Text of UN Gaza commission’s press release summarizing its findings

‘We hope our report contributes in some small way to ending the cycle of violence,’ panel says

ed note–All can be sure of several things associated with the findings published by this inquiry–

A. It is more than likely much worse than revealed, and

B. If the Palestinians had done nothing more than throw rocks across the border, they would be accused of ‘war crimes’.

Nevertheless, using the numbers as they appear herein, let’s consider a few things–

In the 5 days of Israel’s bloodbath, 6,000 airstrikes took place. By normal standards of math, that is almost 120 airstrikes a day, which works out to 5 per hour, roughly every 10 minutes. Imagine being the people of Gaza whereby every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day for almost 2 months, you hear the roar of jets overhead, wondering if they are about to drop bombs on your home, killing you and your loved ones.

In the 5 days of Israel’s bloodbath, 50,000 tank and artillery shells were fired. By normal standards of math, that is almost 1,000 per day, which works out to 40 per hour, roughly every 45 seconds. Imagine being the people of Gaza whereby every 45 seconds, massive explosions are taking place all around you, 24 hours a day for almost 2 months, as you wonder if the next one to fall is going to land on your home, killing you and your loved ones.

In the meantime, remember and consider this fact as well–Jews worldwide, not just in Israel, in overwhelming numbers supported and celebrated this barbaric exercise in human sacrifice. They wrote articles in the Western and Israeli press extolling the IDF as ‘the world’s most moral army’, danced the Havanagila and drank Magan David wine by the buckets, talked about the ‘orgasms’ they had hearing about Palestinian children being blown to bits, etc, and why should they not? After all, everything taking place did so exactly as Yahweh, the brutal, barbaric ‘god’ of the Jews commanded, to wit–

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are to possess and casts out the many peoples living there, you shall then slaughter them all and utterly destroy them…You shall save nothing alive that breathes…You shall make no agreements with them nor show them any mercy. You shall destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire. For you are a holy people unto the LORD thy God and He has chosen you to be a special people above all others upon the face of the earth…”

Book of Deuteronomy

And yet, despite this, after all of this carnage, we still have dolts in this ‘movement’ making baseless, idiotic claims such as ‘Judaism and Zionism are 2 different creatures’ and that the ‘holy’ religion of Judaism condemns such barbaric behavior.

Worse still are those mental midgets calling themselves ‘Christian Identity’ who claim that the Old Testament–from which such commands descend directly–has nothing to do with the barbaric behavior of the Jewish state, but rather that it is all due to the fact that today’s Jews are not ‘real Jews’ by virtue of their Ashkenazi lineage and their Talmudic teachings.

What’s worse is that in the final analysis, it is the West and the Christian world that is to blame for this. All the signs were there, screaming out at ears that would not hear and minds that would not think for 2,000 years that these people were mad, made so by an insane ideology that saw Jesus crucified but which nevertheless was incorporated into Christianity in all of its forms, save Marcionism.

As Jesus Himself warned–you cannot pour new wine into old wineskins, nor can any man serve 2 masters, as he will either love the one and hate the other or hate the one and love the other.

Times of Israel

The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict has gathered substantial information pointing to the possible commission of war crimes by both Israel and Palestinian armed groups.

“The extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come,” the chair of the commission, Justice Mary McGowan Davis told a press briefing today, adding that, “there is also on-going fear in Israel among communities who come under regular threat”.

The 2014 hostilities saw a huge increase in firepower used in Gaza, with more than 6,000 airstrikes by Israel and approximately 50,000 tank and artillery shells fired. In the 51 day operation, 1,462 Palestinian civilians were killed, a third of them children. Palestinian armed groups fired 4,881 rockets and 1,753 mortars towards Israel in July and August 2014, killing 6 civilians and injuring at least 1,600.

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed in their own homes, especially women and children. Survivors gave graphic testimony describing air strikes that reduced buildings to piles of dust and rubble in seconds. “I woke up…in the hospital, and I later learned that my sister, mother and my children had all died,” said a member of the Al Najjar family after an attack in Khan Younis on 26 July that killed 19 of his relatives, “We all died that day even those who survived”.

At least 142 families lost three or more members in an attack on a residential building during the summer of 2014, resulting in 742 deaths. The fact that Israel did not revise its practice of air-strikes, even after their dire effects on civilians became apparent, raises the question of whether this was part of a broader policy which was at least tacitly approved at the highest level of government.

The commission is concerned about Israel’s extensive use of weapons with a wide kill and injury radius; though not illegal, their use in densely populated areas is highly likely to kill combatants and civilians indiscriminately. There appears also to be a pattern whereby the IDF issued warnings to people to leave a neighbourhood and then automatically considered anyone remaining to be a fighter. This practice makes attacks on civilians highly likely. During the Israeli ground incursion into Gaza that began in mid-July 2014, hundreds of people were killed and thousands of homes destroyed or damaged. Ambulance call centres said they received desperate appeals for help from people in Shuja’iya during which they could hear young children screaming in the background. “There was an explosion about every ten seconds,” said a witness in Rafah in early August where the IDF launched a major operation after they believed one of their soldiers had been captured. “When the safety of an Israeli soldier is at stake, all the rules seem to be disregarded,” commented Justice Davis.

The hostilities also caused immense distress and disruption to the lives of civilians in Israel. Witnesses living near Gaza spoke of being disturbed by seeing the bombing from their sitting room windows but also struggled to reach shelters in time with their children when the sirens alerted them to incoming attacks. The indiscriminate firing of thousands of rockets and mortars at Israel appeared to have the intention of spreading terror among civilians there. In addition the Israeli military discovered 14 tunnels extending from Gaza into Israel that were used to attack their soldiers during this period. The idea of the tunnels traumatised Israeli civilians who feared they could be attacked at any moment by gunmen bursting out of the ground.

In the West Bank including East Jerusalem, 27 Palestinians were killed and 3,020 injured between June and August 2014. The number killed in these three months was equivalent to the total for the whole of 2013. The commission is concerned about what appears to be the increasing use of live ammunition for crowd control by the Israeli Security Forces, which raises the likelihood of death or serious injury.

Impunity prevails across the board for violations allegedly committed by Israeli forces, both in Gaza and the West Bank. “Israel must break with its lamentable track record in holding wrong doers accountable,” said the commissioners, “and accountability on the Palestinian side is also woefully inadequate”.

The commission is disturbed by Israel’s decision to close its criminal investigation into the case of the killing of four children on the beach in Gaza on 16 July 2014. International journalists and many Palestinian eyewitnesses do not appear to have been interviewed by the Israeli authorities, which raises questions about the thoroughness of their investigation.

The commission was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in September 2014 to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the context of the military operations conducted last summer. The commission comprises Justice Mary McGowan Davis (United States) and Dr. Doudou Diene (Senegal).
The Israeli authorities did not respond to repeated requests by the commission for information and direct access to Israel and to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. However the commission obtained harrowing first hand testimony by means of Skype, VTC and telephone interviews. It also conducted face-to-face interviews with victims and witnesses from the West Bank during two visits to Jordan and spoke to victims and witnesses from Israel who travelled to Geneva. The commission conducted more than 280 confidential interviews and received some 500 written submissions.

Announcing the release of the report Monday, Justice Davis (chair) and Dr. Diene outlined a number of steps the parties and the international community should take. One of these was that countries should actively support the work of the International Criminal Court in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“We were deeply moved by the immense suffering and resilience of the victims,” the commissioners concluded, “we just hope our report contributes in some small way to ending the cycle of violence”.

The commission is scheduled formally to present its report to the UN Human Rights Council on 29 June 2015 in Geneva.