Is Israel using two illegal weapons in Gaza assault?
January 14, 2009 at 3:12 pm by Wayne GarciaA Norwegian doctor working in the Gaza hospitals says yes, and his assertion is landing all over the progressive blogosphere, including today’s Democracy Now broadcast.
Mads Gilbert has been a one-man media machine over the past week, claiming that Israel is not only harming civilians with white phosphorus weapons (illegal under UN terms for targeting people but legal to use as a smoke screen or illumination) and newer, powerful bombs called DIME.
Here he gives an interview about the casualties:
There is no doubt that Gilbert is a radical voice in the issue. In his home Norway, he is also a politician and member of the socialist Red Party. He’s been critical of Doctors Without Borders for not taking political stances in war zones where it sends volunteers. He was also involved in the controversial CNN airing of a video of shot by a Palestinian of the death of his brother in the Gaza assault.
Oh, and then there were his statements made after 9-11:
“The attack on New York did not come as a surprise with the politics the West has followed the last decades. I am upset by the terrorist attack, but I am at least as upset over the suffering that the US has caused. It is in this context that 5000 dead has to be seen. If the U.S. government has a legitimate right to bomb and kill civilians in Iraq, the oppressed has a moral right to attack the U.S. with the weapons they may create as well. Dead civilians are the same whether they are Americans, Palestinians or Iraqis.”
But the questions remain: Are Israeli forces, either on purpose or accidentally, striking Palestinians with illegal weapons?
Human Rights Watch over the weekend also asked Israel to stop using white phosphorus in Gaza:
Human Rights Watch believes that the use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life. This concern is amplified given the technique evidenced in media photographs of air-bursting white phosphorus projectiles. Air bursting of white phosphorus artillery spreads 116 burning wafers over an area between 125 and 250 meters in diameter, depending on the altitude of the burst, thereby exposing more civilians and civilian infrastructure to potential harm than a localized ground burst.
photo credit: freegazaorg/flickr.com
