Israeli cluster bomb slays Lebanese woman

Saturday, April 07, 2007

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

TYRE, Lebanon: A Lebanese woman was badly wounded in the South of the country on Friday in the explosion of a cluster bomblet dropped by Israeli forces during last summer's war, police said. The woman, Abdeh Mohammad Khanafer, 70, was gathering herbs in a field at Aynata village near Bint Jbeil, six kilometers from the Israeli border, when she touched a bomblet that detonated, they said.

She was badly wounded in the face, arms and torso and was rushed to hospital in the port town of Tyre, 80 kilometres south of Beirut. According to the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center, more than 222 people have fallen prey to cluster bomblets in the past six months. Of the victims, 190 have been civilian.

At least 27 people have been killed by them since the conflict ended on August 14, 2006, according to an AFP tally.

The munitions dropped by Israel during its devastating air war against Lebanon included more than a million cluster bomblets, around 40 percent of which failed to detonate on impact, according to the UN.

Cluster munitions spread bomblets over a wide area from a single container.

The bomblets often do not explode on impact, but can do so later at the slightest touch, making them as deadly as anti-personnel landmines. - AFP

46 of 49 nations OK ban on cluster bombs

By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 10 minutes ago

A declaration calling for a 2008 treaty banning cluster bombs was adopted Friday by 46 out of 49 nations attending a conference in Oslo, officials for the Norwegian government and two non-governmental groups said.

Norway's deputy foreign minister Raymond Johansen said Poland, Romania and Japan did not approve the final declaration. Officials for Human Rights Watch and the Cluster Munition Coalition also said those three countries dissented.

The gathering was snubbed by some key arms makers — including the U.S., Russia, Israel and China — but organizers said other nations needed to forge ahead regardless to avoid a potential humanitarian disaster posed by unexploded cluster munitions.

A declaration presented on the last day of the meeting urged nations to "conclude by 2008 a legally binding international instrument" to ban cluster bombs.

The treaty would "prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of those cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians," the declaration said.

Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas, with some failing to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years after conflicts end until they are disturbed, often by civilians.

As many as 60 percent of the victims in Southeast Asia are children, the Cluster Munition Coalition said. The weapons have recently been used Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon, it said. The U.N. estimated that Israel dropped as many as 4 million bomblets in southern Lebanon during last year's war with Hezbollah, with as many 40 percent failing to explode on impact.

Children can be attracted to the unexploded weapons by their small size, shape and bright colors, activists say.

Friday's declaration urged countries to take steps at a national level before the treaty takes effect. Norway has already done so, while Austria announced a moratorium on cluster bombs at the start of the conference.

"It is nonbinding. It is not a legal document. But it is a statement of political will," Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch said of the declaration.

Norway hopes the treaty would be similar to one outlawing anti-personnel mines, negotiated in Oslo in 1997.

The U.S., China and Russia have refused to sign the land mine treaty and oppose the Norwegian initiative on cluster bombs. They did not send representatives to the meeting. Australia, Israel, India and Pakistan also did not attend. Those nations say the weapons should be dealt with in other arenas, such as the U.N. Convention on Conventional Weapons, known as CCW.

Goose said the major powers don't need to be involved for the treaties to have an impact. Activists say the point is to stigmatize the weapons.

"If you need proof that you can conclude a treaty without the United States, Russia and China, look at the land mine treaty," he said. Goose said even though major powers have rejected the treaty, they have stopped deploying land mines, and that the number of civilian casualties have been cut in half since 1997.

Before the meeting, activist groups feared some countries would seek to water down, or even squash, a declaration by insisting on a longer or nonexistent deadline. But Nash said the first day of talks made it clear that there would be a declaration, with the 2008 deadline, even if some countries rejected it.

The declaration said work on the cluster bomb treaty would be carried out in Lima, Peru, in May or June; in Vienna, Austria, in November or December, and in Dublin, Ireland, in early 2008.

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On the Net: http://www2.norway.or.jp/policy/news

Resisting the Israel lobby

Related
Israel 'misused' US-made cluster bombs

A US investigation has found that Israel probably violated US arms export agreements last year when it dropped US-made cluster bombs among villages in Lebanon.

Why Was the Palestinian Mother of Eleven Murdered?
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Jews who speak out can be deluged with with verbal abuse, hate mail and intimidation.

February 8, 2007 02:40 PM

Abe Hayeem

Criticism of Israel's human rights contraventions - and particularly any mention of boycotts - elicits an immediate and powerful barrage from the pro-Israel lobby. Editors of national newspapers and journals can expect to be inundated by letters from Israel supporters, often copying their arguments word-for-word from the numerous websites that push the Israeli embassy line.

At the same time, critics can be deluged with hate mail couched in lurid language. The SHIT List ("Self-Hating Israel-Threatening") website exemplifies the extreme verbal abuse and intimidation heaped on Jews who speak out.

Israel is invariably portrayed as the victim, despite its record of killings, assassinations and destruction in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and its relentless land grabs over decades in the occupied territories, exhaustively documented by human rights organisations.

The lobby can operate at the highest levels of city government as was seen in February 2006 when the group Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine - formed to highlight the complicity of Israel's construction industry in the occupation - was launched in the office premises of the Richard Rogers Partnership.

The presence of a mole at the meeting resulted in sensational articles in the British press claiming (inaccurately) that a boycott of Israel was being planned, practically leading to an international incident involving the Chief Rabbi and Lord Weidenfeld.

Despite only a brief reference at the meeting to the possibility of targeted action against the firms building the illegal separation wall and West Bank settlements, Lord Rogers was summoned to New York to face a tribunal of city senators and heads of Jewish organisations, since he had recently been appointed to design the Jacob Javits Conference Centre worth $1.7 billion. Javits was a well-known Zionist, though the centre was being built by public funds. New York is jokingly referred to as an outpost of Israel.

Under threat that he would be removed as architect, and unjustifiably invoking anti-boycott US laws (specifically enacted to protect Israel from trade boycotts), Rogers, even though had said he was not in favour of boycotts, was forced to bend under pressure from the distinctly McCarthyite proceedings. The pro-Israel lobby would of course hotly deny that signing a "loyalty to Israel" clause is a prerequisite for obtaining major architectural commissions in New York.

To be outspoken does not bode well, even within local Jewish communities. I was expelled from Rivers of Babylon - a group that I performed with - because of my views as a peace activist. Even though politics were not discussed within the group, which was formed to revive Iraqi Jewish music and song, the director, a childhood friend, asked me to leave due to a threatened boycott of the group's concerts from the fervently Zionist Indian Jewish community.

An editor from a pro-Israel freebie newspaper phoned to tell me he was not publishing my letter responding to two correspondents who had advocated wiping out Gaza and expelling the Palestinians, because I did not "love Israel" and was beyond the pale.

It is important that alternative Jewish voices are heard in the media and in the community, to counteract the efforts of BICOM, (the British Israel Communications and Research Centre) which has close links with the Israeli embassy, AIPAC in the United States, and all organisations engaged in "pro-Israel advocacy", including the three major political "Friends of Israel" groups (Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat), also reflected in the inaction of the Blair government over Israel's war crimes.

Click here for a full list of articles in the Independent Jewish Voices debate.

Abe Hayeem is an architect, peace activist and founder member of Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine.

Links to articles by Abe Hayeem: Red Pepper, Architecture Week, Archibase

Israel/Lebanon: Urgent need for UN inquiry

Amnesty International

Israel/Lebanon: Urgent need for UN inquiry

"A full, impartial UN-led inquiry that includes provision for reparations to the victims is urgently needed. Anything less would not only be a gross betrayal of the civilian victims, more than one thousand of whom were killed, but also a recipe for further civilian bloodshed with impunity,"
--Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa programme


Amnesty International has published its latest and concluding report into violations of international humanitarian law committed during this year's Israel-Hizbullah conflict. The report focuses on Israeli attacks in which civilians were killed as well as the impact on civilians of other attacks by Israeli forces. It also examines allegations that Hizbullah used civilians as "human shields".

"More than three months have now gone by since the ceasefire and to Amnesty International's knowledge neither side has even begun investigations into the grave violations committed during last summer's conflict," according to Malcolm Smart.


Based on field research conducted in Lebanon and Israel in July, August and September 2006, the report includes evidence from interviews with victims; meetings with Israeli and Lebanese military and government officials, as well as senior Hizbullah officials; information from non-governmental groups; and official statements and media reports.

Amnesty International is calling on the United Nations to set up an international commission empowered to investigate the evidence of violations of international law by both Hizbullah and Israel, and to make provision for reparations for the victims. The organization is also calling for an arms embargo on both sides, and an immediate moratorium on cluster weapons.

For further information, please see:
Press Release:

Israel/Lebanon: Further evidence of grave violations in Israel-Hizbullah conflict underlines urgent need for UN inquiry (Hebrew / Arabic)Reports:Israel/Lebanon, Out of all proportion – civilians bear the brunt of the war (21 November 2006)Under fire - Hizbullah's attacks on northern Israel (14 September 2006)Deliberate destruction or 'collateral damage'? Israeli attacks against civilian infrastructure (23 August 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/print/CB01E2DEF7E06B9C8025722C0043B50E

Israel admits targeting civilian areas in Lebanon with cluster bombs

Last update - 04:36 21/11/2006


IDF admits targeting civilian areas in Lebanon with cluster bombs

By Nir Hasson and Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondents

The Israel Defense Forces discovered that there had been "irregularities" in the use of cluster munitions, even before the end of the recent Lebanon war, sources in the defense minister's office said Monday. As a result of this information, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered an "extensive inquiry" into the use of these munitions before the war's end.

Meanwhile, for the first time Monday, the IDF admitted targeting populated areas with cluster munitions. In a statement released by the IDF Spokesman's Office, "the use of cluster munitions against built-up areas was done only against military targets where rocket launches against Israel were identified and after taking steps to warn the civilian population."

The statements released by the minister's office contradict Israel Defense Forces' claims - made both during and after the war - regarding the use of cluster munitions.




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One IDF version, which remained unchanged until earlier this week, held that the firing of cluster munitions was done in accordance with international law.

On Sunday it was announced that an investigating officer, Brigadier General Michel Ben-Baruch, who was appointed to examine the issue, found that in some cases cluster munitions were used contrary to the orders of Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.

On the basis of these findings, also brought before the Military Advocate General, Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, a decision was made to appoint an investigating general to carry out an examination of the circumstances under which the use of cluster munitions was made.

Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that the IDF leadership, including the chief of staff's office, authorized the firing of cluster munitions against the areas in southern Lebanon struck by these weapons.

A commander of a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) battery said they had fired many rockets against targets north of the Litani river, and that those targets had been described as "General Staff targets." This description was given to targets authorized by the chief of staff's office. Furthermore, the chief of staff's office also authorized the types of munitions that would be used.

The United Nations bomb dismantling teams have located many sites north of the Litani that were struck by cluster bombs, including populated areas.

Sources in the defense minister's office said that during the fighting, Peretz had been informed that the IDF used cluster bombs. "The defense minister demanded explanations and he was told that [the IDF] is abiding by international agreements and treaties," a statement from Peretz' office said.

A request made in September by Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On for clarifications regarding the use of cluster munitions has gone unanswered.

MK Ran Cohen (Meretz), a reservist colonel who commanded an artillery battalion during the first Lebanon war, said, according to his experience, the use of cluster munitions is "very unusual." As far as he was aware, he said, any use of such munitions requires authorization by the division commander or higher.

"This is a very serious matter," MK Cohen said. "If cluster bombs were used in populated areas, this constitutes an indescribable crime. There is no target that cannot be hit without cluster bombs. The massive use by the IDF of cluster bombs during the war suggests an absolute loss of control and hysteria."

Halutz orders probe into cluster bomb use
On Monday, Halutz named Major General Gershon Hacohen to head a probe into the use of the bombs. Hacohen was one of the commanders of the summer 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

"There is no question that one of the things that must be investigated is the way in which the orders were given and implemented."

"Were the orders explicit? I believe that they were."

Asked if he was surprised by the use of the bombs contrary to his orders, Halutz told reporters "I don't know if this is surprising - it is more disappointing."

Following reports first published in Haaretz regarding the scale of cluster bomb use, Halutz appointed Brigadier General Mishel Ben Baruch to head a probe into the use of the weapons.

The inquiry's findings were handed over to Halutz and IDF Advocate General Avichai Mendelblit, who will determine whether the case merits court-martial proceedings.

Based on the findings, Halutz decided to appoint Hacohen to investigate why field commanders blatantly disobeyed his orders.

The chief of staff's decision to appoint an inquiry was first reported Sunday evening by Channel 1.

Each rocket or shell can contain as many as several hundred bomblets, which are meant to disperse over an area of hundreds of square meters, exploding as they hit the ground.

Since the cease-fire went into effect on August 14, at least 22 civilians, including many children, have been killed and 134 others injured by unexploded bomblets.

To date, roughly 58,000 unexploded bomblets have been discovered at about 800 different sites in southern Lebanon. Most are near populated areas.

The United Nations demining unit believes that as much as 30 to 40 percent of bomblets may be duds. This translates into hundreds of thousands of unexploded bomblets throughout southern Lebanon, which endanger the lives of residents and block farmers from working their land.

According to testimony of an MLRS battery commander published in Haaretz, MLRS rockets were heavily used, even though they are known to be very inaccurate - the rockets may deviate up to 1,200 meters from their target - and a substantial percentage of the bomblets are known not to explode, thus becoming mines. In light of this, most experts view cluster ammunitions to be "non-discerning" weapons prohibited for use in a civilian environment.

According to the officer, in order to compensate for the rockets' lack of precision, they were told to "flood" the area with them. "We have no option of striking an isolated target, and the commanders know this very well," he said

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789876.html