s action, in which nine
Turkish citizens were killed, was “excessive” but not a violation of
international law and has held both Israel and the Gaza Freedom
Flotilla activists responsible for the violence.
This is a miscarriage of justice.
According to the UN investigators, the occupied and the occupiers are
now the same and there’s no difference between the killers and the
killed.
Israel and some other privileged countries are allowed to flout intentional law.
For example, the Israelis have been allowed to steal a people’s
homeland, build homes and farms there, and confine 1.6 million people
in a 360-square-kilometer coastal territory. They have also been
allowed to make life a living hell for the Palestinians by besieging
them from three sides and coercing former Egyptian dictator Hosni
Mubarak to do the same on the fourth side of the Gaza Strip.
But according to the UN, all this is “legal and appropriate” since the
oppressors are given certain privileges by the Western powers and the
oppressed are just characters from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.
And the Palestinians cannot get even the simplest condemnation of the
Zionist regime from the UN, even if it launches a full-scale military
assault on the people of Gaza, kills over 1400 civilians, and destroys
schools, hospitals, mosques, and the infrastructure of the territory.
UN panels do not regard this as a violation of international law and
specifically the Geneva Conventions, which clearly state that the
occupier is responsible for providing the basic necessities of life to
the people of the occupied territory.
According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the occupier is bound to
“ensure the food and medical supplies of the population” as well as
“agree to relief schemes on behalf of the… population” and maintain
“public health and hygiene.”
Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention are related to the
protection of civilians in time of war.
Article 55 says: “To the fullest extent of the means available to it
the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical
supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the
necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the
resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.
“The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or
medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use
by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only
if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into
account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions,
the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value
is paid for any requisitioned goods.
“The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the
state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except
where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military
requirements.”
Article 56 states: “To the fullest extent of the means available to
it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with
the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and
hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the
occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and
application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to
combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical
personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their
duties.
“If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the
competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the
occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition
provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying
authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and
transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21.
“In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their
implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the
moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied
territory.”
But it seems that none of this applies to Israel, according to the UN.
Gul Jammas Hussain is a Pakistani journalist based in Tehran, Iran.
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