A scathing report by Human Rights Watch on Israeli practices has Israelis divided over how to respond, writes Emad Gad As Israel prepares to implement its plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army continues to raid cities and refugee camps in the Strip. These operations by Israeli occupation forces can be brutal, as civilian buildings are destroyed on a wide scale and dozens of Palestinians are assassinated. Occupation forces do not withdraw from an area they have raided until they have rendered thousands of local inhabitants homeless, leaving behind a humanitarian tragedy. Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have left in their wake humanitarian tragedies constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity which should be tried before an international court. Some of these crimes reveal the inhumane sides of their perpetrators, such as the murder of a 13-year- old Palestinian student on her way to school who was shot 20 times by an Israeli officer to "confirm the kill". The death and destruction visited by Israeli occupation forces on Palestinians does not help to achieve true calm, but instead feeds a desire for revenge among Palestinians, which may have a strong impact on the relations between the two sides in the coming phase. These operations of death and destruction are hidden from no one; they are not simply Palestinian tales, but have been documented by international organisations with a high level of credibility, such as Human Rights Watch. Thus, they should be taken in all seriousness, and some Israeli authors have written asking that the issue be taken seriously. What is sure is that a continuation of such attacks and complete destruction in the Gaza Strip will create an increasing desire for revenge in response. This cannot possibly serve the peace process, nor contribute to regional security and stability. In its most recent report, the New York-based Human Rights Watch says that the Israeli army has demolished thousands of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip in a flagrant, unjustifiable violation of international law. The report states that the demolitions in the southern Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border have in most cases been carried out "in the absence of military necessity". The 135-page report, entitled Razing Rafah, adds, "the pattern of destruction strongly suggests that Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether they posed a specific threat, in violation of international law." The report expresses "serious doubts" regarding the justification offered by the IDF for the demolition of more than 2,500 homes over the last four years. The army says that its operations aim to destroy tunnels used by Palestinian activists to smuggle weapons from Egypt. The report says that Israeli army conduct "is based on the assumption that every Palestinian is a potential suicide bomber and every home a potential base for attack. Such a mindset is incompatible with two of the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: the duty to distinguish combatants from civilians and the responsibility of an occupying power to protect the civilian population under its control." Human Rights Watch adds that other means could have been used to destroy the tunnels, and it called on the United States and Europe to hold Israel responsible for violations of international law. No sooner than Human Rights Watch released the report did a controversy erupt in the Israeli media regarding the nature of the report and the way Israel should deal with it. While some recommended ignoring the report and accused international organisations of pro-Palestinian bias, others pointed to the necessity of taking the report seriously and attempting to respond to international demands. One of the most prominent proponents of the second camp was writer Ofer Shelah, who published "The Reports and the Truth", in Yediot Aharonot online on 19 October. In the beginning of the article, Shelah states that reports by international human rights organisations are not a hot commodity, especially in Israel, but also in other nations whose actions are subject to criticism. He adds, "the easiest way to confront such reports is to accuse their authors of political bias, naiveté, or an ignorance of the facts. It is also easy to underestimate the importance of these reports. Clearly, the majority will greet the report published yesterday by Human Rights Watch about house demolitions in the Gaza Strip in one of these ways. Undoubtedly, the New York-based organisation will be pigeon-holed as just a few sensitive souls who never delve into the roots of the problem, but only wave the finger of accusation -- usually at us -- from their place of safety across the sea. "Human Rights Watch has been operating for more than a decade. During this time, as part of an international federation to clean up mine fields, it was a partner recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The organisation's reports are immediately disseminated. Only a few hours after yesterday's press conference, the statements and statistics provided by the organisation covered the websites of major international papers and were broadcast on television. With their dinner yesterday, or with their coffee this morning, millions of Americans heard this fact: thousands of Palestinian homes have been demolished, leaving 16,000 Palestinians homeless. "These people will treat any Israeli clarification as subjective or biased, twisting the facts to serve its own vision and purpose. The international organisation will be treated as an objective party whose assessments are balanced and unbiased. The consequence will be a double injury: Israel's image and its war on the Palestinians will receive another blow, and this will add another element to the conflict. The Israeli- Palestinian conflict seems to everyone who views it from abroad to be a violent, tribal war, impossible to resolve. This is the sense of every Israeli abroad over the last few months." Shelah later adds, "Israel, from the government on down, tends to take pride in the current US administration's support of it. George Bush understands us. He sees the world the way we see it, and he likes Arik Sharon. But a poll conducted by newspapers around the world found, not surprisingly, that while Bush enjoys great support in Israel, everyone in the West wants to see his downfall. I doubt that Bush and his men are prime consumers of Human Rights Watch reports but they, too, cannot continue to ignore the negative mood towards Israel on so many levels. "This is the danger in the report. As for the report's comments on the war we're running and how we run it, this is yet another issue that confuses the Israeli public given the pain, fear and desire for vengeance created by brutal terrorism against us. This is perfectly understandable on a personal level. "Who, then, cares about this report? The army, for one. For some time, voices have been heard from inside the army questioning the benefit of the wholesale demolition of homes in the Gaza Strip. These voices extend from the army to the field, and even to the chief of general staff who recently formed a committee to study the issue. Similarly, delegates from Human Rights Watch met the head of IDF operations, Gen Yisrael Ziv. This may not have changed anything about their stance, but at least the army -- in contrast to its leadership and the public that feeds it -- is not turning a blind eye. This is, of course, the same Israeli army that invented and carried out wholesale demolitions, changed the rules of opening fire to suit it, and in general did what it pleased in the Gaza Strip. Now it is examining the benefit gained. "It may surprise those who have not been here over the last four years, but this is how the war is run: with no direction, restrictions, or oversight, through a series of field decisions made and executed by the army. " To read more about this issue or find reports by international organisations on activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, please visit the website of Arabs Against Discrimination www.aad-online.org.
