Israel closed all of Gaza's borders in June 2007, Since that time Israel has continued to control all access to the Gaza Strip from the Mediterranean, overland from Israel and from Egypt through agreements with the Egyptian government. Israel has blocked shipments of food, medical supplies and even school books; also, fuel supplies to run Gaza's electricity and water treatment plants have been blocked. This kind of collective punishment is illegal under international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention. But Israel's denial of international law in its occupation policies is not the sum total of its defiance of international norms, as it is exhibited in Israel's use of banned weapons of war and its exempting itself from agreements in what gets labeled as weapons of mass destruction.
The kind of defiance of international law carried out in Israel's occupation policy is also on display in its use of weapons of war. An article entitled "Israel Treated Gaza Like Its Own Private Death Laboratory" by Conn Hallinan in the February 14, 2009 issue of Foreign Policy in Focus, chronicles Israel's use of lethal weapons, which approach or exceed international norms.
Erik Fosse, a Norwegian cardiologist who worked in Gaza hospitals during the December 2008/January 2009 conflict in the Gaza Strip, said he had been to war zones for 30 years and he had "never seen such injuries before." Dr. Fosse was describing the effects of a U.S. "focused lethality" weapon that minimizes explosive damage to structures, while inflicting catastrophic wounds on its human victims.
The specific weapon is called a Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME). The weapon wraps high explosives with a tungsten alloy and other metals like cobalt, nickel or iron in a carbon fiber/epoxy container. When the bomb explodes, the container evaporates and the tungsten turns into micro-shrapnel that is extremely lethal within a 13-foot radius. According to the Norwegian doctor Mad Gilbert, the blast results in multiple amputations and "very severe fractures. The muscles are split from the bones, hanging loose, and you also have quite severe burns."Even if the victims survive their injuries, they are almost certain to develop rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a particularly deadly cancer that deeply inbeds itself into tissue and is almost impossible to treat.
DIME weapons may have been used in the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon but they were widely used in Gaza, with one hospital alone seeing 100 to 150 patients with DIME-like injuries.
DIME weapons aren't banned under the Geneva Conventions because they have never been officially tested; however, any weapon capable of inflicting such horrendous damage is normally barred from use.
Besides DIMEs, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) also used white phosphorus in Gaza. White phosphorus is a chemical that burns with intense heat and inflicts terrible burns on victims. The IDF initially denied using the chemical but on January 20, 2009 it confessed to using it in artillery and mortar shells.
Israel is also accused of using depleted uranium ammunition (DUA), which a UN sub-committee in 2002 found in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the International Convention Against Torture, the Conventional Weapons Convention and the Hague Conventions against the use of poison weapons.
Besides the use of these lethal weapons, Israel was also charged with intentionally targeting medical personnel in the Gaza conflict, killing over a dozen, including paramedics and ambulance drivers. This targeting prompted the International Federation for Human Rights to call on the UN Security Council to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes.
Extending this critique of Israel's use of Israel's use of banned or condemned weapons of war to weapons of mass destruction, Israel has refused to sign conventions on biological and chemical weapons and has similarly refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- the United States has joined some European nations in blocking any efforts to compel Israel to sign the treaty.
The United States has embraced the curious term of "nuclear ambiguity" as an excuse to break laws saying it can't give aid to countries that have weapons of mass destruction and don't follow the rules of the road regarding their possession. The number of nuclear warheads Israel is estimated to possess varies widely -- from 60 to as many as 300. One proposed remedy to induce Iran to give up any nuclear bomb aspirations is to make the Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone. That sort of remedy is unlikely to be supported by the current White House, with its "unshakable" and "ironclad" ties to Israel.
Even though all countries have an obligation to take remedial action against those accused of "grave" breaches of the rules of war, the U.S. is almost certain to veto any UN Security Council effort to refer Israel to an international body for sanctions.
At a lesser, though still tragic level, the IDF has on at least six occasions, hurled tear gas canisters at people, killing three and seriously injuring three others.
The U.S. Arms Export Control Act (Public Law 90-829 ) limits the use of U.S. weapons given or sold to a foreign country to "internal security" and "legitimate self-defense" and prevents their use against civilians.
On December 15, 2011, Congress released a new condition, as part of the foreign operations portion of the spending bill, asking the State Department to submit a report "detailing any crowd control items, including tear gas, made available with appropriated funds or through export licenses to foreign security forces that the Secretary of State has credible information have reportedly used excessive force to repress peaceful, lawful and organized dissent".
In the final analysis, President Barack Obama would have accorded himself a much higher standing in world public opinion and in the eyes of historians if he had not so uncritically accepted the excesses of Israeli behavior.
The final blog on Israeli/Palestinian relations will look at the Palestinians' attempt to gain statehood recognition at the United Nations and indicate what President Obama has done or should do to help bring resolution of the conflict.
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