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In this mailing:
by Khaled Abu Toameh
• February 18, 2015 at 5:00 am
If
Hamas has the resources to fund and arm a new "Liberation Army"
consisting of 17,000 fighters, why does it continue to demand that the
international community allocate billions of dollars for the
reconstruction of the Gaza Strip?
Hamas
has turned the Gaza Strip into a huge training camp for jihadis and
militiamen affiliated not only with it, but also with the Islamic State.
Hamas
leader Mahmoud Zahar declared that some of the boys would be recruited to
fire mortars and rockets at Israel. And of course, he reiterated Hamas's
true goal, namely the destruction of Israel. When Hamas talks about
"liberation," it means it wants to wipe Israel off the face of
the earth and replace it with an Islamic state.
Obviously,
the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, do not see
Hamas's cynical exploitation and abuse of Palestinian children as a war
crime.
If
and when the International Criminal Court convenes to consider "war
crimes" in the Middle East, the first thing the judges should
consider is how Hamas sent thousands of Palestinian teenagers to their
deaths, and, as this was happening, how Abbas and the Palestinian
Authority looked the other way.
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Young Palestinians train with assault rifles at one
of Hamas's 18 new "Vanguards of Liberation" military training
camps in Gaza, in January 2015. (Image source: Paltimes)
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For the past several months, Hamas leaders have been complaining
that they do not have enough money to rebuild the Gaza Strip in the
aftermath of the last war with Israel.
However, it appears that Hamas does have enough funds to train, arm
and indoctrinate thousands of young Palestinian men and boys.
While thousands of Palestinian families who lost their houses during
the war continue to live in public shelters throughout the Gaza Strip,
Hamas recently established 18 camps for military training.
The Hamas military training camps, under the motto "Vanguards
of Liberation," have attracted some 17,000 Palestinian males aged
15-21. The young recruits were trained how to use various types of
weapons, including pistols, rifles and mortars. They were also
"educated" about the need to eliminate Israel and "restore
Palestinian rights."
by Burak Bekdil
• February 18, 2015 at 4:00 am
Listening
to Ahmet Davutoglu, one might think he is Prime Minister of a country
that ranks in the top 10 in press freedoms. Unfortunately, his country
ranks 149th.
Judges
often announce verdicts in expectation of a government boost for a
brighter career, or out of fear of the opposite.
"We
cannot go on with a judiciary as such." — Hasim Kilic, Former
President of Turkey's Constitutional Court.
Turkey's
former top judge, Hasim Kilic, warned that Turkey's judiciary could
become an "instrument of revenge" in the hands of political
authorities. Understandably, he is a heartbroken man. He became a victim
to his beliefs that Turkey's Islamists were defending civil liberties
when they advocated more rights for the pious. He was too late in
understanding that they were in fact defending the rights of Islamist
Turks only.
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Hasim Kilic, the recently retired President of
Turkey's Constitutional Court, is shown here speaking in 2014. (Image
source: Cihan video screenshot)
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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is promising heaven to a
country too distant for even purgatory. He seems totally cut off from the
Turkish facts of life. Listening to him, one might think he is the Prime
Minister of a country that ranks in the top 10 in press freedoms.
Unfortunately, his country ranks 149th.
In his weekly speech to the ruling AKP party group in parliament, on
February 10, Davutoglu said, "We are marching toward a brand new
Turkey where no one is alienated because of his faith, opinion, customs,
sect or ethnicity. This new Turkey will be brotherhood, equal citizenship
and freedom." Thundering applause from deputies and party fans.
Outside the parliament building, Turkey looked much different.
On the same day as Davutoglu spoke of the rule of law in parliament,
Turkey's two top judges described an entirely different judiciary. Both
judges spoke on the day of their retirement.
by Trevor Norwitz
• February 18, 2015 at 3:00 am
Even
if the Israeli government will not cooperate, there are other avenues to
obtain relevant information regarding the incidents you are
investigating.
Everyone
knows what will happen to a person in Gaza who speaks against Hamas. In
addition, the shameless, almost pathological, mendacity of Hamas (and
other Palestinian spokespersons) has been exposed over and over again.
I
have heard you will be taking submissions of "evidence" by
private telephone call.
It is
impossible to understand what is happening on the region without
reference to Hamas' charter calling for the destruction of the State of
Israel and the elimination of the Jewish people.
As
you well know, the legal concept of proportionality does not involve a
simplistic BBC/New York Times-style body count,
"A
crime occurs if there is an intentional attack directed against
civilians…or an attack is launched on a military objective in the
knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly
excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage." Luis
Moreno-Ocampo, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal
Court
The
tragedy of the 2009 Gaza report is that it missed a golden opportunity to
provide moral clarity and deter the cynical manipulations of
international law and institutions that has become the hallmark of modern
lawfare.
It is
not only Israel and the Jewish people who will be damaged if you simply
toe the line and give the UN Human Rights Council and the OIC what they
want, but the entire system of international law.
The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014
Gaza Conflict
Palais de Nations
CH-1211 Geneva
Switzerland
Attention: Mary McGowan Davis, Chair
Via email: coigaza@ohchr.org
Dear Judge McGowan Davis.
I am writing to respectfully offer some suggestions to help you
avoid errors that made the 2009 Gaza Report (called the Goldstone Report
before its eponym repudiated its essence) such a travesty of justice.
You may have come across my letter to Justice Richard Goldstone
pointing out many of the procedural flaws in that report. If you have
not, it is readily accessible online or I would be happy to provide a
copy.
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