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MIDEAST: U.S. Branch of Amnesty Calls on Rice to Drop "Lopsided" Stance
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (IPS) - The U.S. section of Amnesty International sent an "urgent" letter Friday to
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calling on her to end what it called
Washington's "lopsided response" to the ongoing Israeli air strikes on Gaza that
have reportedly killed more than 400 Palestinians, including scores of unarmed
civilians.
While the letter also expressed concern about the rocket fire by Palestinian
groups that has taken four Israeli lives in urban areas more than 30
kilometres from Gaza during the past week, it called Israel's campaign air
campaign "disproportionate" and accused the Jewish state of violating
international law.
"Without diminishing the responsibility of Hamas and other Palestinian armed
groups for indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians, the U.S.
government must not ignore Israel's disproportionate response and the
longstanding policies which have brought the Gaza Strip to the brink of
humanitarian disaster," the letter declared.
"…Amnesty International USA is particularly dismayed at the lopsided
response by the U.S. government to the recent violence and its lackadaisical
efforts to ameliorate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," it stressed, noting that
several recent reports by its London-based parent organization, U.N. aid
agencies, Oxfam, CARE and other relief groups have described the situation
in Gaza - even before the latest outbreak of hostilities - as the worst since
Israel's 1967 conquest of the area.
The letter came amid growing international clamour, especially from
European and Arab capitals, for an immediate ceasefire. So far both Israel and
Hamas have rejected this option.
Hamas has said it would agree to a ceasefire provided Israel agrees to lift its
effective economic blockade of the territory. Israel - strongly backed by the
White House - has insisted that it will stop its offensive only when Hamas
agrees to a ceasefire that, in Rice's words, "is durable and sustainable."
In its letter, Amnesty urged Washington to "go beyond rhetoric and exert
concrete pressure on both parties to immediately cease unlawful attacks."
Statements in recent days by both Rice and the White House have contributed
to the impression that Washington wants to give Israel more time to weaken
Hamas' leadership and infrastructure in Gaza, in hopes that the population
there will turn against the party to the benefit of Palestine Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
Indeed, Israel has begun amassing tanks, artillery and troops in a number of
areas just outside Gaza, possibly in preparation for a ground assault against
specific Hamas targets.
In a new phase of its campaign, Israeli forces began striking the homes of
Hamas leaders. An air attack Thursday killed a top cleric identified with
Hamas' military wing, Nizar Rayyan, along with his four wives and nine
children. The air assault reportedly struck at the homes of several other
leaders again Friday in what some analysts here described as an effort to
"decapitate" the Islamist group.
The European Union called Thursday for an "immediate and permanent
ceasefire" that would include both an "unconditional halt to rocket attacks by
Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli military action."
On a trip to Europe Thursday, however, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni -
who, along with Defence Minister Ehud Barak, has gained in the public-
opinion polls for the Feb. 10 elections since the Israeli offensive began -
rejected the demand as well as a French proposal for a 48-hour
"humanitarian cease-fire."
An unidentified official travelling with Livni called the latter proposal
"unrealistic", "hasty", and bordering on "offensive", adding that Israel was
itself shipping in tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including food and
medicine, despite reports of severe shortages and chaos in Gaza's few
hospitals. The territory has been without power for two days.
"There is no humanitarian crisis, and therefore there is no need for a
humanitarian truce," Livni told reporters in Paris.
Amnesty's letter strongly disagreed with that assessment Friday, however,
echoing a report issued Wednesday by Oxfam. "At present there is an urgent
need for access to humanitarian aid, food and essential supplies - as both
aid agencies and residents of Gaza have long ago run out of provision
reserves due to the Israeli blockade which has so restricted the flow of goods
into Gaza for months," it said.
"The quantities which the Israeli army has allowed into Gaza in recent days
are nowhere near what is necessary to meet the basic needs of the population
of 1.5 million," it added.
Rice herself has voiced some concern about the humanitarian situation and
has sought private assurances from Livni that more assistance will be
delivered via U.N. and private relief agencies, according to a number of
sources close to the administration.
The same sources say that Washington has also sought assurances that Israel
will try to keep civilian casualties to a minimum and that there will be no
repeat of the 1996 shelling of the southern Lebanese village of Qana in which
some 106 Lebanese civilians trying to escape fighting between Israel and
Hezbollah were killed by Israeli shelling.
But, as noted in the Amnesty letter, "the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely
populated areas in the world" and the way Israel's current bombing campaign
is being carried out "is completely failing to meet" international legal
requirements that all operations be "strictly necessary, proportionate and
make every effort to discriminate between combatant and civilian."
In a statement released Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch
(HRW) also criticised Israel - as well as Hamas' rocket firings - for failing to
discriminate between legitimate military and civilian targets to minimise harm
to civilians. It cited several aerial attacks carried out early in the campaign
which "appear to be unlawful," including strikes against students leaving a
U.N. training facility; against a "Hamas mosque" that also destroyed a nearby
house; and several police stations and a police academy.
As it has in the past, HRW also charged that Israel's blockade of the territory
amounted to "collective punishment against the civilian population, a serious
violation of the laws of war."
In its letter, Amnesty called on Washington to immediately suspend its arms
deliveries to Israel pending an investigation as to whether previously supplied
weapons have been used to commit serious human rights abuses during the
current assault.
(END/2009)
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