Brian McAndrews wrote:
> I admire David Grossman's courage to speak his truth in the midst of such
> hatred and fear.
An example of even more courage is the peace group Gush Shalom (recipient
of this year's Alternative Peace Nobel Prize) which regularly publishes
some juicy political ads in Ha'aretz -- such as the following.
Chris
_____Gush Shalom ad published in Haaretz, December 28, 2001______
"DER STURMER" IN THE KNESSET
Minister Danny Naveh has thrown a stink bomb in the
Knesset. He alleged that Arafat's Muslim soldiers raped
Christian girls in Bethlehem, an allegation reminiscent
of the style of Der Sturmer, the German paper that
mixed anti-Semitic incitement with pornography.
Before that, Minister Benny Eilon, writing in the
settlers' paper, advocated the expulsion ("transfer") of
the Palestinians from the occupied territories.
Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in a popular television
program, called for the expulsion of Israel's Arab
citizens.
These are not "wild plants" or "marginal elements".
These proposals were made by Cabinet Ministers. They
are accepted as a legitimate part of the public
discourse, without protest or condemnation. Neither
the President nor the Prime Minister has distanced
himself from them. The Attorney General, too, is silent.
This is a corruption of the State of Israel, a threat to its
democratic foundations, a degeneration of the political
system, a psychological preparation for horrible war crimes.
Gush Shalom,
Help us with donations to
P.O.Box 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033,
Phone 972-3-5221732.
http://www.gush-shalom.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_____________Uri Avnery's Column 29.12.01: "If I Were Mofaz"_____________
If I were Shaul Mofaz, I would by now be very worried indeed. In Belgium,
Ariel Sharon is standing trial for his part in the Sabra and Shatila events
of 19 years ago. At first, he treated this as a joke. No more. Now he is
spending a fortune (of our money) on this trial.
The prosecution argues that Sharon, then Israel's Minister of Defense,
being responsible for occupied Beirut, allowed a bunch of notorious
murderers into the camps of defenseless refugees, where they
indiscriminately killed men and women, old people and children. The Israeli
Commission of Inquiry ordered his dismissal and charged him with "indirect
responsibility". The Belgian prosecutors are trying to charge him with
direct responsibility.
Perhaps the trial will be abandoned, perhaps Sharon will be found not
guilty. But if he is found guilty, an international warrant may be issued
for his arrest and he will be liable to be arrested the moment he sets foot
in Europe.
This is only a beginning. The international campaign against war crimes is
progressing rapidly. A permanent International Court for war crimes is
going to be set up. After Belgium, other countries will enact laws for the
trial of foreign war criminals in their courts. The definition of war
crimes will be widened, and so will the cooperation between states,
especially in Europe.
The trial of an acting head of government for alleged war crimes committed
19 years ago is an important precedent. No less important is the decision
handed down this week by the Israeli Supreme Court, denying Ehud Yatom the
right to hold any important security position. Yatom murdered two bound
prisoners in cold blood, with his own hands. This happened 17 years ago,
when he was a high-ranking officer of the Shin-Beth security service. He
maintained in his defense that he had only followed orders and acted
according to existing "norms" (terrible words for a Jewish ear). At the
time he had requested and received a pardon, thus practically admitting to
the despicable deed.
(This was part of the infamous 1984 "bus line 300 affair", the kidnapping
of a bus by four unarmed Palestinian youngsters. Two were killed when the
bus was stormed, the other two murdered after capture. Haolam Hazeh
magazine, whose editor I was at the time, played a leading role in
uncovering the crime.)
This coming summer, Shaul Mofaz is about to be relieved. That will be the
end of his military career. Or will it?
In one, five or twenty years, somebody may get up and sue Mofaz in The
Hague, Brussels or anywhere else for acts committed under his command. For
example: the "liquidations".
If this happens, Mofaz will have to explain to foreign judges why he
initiated and ordered the murder of Palestinian personalities, including
political figures. The prosecutors will probably argue that these were
executions without trial, in which Mofaz and his officers served
simultaneously as prosecutors, judges and hangmen.
The same goes for the so-called "ascertaining killing" (viduh harigah in
Hebrew), meaning the killing of helpless wounded enemies. Over this
contemptible act there flies the "black flag", even under Israeli law.
During the Mofaz's term of command (and even before) this has become the
norm.
Anyone who obeys such instructions (see Ehud Yatom) fulfils a "manifestly
illegal order", meaning an order which any sane person, as primitive as he
may be, knows is illegal. (So defined by Judge Benjamin Halevy, presiding
over the Court Martial, in his famous "black flag" judgment condemning the
perpetuators of the 1956 Kufr Kassem massacre). It follows that the risk of
prosecution hovers over many officers and soldiers, from general to simple
private, who gave or executed such an order.
If anybody believes that this is an abstract danger, something merely
theoretical or academic, he may sooner or later find out that he was sadly
mistaken. The day may not be far off when an officer who commanded a
"liquidation" action, the helicopter pilot who executed it, the lieutenant
who ordered an "ascertaining killing" act and the simple soldier who did it
-- are all in constant fear when going abroad. And if the Israeli laws
change when a different kind of government comes to power, as will surely
happen one of these days, they will live in fear even in Israel.
Please remember: There is no time-limit. A grandfather playing with his
grandchildren may be prosecuted for war crimes he committed when a
youngster. And there is no exemption because of grade -- the sword of
justice may descend equally on a private soldier and on the Minister of
Defense.
The triangle responsible at present for everything happening in the
occupied territories -- Shaul Mofaz, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Ariel Sharon
-- would be well advised to have a good look at the photos of Slobodan
Milosevic in The Hague. Not long ago he was an omnipotent ruler, who could
by a wink of his eyes authorize the murder of thousands of men (including
young boys) or the rape of thousands of women (including young girls). Now
he is in The Hague.
The way there may be shorter than it seems.
