More than 700 UK artists pledge to boycott Israel

More than 700 creative professionals living in the United Kingdom – including writers, visual artists, actors, musicians and many others – have signed up to a pledge to boycott collaboration with Israeli state-funded projects. Disclaimer: I have the privilege of being one of them.

The announcement marks a significant step for the UK cultural boycott campaign. There have been many open letters and other statements of support for Palestine from UK artists, but the website and pledge bring together a huge number of creatives in one coordinated effort.

The pledge, which was launched on 14 February 2015 with a letter in The Guardian newspaper and a new website, reads:

We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.

The Guardian letter goes on to add that:

Israel’s wars are fought on the cultural front too. Its army targets Palestinian cultural institutions for attack, and prevents the free movement of cultural workers. Its own theater companies perform to settler audiences on the West Bank – and those same companies tour the globe as cultural diplomats, in support of “Brand Israel.” During South African apartheid, musicians announced they weren’t going to “play Sun City.” Now we are saying, in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Ashkelon or Ariel, we won’t play music, accept awards, attend exhibitions, festivals or conferences, run masterclasses or workshops, until Israel respects international law and ends its colonial oppression of the Palestinians.

The list of signatories includes many high-profile artists based in the UK, including:

Writers Tariq Ali, William Dalrymple, Aminatta Forna, Bonnie Greer, Mark Haddon, Hari Kunzru, Liz Lochhead, Jimmy McGovern, China Mieville, Andrew O’Hagan, Michael Rosen, Kamila Shamsie, Hanan al-Shaykh, Gillian Slovo, Ahdaf Soueif, Marina Warner, Benjamin Zephaniah
Film directors Mike Hodges, Asif Kapadia, Peter Kosminsky, Mike Leigh, Phyllida Lloyd, Ken Loach, Roger Michell, Michael Radford, Julien Temple
Comedians Jeremy Hardy, Alexei Sayle, Mark Thomas
Musicians Richard Ashcroft, Jarvis Cocker, Brian Eno, Kate Tempest, Roger Waters, Robert Wyatt
Actors Rizwan Ahmed, Anna Carteret, David Calder, Simon McBurney, Miriam Margolyes
Theater writers/directors Caryl Churchill, David Edgar, Dominic Cooke CBE, Sir Jonathan Miller, Mark Ravenhill
Visual artists Phyllida Barlow, John Berger, Jeremy Deller, Mona Hatoum
Architects Peter Ahrends, Will Alsop

Many of those participating added moving statements to their signatures, outlining the reasons why they felt the need, as creatives, to take this step. Examples include director and screenwriter Michael Radford’s sentiment that:

As the son of a Jewish refugee, the anger and despair I feel can only faintly echo that of the people of Gaza. Art is a celebration of humanity, and the symbolic gesture of refusing any artistic collaboration with a state which values its own contribution to the arts so highly is the least we can do to protest against the horrifying inhumanity of its actions.

Actor Miriam Margolyes, meanwhile, said that:

as an artist I wish to pursue a moral journey through life and the right and wrongs here are very clear to me. A suffering group has asked for my support; it cannot be withheld.
 My support for the Palestinian cause is fiercer because I am Jewish and I honor the strengths of that religion and the suffering my people have experienced through the years. My visits to Palestine showed me at first hand how the people there are treated by Israeli forces. Their lack of humanity disgusts me – I want no part of it. I realize we were fed a lie about the foundation of the State of Israel.

And choreographer Jonathan Burrows emphasized that:

the choice not to present work in Israel is not an attack on Israeli artists, but rather a recognition that the thing you do may not be appropriate in a situation of ongoing violent conflict, and that to ignore that is to support the idea that everything is under control and life and culture continue as normal, while bombs fall.

Songwriter and children’s author Leon Rosselson, a signatory to the pledge, posted the video (see top of this post) of him performing the song “The Ballad of Rivka and Mohammed” as his statement.

The full range of artists’ statements can be found on the pledge website.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/sarah-irving/more-700-uk-artists-pledge-boycott-israel

Most people will think this is not something that will worry Israel. They would be wrong. Israel is very proud of it's art exhibits and theatre work. It is another step in the 'Boycott Israel' stand to made them realise that the world will not stand by while they commit genocide.

Sassy, I asked this question before, perhaps you missed it. Why are you so full of hate towards Israel? but you never condemn Hamas for their violence. It does come from both sides you know.

Slowly public opinion will turn against Israel and Zionism will be seem for what it truly is. But will take many years.

Are these same artists going to Boycott Saudia Iran, Syria, Pakistan etc?
Or are human rights absuses a one sided subject?

Sassy, please answer my question.

A new independent medical fact-finding mission in Gaza has detailed Israel’s deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians in its summer 2014 attack, codenamed Operation “Protective Edge.” Acts documented in the investigation include the use of human shields, close-range murder of civilians, targeting of medics, and more.

The report, based on fieldwork and research conducted by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel), in conjunction with several other human rights and medical organizations, sits at a bulky 237 pages. PHR-Israel, in its words, “recruited eight independent international medical experts, unaffiliated with Israeli or Palestinian parties involved in the conflict,” leading specialists in numerous medical, health, and human rights fields. Jennifer Leaning, the Director of the Center for Health and Human Rights Department of Global Health and Population in Harvard University’s School of Public Health, was among those chosen to oversee the report.

The investigation was also supported by a wide array of prominent international organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Science and Human Rights Program, the British Shalom-Salaam Trust, Christian Aid, the Open Society Foundation, and many more.

In its executive summary, the fact-finding mission estimates that, in Israel’s 50-day attack on Gaza,

  over 2,100 Palestinians were killed;
  at least 70% of those killed were civilians;
  over 500 children were killed;
  more than 11,000 were wounded; and
  at least 100,000 were made homeless.

The Electronic Intifada published a summary of the investigation’s findings, drawing particular attention to an incident in the Gazan village of Khuzaa, in which the Israeli military shot into a crowd of civilians who were fleeing Israel’s siege and carrying white flags while shouting “peaceful, peaceful.”

This attack, nonetheless, pales in comparison to those disclosed in the report. PHR-Israel reported Israel did the following in its Operation Protective Edge:

  used civilians as human shields;
  shot civilians dead at close range;
  left mortally wounded children on the ground to die, even after soldiers made eye contact with them;
  conducted multiple consecutive strikes on a single location (“double taps”), killing injured survivors and those attempting to rescue them;
  bombed medical clinics that were acting as shelters for civilians and the wounded;
  “deliberately” attacked hospitals;
  prevented emergency medical evacuation, even by international organizations such as Red Cross;
  killed and injured “many” medical teams that were evacuating the injured;
  refused to allow civilians to exit areas being attacked;
  targeted civilian escape routes;
  shelled ambulances;
  attacked civilians attempting to flee areas under fire;
  physically beat civilians;
  denied civilians food and water;

and more.

The report additionally documented Israel’s use of unconventional and experimental weapons, resulting in injuries local doctors characterized as “strange or inexplicable.” Among those used were

  flechette munitions (which doctors reported surgically removing from the faces of children);
  “explosive barrel” bombs, referred to as “Tzefa Shirion” weapons, that were made to be used to clear mines, but were dropped on civilians;
  what are suspected to be DIME weapons, leading to “unusual burns” and “unusual amputations,” with “charred” black skin that did not smell like burning flesh and black “tattooing” around cauterization-like stumps of amputees;
  weapons that left “‘computer chips’ with Sony markings embedded as shrapnel in people’s bodies”;
  and “a gas of unknown type,” a white-colored substance with a “sewage-like smell” that burned skin and caused respiratory problems and could be seen and smelled from 500 meters away.

The medical fact-finding mission notes that the “overwhelming majority of injuries causing death or requiring hospitalisation … were the result of explosion or crush injuries, often multiple complex injuries.” Roughly half of interviewed Gazans were attacked in their homes. Entire families were killed in the attack



A graph from the report illustrating the most common locations in which Gazans were injured

The report states that Israel’s

  attacks were characterised by heavy and unpredictable bombardments of civilian neighbourhoods in a manner that failed to discriminate between legitimate targets and protected populations and caused widespread destruction of homes and civilian property. Such indiscriminate attacks, by aircraft, drones, artillery, tanks and gunships, were unlikely to have been the result of decisions made by individual soldiers or commanders; they must have entailed approval from top-level decision-makers in the Israeli military and/or government.

It also indicates that “there was no guaranteed safe space in the Gaza Strip, nor were there any safe escape routes from it.” The experts accused Israel of “serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
The Aftermath

These findings are based on extensive interviews with victims, witnesses, healthcare professionals and human rights workers, local government officials, and representatives of international health organizations. Forensic, medical, and other material evidence was also collected to scientifically verify these oral testimonies.

PHR-Israel spoke with 68 hospitalized patients who were injured in the attacks, and includes transcripts of these discussions in its report. The majority of Gazans interviewed after the attacks suffered from:

  insomnia,
  flashbacks,
  nightmares,
  depression,
  weight loss,
  loss of appetite,
  unstable emotional states

In the wake of the attack, the fact-finding mission reports

  strains on and a lack of resources in Gaza hospitals;
  problems with sending patients from Gaza hospitals to outside hospitals outside for treatment;
  long-term displacement because of the partial or total destruction of approximately 18,000 homes;
  long-term psychosocial and mental health damage; and
  a dire need for rehabilitation services with insufficient resources to meet them.

Potential War Crimes

In its recommendations, PHR-Israel et al. call upon international actors, including the UN, the EU, and the US, to “ensure that the governments of Israel and Egypt permit and facilitate the entry of investigative teams into Gaza, including experts in international human rights law and arms experts,” revealing that this “has not yet been done, months after the offensive.”

Israel prevented the world’s leading human rights organizations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, from entering Gaza in August 2014 to investigate. This medical fact-finding mission may be the first large-scale independent investigation conducted in Gaza since the summer attacks.

PHR-Israel also encourages the international community to support investigations conducted by local Palestinian civil society groups in their “efforts to collate evidence in Gaza, in order to proceed with legal and/or other remedies as well as to seek justice and/or reparations.” It suggests that the evidence presented in the report “be used for the purposes of legal determination of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.”

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of committing war crimes in its summer 2014 attack on Gaza. Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has shown that most of those killed in Israel’s approximately 70 attacks on Gaza homes were women, children, and the elderly, and says the IDF’s targeting of homes may constitute war crimes.

Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on 1 April 2014. In January 2015, the court’s prosecutor launched a preliminary probe into possible war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel, and its US allies, often refer to the Israel Defense Forces as “the most moral army in the world,” leading some, such as esteemed Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, to criticize what they see as hypocrisy, in light of documented attacks such as these. In July 2014, in the midst of Operation “Protective Edge,” Israeli ambassador to the US Ron Dermer insisted that the Israel Defense Forces deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for the “unimaginable restraint” they practiced in Gaza and that Israel earned “the admiration of the international community” for its purported caution. This report appears to indicate otherwise.
- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/independent-investigation-deliberate

Absolutely damning of their utter inhumanity.


Enough answer Nicko?  Every single day they are imprisoning children on pretexts and while in prison are abusing them and torturing them, only allowing them out when parents pay a huge fine (even though the children have done nothing and have been dragged from their beds at night), they are firing on fishing boats, they are treating Palestinians trying to cross in their own land like cattle, demeaning them, forcing women to have their babies on the ground by stopping them getting to hospital, Israeli settlers in land that is being taken illegally against international law, are stoning children going to school with the help of Israeli soldiers, and firebombing Palestinian homes with families inside them with Israeli soldiers standing beside them pointing guns at anyone who objects.  They are stopping the rebuilding of homes and the electricity station in Gaza, the consequence of which has been 7 children have FROZEN TO DEATH during the last snowstorm.   Settlers, again with the help of the Israeli army have destroyed acres of Palestinian legal owned olive trees and have forced them from their own land.  The Israeli army shoots and kills Palestinian farmers in their fields that are close to the dividing lines (almost a daily occurrence).  When Gaza was being bombed (with the consequences in the post above wihich I had already put on a previous thread), settlers sat on the hillside and cheered, knowing it was killing and blowing to bits babies and children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/middleeast/israelis-watch-bombs-drop-on-gaza-from-front-row-seats.html

They cheer as Israeli soldiers attack a disabled Palestinian child




And all this happenes EVERY SINGLE DAY.  It is what the Palestinians have to endure EVERY SINGLE DAY.

My great grandfather was Jewish.  Israeliis make me ashamed of that.  Israel has become a rogue state.  Every other rogue state is lambasted in the press, Israel is called democratic.  Every other rogue state has the world to answer to.  Israel is helped and give BILLIONS of dollars and armaments.  

That enough for you?

And people wonder why anti-semitism is on the rise when we have all this hate filled Rhetoric directed at Israel all the time.
People do not think though.

Bollocks.

A. That is not hate filled rhetoric, that is producing facts and figures as to what ISRAEL is doing, which is both illegal and inhumane.

B. It is not anti-semitc because it is not said about Jews, it is said about ISRAEL and many Jews are saying it as well. In fact, the number JEWISH organistions being set up against what ISRAEL is doing is growing by the day.

Inhumanity is inhumanity, whether it is done by Jews, Muslims, Christians or Atheists.

Those who speak up about the atrocities Israel does also speak up about the atrocities committed by ISIL, Saudi, etc.

Those who speak up against Israel are those that speak up against all atrocities world wide.



Actor Miriam Margolyes, meanwhile, said that:

as an artist I wish to pursue a moral journey through life and the right and wrongs here are very clear to me. A suffering group has asked for my support; it cannot be withheld.
 My support for the Palestinian cause is fiercer because I am Jewish and I honor the strengths of that religion and the suffering my people have experienced through the years. My visits to Palestine showed me at first hand how the people there are treated by Israeli forces. Their lack of humanity disgusts me – I want no part of it. I realize we were fed a lie about the foundation of the State of Israel.

JEWISH!

Uttrerly clueless some of the left.
Why is there so much hate and attacks directed at Jews in the west Stassi?
Do you think most of it is far right or Muslim?
Why is it after the conflict last year attacks on Jews increased dramatically?
The fact is this constant hate barraged at Israel is driving such hate against Jews, the consequence of ignorance by some of the left.
The problems needs resolving by both sides, but it is left and right wings idiots that drive anti-sentiment on both sides with their vocal shite they print. Even worse you have the likes of Hamas who commit also human rights violations and war crimes, yet you never speak out on any of this.
Nobody denies that Israel has committed war crimes and that it is wrong in its settlement poliices, but the most idiotic views is from both sides claiming a right to the land.
My view would be to make the Zone netural with UN control until both sides learn to live in peace.

Saying that ISIL burnt alive a Jordian pilot and it was absolutely disgusting - the right and proper thing to do.

Saying that Israeli settlers kidnapped a 15 year old boy, beat him, tied him up and burnt him alive - anti-semetic in the eyes of the stupid and easily manipulated and it shouldn't be spoken about.

Shocking that you place both on a par, that is beyond belief, seriously and what is clearly screwed up with some of the left.
A group committing sytimatic genocide to many groups that being Isis to Israel who has committed some war crimes.
Well now everyone can see your views for real.

Brasidas wrote:Are these same artists going to Boycott Saudia Iran, Syria, Pakistan etc?
Or are human rights absuses a one sided subject?

Hell, I'd be happy if they boycotted the Starbucks here locally.  Do you know they have raised prices by 450% in the past year alone?

Oh well...what's Israel done now?

Original Quill wrote:

Brasidas wrote:Are these same artists going to Boycott Saudia Iran, Syria, Pakistan etc?
Or are human rights absuses a one sided subject?

Hell, I'd be happy if they boycotted the Starbucks here locally.  Do you know they have raised prices by 450% in the past year alone?

Oh well...what's Israel done now?

Its the Sassy "I hate Israel" campaign.

Gaza is yesterday's news. We're on to ISIL right now.

NOW WAIT!!! This just in...we are now over in Libya.

Gaza is news everyday. I've noticed how you are often flippant about people dying. Thinking about ISIL or Libya doesn't preclude people thinking about Gaza. Some of us keep ALL of it in mind. Are you saying you can't?

Brasidas wrote:Shocking that you place both on a par, that is beyond belief, seriously and what is clearly screwed up with some of the left.
A group committing sytimatic genocide to many groups that being Isis to Israel who has committed some war crimes.
Well now everyone can see your views for real.

Tiy don't place a child being burnt to death on the same level of atrocity as a man being burnt to death? What type of low life are you?

risingsun wrote:

Brasidas wrote:Shocking that you place both on a par, that is beyond belief, seriously and what is clearly screwed up with some of the left.
A group committing sytimatic genocide to many groups that being Isis to Israel who has committed some war crimes.
Well now everyone can see your views for real.

Tiy don't place a child being burnt to death on the same level of atrocity as a man being burnt to death?   What type of low life are you?

Sorry I don't get your post? Are you saying one is as bad as the other or not as bad as the other?

risingsun wrote:Gaza is news everyday.  I've noticed how you are often flippant about people dying.  Thinking about ISIL or Libya doesn't preclude people thinking about Gaza.  Some of us keep ALL of it in mind.  Are you saying you can't?

"Flippant" as opposed to daily doses of tears? That's not my thing.

Look, ISIL is lopping off heads and burning people alive every day...if you can't be a little flippant you go crazy. It's not our business, but the stories keep cropping up on the telly all the time. Wish they would work it out.

Ah well...the Oscars this weekend.

eddie wrote:

risingsun wrote:

Tiy don't place a child being burnt to death on the same level of atrocity as a man being burnt to death?   What type of low life are you?

Sorry I don't get your post? Are you saying one is as bad as the other or not as bad as the other?

Sorry, was in a hurry, didn't notice the typo.

Should have read:

You don't place a child being burnt to death on the same level of atrocity as a man being burnt to death? What type of low life are you?

risingsun wrote:

eddie wrote:

risingsun wrote:

Tiy don't place a child being burnt to death on the same level of atrocity as a man being burnt to death?   What type of low life are you?

Sorry I don't get your post? Are you saying one is as bad as the other or not as bad as the other?

Sorry, was in a hurry, didn't notice the typo.

Should have read:

You don't place a child being burnt to death on the same level of atrocity as a man being burnt to death?   What type of low life are you?

Well yes, of course one is as bad as the other.
Why would anyone say different???

eddie wrote:

risingsun wrote:

Sorry, was in a hurry, didn't notice the typo.

Should have read:

You don't place a child being burnt to death on the same level of atrocity as a man being burnt to death?   What type of low life are you?

Well yes, of course one is as bad as the other.
Why would anyone say different???

Apparently Didge doesn't - ' Shocking that you place both on a par ' above.

No I am not talking about the comparison of killings but how Stassi is placing Israel on the same level plain as ISIS as if they are equally as bad as each other which is disgusting to even compare when IS are barbaric

Is that right:

This attack, nonetheless, pales in comparison to those disclosed in the report. PHR-Israel reported Israel did the following in its Operation Protective Edge:

used civilians as human shields;
shot civilians dead at close range;
left mortally wounded children on the ground to die, even after soldiers made eye contact with them;
conducted multiple consecutive strikes on a single location (“double taps”), killing injured survivors and those attempting to rescue them;
bombed medical clinics that were acting as shelters for civilians and the wounded;
“deliberately” attacked hospitals;
prevented emergency medical evacuation, even by international organizations such as Red Cross;
killed and injured “many” medical teams that were evacuating the injured;
refused to allow civilians to exit areas being attacked;
targeted civilian escape routes;
shelled ambulances;
attacked civilians attempting to flee areas under fire;
physically beat civilians;
denied civilians food and water;

and more.

The report additionally documented Israel’s use of unconventional and experimental weapons, resulting in injuries local doctors characterized as “strange or inexplicable.” Among those used were

flechette munitions (which doctors reported surgically removing from the faces of children);
“explosive barrel” bombs, referred to as “Tzefa Shirion” weapons, that were made to be used to clear mines, but were dropped on civilians;
what are suspected to be DIME weapons, leading to “unusual burns” and “unusual amputations,” with “charred” black skin that did not smell like burning flesh and black “tattooing” around cauterization-like stumps of amputees;
weapons that left “‘computer chips’ with Sony markings embedded as shrapnel in people’s bodies”;
and “a gas of unknown type,” a white-colored substance with a “sewage-like smell” that burned skin and caused respiratory problems and could be seen and smelled from 500 meters away.

See I told you Eddie, she is comparing Israel to ISIS
Unfuckingbelievable

No, I was comparing the two burnings, you then said that was what I was doing, so I showed you what has just been proved (already put the link on the thread I originally put it on)

If you think there are degrees of atrocity and the above is less bad that what ISIS do I feel sorry for you.

No you are not Sassy.
Anyway this independent so called report is based mostly on so called witness accounts which is open being unreliable to say the least.
Just look at the claims, which you have to question some seem very suspect that only now they are being claimed when this was all over the media before this conflict with many of the above not claimed. Claims to shooting wounded children? Sorry that would have been all over the news and shows this report is very suspect to say the least.
I will keep an open mind on the report but clearly most of it is bullshit when even during the conflict Israel sent both medical and food aid into the conflict zone.
This report has not even made the media even by the left wing press which says much about whether it is anyway reliable.
Some aspects might be true but how many of these claims were not raised at the time leads many of the above being questionable to say the least. We know for a fact Israel continued to warn of targets about to be attacked. I even think they have committed some war crimes, but as I say it is this sort of unverified accusations that create further hate and antisemitism. . If any is true those who committed such acts should be held accountable, not all Israel though which this rhetoric of yours seeks to cast them all.

Laters

Brasidas wrote:
..... seriously and what is clearly screwed up with some of the left.

NEVER mind that your anti-Semitic groups such as BNP and EDL are all RIGHT Wing groups !

NOR that the anti-Semitic neo-Nazi groups across Europe are also nearly all RIGHT wing groups as well..

AS ARE both the Israeli government, the Israeli terrorist groups, and the various Muslim and Islamist groups !

RIGHT WING Conservative nutjobs, the whole lot of them..

I can't argue with you there, wolf. Sorry Didge, but he's got a point.

All the wing-nuts today reside on the right. Irrational wars, lies, kidnapping, rape and torture, getting elected and then refusing to perform, gun-nuts, racists, abortion foes, anti-education, anti-women, anti-Hispanic and anti-democracy...whew!

Used to be the right wing wore gray suits and went to work to support their families. Now they are blowing up schools, killing each other on shooting ranges, carrying on road rages, and conducting sedition and treason...you name it.

Wing-nuts, I say.

Brasidas wrote:No you are not Sassy.
Anyway this independent so called report is based mostly on so called witness accounts which is open being unreliable to say the least.
Just look at the claims, which you have to question some seem very suspect that only now they are being claimed when this was all over the media before this conflict with many of the above not claimed. Claims to shooting wounded children? Sorry that would have been all over the news and shows this report is very suspect to say the least.
I will keep an open mind on the report but clearly most of it is bullshit when even during the conflict Israel sent both medical and food aid into the conflict zone.
This report has not even made the media even by the left wing press which says much about whether it is anyway reliable.
Some aspects might be true but how many of these claims were not raised at the time leads many of the above being questionable to say the least. We know for a fact Israel continued to warn of targets about to be attacked. I even think they have committed some war crimes, but as I say it is this sort of unverified accusations that create further hate and antisemitism. . If any is true those who committed such acts should be held accountable, not all Israel though which this rhetoric of yours seeks to cast them all.

Laters

Based on witness reports is it:

The report additionally documented Israel’s use of unconventional and experimental weapons, resulting in injuries local doctors characterized as “strange or inexplicable.” Among those used were

flechette munitions (which doctors reported surgically removing from the faces of children);
“explosive barrel” bombs, referred to as “Tzefa Shirion” weapons, that were made to be used to clear mines, but were dropped on civilians;
what are suspected to be DIME weapons, leading to “unusual burns” and “unusual amputations,” with “charred” black skin that did not smell like burning flesh and black “tattooing” around cauterization-like stumps of amputees;
weapons that left “‘computer chips’ with Sony markings embedded as shrapnel in people’s bodies”;
and “a gas of unknown type,” a white-colored substance with a “sewage-like smell” that burned skin and caused respiratory problems and could be seen and smelled from 500 meters away.

The medical fact-finding mission notes that the “overwhelming majority of injuries causing death or requiring hospitalisation … were the result of explosion or crush injuries, often multiple complex injuries.” Roughly half of interviewed Gazans were attacked in their homes. Entire families were killed in the attack

Based on autopsies and medical records.

They were raised at the time. Now been proved from videos and medical examination.

Most Arab countries also boycott Israeli goods or anything that is made using any materials that come from Israel or have any connection with them including transport. And if UK companies want to sell to Arab countries they often have to get a certificate of origin signed and legalised by the Arab Chamber of Commerce in London. To get one they can and often do request detailed evidence to prove it.
That has been in place for many years though but this latest move is something new.

Brasidas wrote:No you are not Sassy.
Anyway this independent so called report is based mostly on so called witness accounts which is open being unreliable to say the least.
Just look at the claims, which you have to question some seem very suspect that only now they are being claimed when this was all over the media before this conflict with many of the above not claimed. Claims to shooting wounded children? Sorry that would have been all over the news and shows this report is very suspect to say the least.
I will keep an open mind on the report but clearly most of it is bullshit when even during the conflict Israel sent both medical and food aid into the conflict zone.
This report has not even made the media even by the left wing press which says much about whether it is anyway reliable.
Some aspects might be true but how many of these claims were not raised at the time leads many of the above being questionable to say the least. We know for a fact Israel continued to warn of targets about to be attacked. I even think they have committed some war crimes, but as I say it is this sort of unverified accusations that create further hate and antisemitism. . If any is true those who committed such acts should be held accountable, not all Israel though which this rhetoric of yours seeks to cast them all.

Laters

Try reading what I said Stassi and I did not discount all the report saying some parts might be credible.
Most though will be from so called witness accounts and again where was all these reports and claims at the time? Injuries are more credible. Do not forget which you seem to do but war crimes are claimed of both sides.
This report though is especially the first claims shoddy to say the least and no many of the first claims were not raised like shooting wounded children.
So I think its disgusting you can compare IS who are out to commit mass genocide is on a par with Israel. This is how you then have Jews targeted through claims like this because of suspected war crimes.
How many hate crimes against Jews will it take for you to understand that.
Again Hamas is far from innocent and an extremist organization that commits war crimes. I can state wrongs on both sides, you ignore those committed by the Palestinians, of which this whole conflict as started by Hamas.

Original Quill wrote:I can't argue with you there, wolf.  Sorry Didge, but he's got a point.

All the wing-nuts today reside on the right.  Irrational wars, lies, kidnapping, rape and torture, getting elected and then refusing to perform, gun-nuts, racists, abortion foes, anti-education, anti-women, anti-Hispanic and anti-democracy...whew!  

Used to be the right wing wore gray suits and went to work to support their families.  Now they are blowing up schools, killing each other on shooting ranges, carrying on road rages, and conducting sedition and treason...you name it.

Wing-nuts, I say.

That is very incorrect even in your own country there has been left wing terrorism and in fact left wing terrorism in Europe has seen far more attacks that far right and to me all are wrong. You just do not hear about them as much but believe me they certainly happen.
As I say I am not denying
Zionism is a problem, but so is Hamas, both continue to keep the conflict going, which will never bring about peace, whilst the rest of the population allow them to control the situation. Only when both civilian groups fed up with the violence take a stand will there be hope for both nations with peace.

http://www.thetower.org/hamas-training-tens-of-thousands-of-child-soldiers/

Read for yourself the levels of terrorism and who commits the, for the first time last year Islamic terrorism eceeded sectarian, which had been by far the most terrorism committed


Anyway have to go

https://www.europol.europa.eu/latest_publications/37

Netanyahu has never publicly committed Israel to a two state solution and their actions in the Occupied Territories with continued building of new settlements confirms this. They're there for the long haul and the present government are never going to leave.
Netanyahu has also continued to block more detailed talks on the subject by coming up with reasons not to including provocative measures designed to prompt a response from the extremists that we all know have infiltrated into to Gaza from more extreme groups.
Israel also doesn't even apply international law to Palestinian citizens because in their eyes Palestinian citizens don't exist.

Even in your own country Quilll as I say

Irn Bru wrote:Netanyahu has never publicly committed Israel to a two state solution and their actions in the Occupied Territories with continued building of new settlements confirms this. They're there for the long haul and the present government are never going to leave.
Netanyahu has also continued to block more detailed talks on the subject by coming up with reasons not to including provocative measures designed to prompt a response from the extremists that we all know have infiltrated into to Gaza from more extreme groups.
Israel also doesn't even apply international law to Palestinian citizens because in their eyes Palestinian citizens don't exist.

Well you might see things change in the next election as all the arabs parties have joined forces


http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/.premium-1.638600


They may make a difference.


This though is not enough for the Palestinian side, where Hamas has to go also if there is any chance of lasting peace. You cannot ignore problems on both sides. Zionism is a problem, but so is Hamas, both continue to keep the conflict going, which will never bring about peace, whilst the rest of the population allow them to control the situation. Only when both civilian groups fed up with the violence take a stand will there be hope for both nations with peace.


Right have to go

In an agreement with Abbas, Hamas had agreed to reconising Israels right to exist within the 1967 borders and Netanyahu used that as an excuse to pull out of talks on a two state solution. The agreement would have brought new elections and it was a widely held view that the Palestinian Authority may well have won the election in Gaza.
Netanyahu never even gave it a chance and told Abbas that you can have peace with Israel but you can't have peace with Hamas. The talk broke down on that and the fighting continued unabated.

Israeli soldiers try to break a child's arm, something they do a lot

LOLz at extreme left wing groups I.e the Hippies chaining themselves to trees

NOT the same thing as the RW who shoots and bombs people that disagree with them...
Every year in the USA but 2001 RW Christians Extremist have been responsible for the MOST terrorist deaths

veya_victaous wrote:LOLz at extreme left wing groups I.e the Hippies chaining themselves to trees

NOT the same thing as the RW who shoots and bombs people that disagree with them...
Every year in the USA but 2001 RW Christians Extremist have been responsible for the MOST terrorist deaths

How little you know on this subject and even more so the history where it was extreme left wing groups in the later 19th century that really kicked off terrorist bombings.
There are plenty of left wing extreme groups that kill both in the US and Europe
Read the link by europol, there is here after here on data on all terrorism
Nobody is denying right wing extremism either, as all are deplorable


See you later

Brasidas wrote:No I am not talking about the comparison of killings but how Stassi is placing Israel on the same level plain as ISIS as if they are equally as bad as each other which is disgusting to even compare when IS are barbaric

Well tbh that is what I thought you meant but I only skimmed some posts so thought Id missed something.