B'Tselem's report on Israeli and Palestinian casualties is bound to spark another round of claim and counter-claim
Seth Freedman
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 September 2009
".....B'Tselem has no problem referring to Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians as war crimes, and does just that in its report. At the same time, it has refrained from explicitly labelling Israeli actions during the offensive as war crimes, preferring to state instead that its findings "raise grave concerns that Israel breached fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and caused excessive harm to civilians".
By taking such a stance, B'Tselem is much softer on the IDF than many would desire, and its diplomatic approach ought to be rewarded with a fair hearing by the Israeli authorities. However, given the historical sequence of whitewashes and obfuscations by the IDF and its backers, B'Tselem's report will be met with either a wall of silence or a barrage of abuse and derision – which does no favours to the supporters of the Israeli military, and certainly gives no solace to the victims on the Gazan side of the border."
Seth Freedman
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 September 2009
".....B'Tselem has no problem referring to Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians as war crimes, and does just that in its report. At the same time, it has refrained from explicitly labelling Israeli actions during the offensive as war crimes, preferring to state instead that its findings "raise grave concerns that Israel breached fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and caused excessive harm to civilians".
By taking such a stance, B'Tselem is much softer on the IDF than many would desire, and its diplomatic approach ought to be rewarded with a fair hearing by the Israeli authorities. However, given the historical sequence of whitewashes and obfuscations by the IDF and its backers, B'Tselem's report will be met with either a wall of silence or a barrage of abuse and derision – which does no favours to the supporters of the Israeli military, and certainly gives no solace to the victims on the Gazan side of the border."
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