Talking Points for Israel’s assault on Gaza

Given the pervasive and one sided Israeli narrative regarding the Israeli assault on Gaza, AMP wishes to contextualize not just recent but the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We hope this framework helps your discussions with your friends, colleagues and with the media. 

Point of reference 
Israel has successfully framed this attack as in self-defense responding to rockets from Gaza. We argue the root of “all” issues relating to Palestine is the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. And, here are some historical facts supporting our argument. 

• Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967. 

• Israel annexed ever more Palestinian land, since. 

• Israel violates International law by forcible acquisition of Palestinian land. 

• Israel remains in violation of several United Nations resolutions – namely; Security Council 

Resolution 242 (obligating Israel’s withdraw from the territory occupied in the Six-Day War); and Security Council Resolution 383, (demanding Israel to comply with Resolution 242. These resolutions were supported by the United States. 

• In consideration of the international law and the official US position, Israel remains an occupying force. 

• Since 1948, the UN Security Council has passed more than 50 binding resolutions demanding Israel to grant the Palestinians their basic rights, such as the right of return and the cessation of settlement building in the West Bank, among others. Israel has defied “all” UN resolutions. 

Disengagement and collective punishment 

Although Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005, removing all troops, military installations and more than 8,000 settlers it remains in total control of Gaza’s land and maritime borders, and its airspace. 

• Gazans are collectively punished for exercising their democratic right to choose their political leadership and as a result the entire population is put on “diet” 1 

• Gaza Strip is the world’s largest open-air prison. 

• Israel can neither export nor import any essentials (food, medicine, etc) of life. 

• The border crossings from Gaza into Israel remains closed and the Rafah crossing into Egypt is opened only sporadically. 

Debunking the myth that Palestinian resistance groups use human shields 

MYTH: Israel frequently tries to justify civilian casualties by saying that Palestinian resistance groups use human shields or ensconce themselves in heavily populated areas.

FACT: Gaza as one of the most densely populated regions on earth trapped into more people per square mile is defenseless targets of Israeli strikes. 

• The Goldstone Report, an UN-commissioned study of Operation Cast Lead, disputes Israeli claims that resistance groups positioned themselves inside dense neighborhoods. On the contrary their investigation finds evidence of Israeli forces using Palestinians, even children, as human shields, in direct violation of international humanitarian law. 

• Gaza is a tiny strip of land about 140 square miles with 1.7 million people (11,600 people p/ sq. mile. (UN Relief and Works Agency) 

• Refugees from 1948 and 1967 – 1.1 million people – constitute about 75 percent of the total population & half of them living in refugee camps. (UNRWA) 

This is not a war and not between two armies 

MYTH: Israel portrays this as a war. 

FACT: Neither it is a war nor the parties in conflict are armies. Only Israel has an army. Palestinians neither have an army nor arms, except homemade rockets. Unfortunately, the US government assures Israel to always have a Qualitative Military Edge in the Middle East. 

Each year, Israel receives more than $3 billion in unconditional military aid from the United States, an undeclared nuclear power, and the sixth largest weapons exporter in the world. 

• Israel claims that 1 million of its citizens live within the range of rockets. The veracity of this claim is debunked in a report “Dissecting IDF propaganda: The numbers behind the rocket attacks,” Phan Nguyen, Nov. 17, 2012, Mondoweiss) 

• Over the past one week, Israel’s bombing campaign killed more than 60 civilian Palestinians, including women and children while homemade rockets from Gaza resulted in only three Israeli deaths. All life is sacred but the disproportionality demonstrates the real force and power of each party. 

For more information on disproportionality refer to Al Mezan Center for Human Rights www.mezan.org/en/ and Al Haq www.alhaq.org/ 

For Operation Cast Lead statistics - Israeli forces killing 1,409 Palestinians, (including 355 children) and injuring more than 5,300, download a detailed report 

 Operation Pillar of Defense 

Like Operation Cast Lead, Israeli Occupation Forces broke a truce with resistance groups in the Gaza Strip. Israeli claims that it is acting in self-defense to rockets being fired from Gaza are patently false. 

• Nov. 4, the IDF killed a man with mental disabilities who had wandered too near the ‘buffer zone’;  

• Nov. 8, IDF forces made a ground incursion into al-Qara village, and fatally shot 13-year-old Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa,who was playing soccer with his friends. This prompted Palestinian resistance groups to attack an Israeli military jeep, injuring four occupation soldiers. 

• In response to injury to occupation soldiers, the IDF attacked civilian neighborhoods killing 7 Palestinians (including 3 children) and injuring at least 52 Palestinians (including 6 women and 12 children). 

For more information see “How Israel shattered Gaza truce leading to escalating tragedy: a timeline,” Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, Nov. 15, 2012.

International law and the right to resist occupation 

Palestinians have been under occupation since 1967. This is the last and longest military occupation in modern history. International law guarantees all people the right to self-determination because it is the foundations from which springs all human rights. The Fourth Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Charter all guarantee the right to resist occupation, as does UNGA Resolution 2649. (US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation) 

Israeli violations of the us arms export act and the foreign assistance act 

In order to understand how Israeli attacks on Palestinians may violate American laws regarding the sale of weaponry to foreign countries, it is important to understand how international law regulates warfare. 

The Fourth Geneva Conventions, The Hague Regulations of 1907, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Conventions on the Right of Children stipulate: 

1. Principle of Distinction - parties in conflict must distinguish between civilians and combatants, and civilian and military objects. (Al Mezan Center for Human Rights) 

2. Principle of Proportionality - The aggressor must refrain from any attack that could result in the loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and loss of their property, or any measure disproportionate to the anticipated military benefit. (National Lawyers Guild) 

• The Foreign Assistance Act stipulates that the United States may not sell weapons to any country that ‘engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. (National Lawyers Guild) 

• Israel and the US signed the Mutual Defense Agreement in 1952. It stipulates that Israel can only use US-made weapons for internal security, as part of a peace-keeping mission or in legitimate self defense. (NLG) The US Arms Export Act stipulates the US president must notify Congress of any country misusing weapons it had purchased from the United States 

1.”Israel’s starvation diet for Gaza,” by Jonathan Cook The Electronic Intifada, Oct. 24