By John Pickard
The Western media was quick to pick up the Israeli denial about bombing the Al Ahli hospital near Gaza City, killing around 500 patients, medical staff and others sheltering there. After all, didn’t the Israeli authorities have charts, maps, pictures of craters that are too small, videos and recordings of conversations? The trouble is, leaving aside the fact that at least fifteen other medical facilities have been targeted, not to mention ambulances, they’ve done all of this before.
When an outrage is committed, the Israeli Defence Force can quickly manufacture a denial, in the expectation that when their denials are disproved, events have moved on and the original outrage forgotten. A classic case was the killing of the American-Israeli journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, by the Israeli army near Jenin on the West Bank in May of last year.
The Israeli government at first denied any role in her death, producing charts and film of the event, suggesting she was killed by Palestinian gunmen. It was only after “multiple independent investigations” (Al Jazeera) confirmed that only an Israeli soldier could have killed her, that the Israeli conceded that she did, likely die from an Israeli rifle, but unable to identify the shooter, there was no prosecution.
It is worthwhile reminding ourselves of the cold brutality that the IDF has displayed in the past and not least in its treatment of the population of Gaza. In 2018, a campaign was launched – not originally from Hamas, but from a chance post on social media – to organised marches to protest against the ongoing siege. These were called the Great March of Return and what they amounted to was a series of mass demonstrations, usually largest on Fridays, involving as many as 50,000 Palestinians massing and demonstrating near the border fence with Israel.
Marches of unarmed civilians attacked by sniper fire
Over the course of dozens of demonstrations – to be clear, these were marches of unarmed civilians – Israeli snipers killed nearly two hundred people who were posing no threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers behind their barriers. In the light of the Hamas incursion into Israel on October 7, some supporters of Israel have ‘re-interpreted’ these events, as if to suggest that Israeli lives were at stake on those occcasions. But they never were.
The United Nations Human Rights Council initiated an enquiry into the events and its investigating commission included representatives of Argentine, Bangladeshi and Kenyan diplomatic staff as well as staff from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The commission published its report, which can be read in full here. That reports speaks volumes and all of the following are extracts from that report, with the exception of those parts in bold.
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Israel did not grant the commission access to Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territory nor did it cooperate or provide information. The commission investigated events up to 31 December 2018, with a particular focus on three demonstration days: 30 March, the first day; 14 May, which saw the highest number of fatalities and wounded; and 12 October, one of two demonstration days with the highest number of fatalities in the latter part of 2018…
The commission conducted 325 interviews and meetings with victims, witnesses, government officials and members of civil society, from all sides, and gathered more than 8,000 documents, including affidavits, medical reports, open source reports, social media content, written submissions and expert legal opinions, video and drone footage, and photographs…
The idea for a march came from a post on social media, saying the following: “what if 200,000 demonstrators marched peacefully and broke through the fence east of Gaza and entered a few kilometres into the lands that are ours, holding the flags of Palestine and the keys to return, accompanied by international media, and then set up tents inside and established a city there.”
The idea evolved into a movement of Palestinians.
Israeli forces reinforced their positions
Demonstrations were held at these sites every Friday and occasionally other weekdays between 30 March and 31 December 2018, and continued thereafter. Beginning in August, weekly demonstrations were also organized at the Zikim beach in North Gaza…
Prior to the first demonstration, Israeli forces reinforced their positions at the fence with additional troops, including more than 100 sharpshooters. They dropped leaflets in Gaza and contacted Palestinian bus companies to warn against participation. At the demonstration sites, they strengthened the separation fence and its underground barrier (to prevent and detect cross-border tunnels), installed kilometres of barbed wire coils on the Gazan side as additional barriers, cleared vegetation on both sides, dug deep trenches on the Israeli side and erected a battery of earth mounds or berms onto which snipers were positioned for better visibility and shooting accuracy…
In the commission’s view, the demonstrations were civilian in nature, had clearly stated political aims and, despite some acts of significant violence, did not constitute combat or a military campaign…
The commission focused its investigation on fatalities and physical injuries occurring in the context of the demonstrations between 30 March and 31 December 2018…
The demonstrations began on 30 March 2018, and were reportedly attended that day by between 40,000 and 50,000 Palestinian men, women, children, elders, civil society and political activists, and public figures…
Poetry readings, seminars, lectures and sport…all shot at
Demonstrators congregated at five main demonstration sites. The atmosphere was initially festive, with activities in tents including poetry readings, seminars, lectures and cultural and sporting activities…
At one of the demonstrations, the commission reported, most gathered at their respective camp of return along Jakkar Street, which runs parallel to and is approximately 300 m from the separation fence. Smaller numbers of demonstrators moved closer to the fence, and stood, sat or lay on the ground. Some demonstrators near the fence threw stones, burned tyres and waved Palestinian flags. The commission did not find that demonstrators were armed…
As early as 9 am, Israeli security forces responded to the demonstrations with live ammunition…(italics added)
At various sites, the commission looked at fatalities and every one of them is documented. They all make for harrowing reading, but the following is a selection of the cases examined:
Mohammad Ajouri (17)
Israeli forces shot Mohammad, a student athlete, in the back of his right leg as he gave onions to demonstrators to relieve tear-gas symptoms, approximately 300 m from the fence. His leg had to be amputated.
“As she lay on the ground, four men attempted to evacuate her…”
Schoolboy (13)
Israeli forces shot a schoolboy in the leg as he stood in a crowd on Jakkar Street, approximately 300 m from the separation fence.
Schoolgirl (13), Marwan Qudieh (45) and two wounded
Israeli forces injured a schoolgirl with bullet fragmentation. As she lay on the ground, four men attempted to evacuate her. The forces shot three of them, killing Marwan Qudieh (45) from Khuzaa village and injuring a potato seller and another man in the legs. One of the rescuers had to have a leg amputated.
Israeli security forces wounded demonstrators as far as a kilometre away from the separation fence. In one case, they shot a 21-year-old student in both legs minutes after he arrived at the Bureij demonstration site.
The demonstrations of 14 May
Under the theme “Return of a million”, between 35,000 and 40,000 people reportedly attended the demonstrations held at the five original sites and at eight additional temporary sites…
On 14 May, Israeli security forces shot and killed seven children: a girl, Wisal Khalil (14), and six boys: Izzedine al-Samak (13); Said al-Kheir (15); Ahmad al-Sha’ar (15); Talal Matar (15); Saadi Abu Salah (16); and Ibrahim al-Zarqa (17).
The following is a witness statement from an individual, described by the commission as “an international journalist covering the demonstrations at the Malaka site”, on May 14.
“What was notable was the amount of injured people. And the slow, methodical shooting. Every few minutes… you would hear a shot ring out and you would see someone fall. And then another shot and another person fell. It went on for hours…
I saw a man who had been shot in the throat, I didn’t see it happen but I saw the immediate aftermath. He was covered in blood. I saw a man who had been shot in the head…
There was a constant stream of bloody bodies being carried back towards the ambulances. It was surreal and endless. It became almost normal, it was happening so often. A shot, a person falling, people carrying the body away.
The number of wounded was astonishing. I couldn’t say how many people I saw who were shot because it was so high. I have covered wars in Syria, Yemen, Libya. I have never seen anything like this. The slow methodical shooting. It was just shocking…”
Children, the commission noted, are supposed to enjoy special protection under international law. But Israeli security forces killed 35 children during the demonstrations in 2018, almost all using sniper fire from a range of anything between 50m and 300m.
Among those killed were also journalists, wearing ‘Press’ vests and medical personnel, also clearly identified as such. They also shot at disabled people:
On 14 May, Israeli snipers shot him in the chest at the Abasan Al-Jadida protest site, where he was sitting in his wheelchair with two friends approximately 300 m from the separation fence. He died immediately.
Towards the end of the commission report, they publish a summary of findings (paragraph numbers removed):
The commission investigated all 189 fatalities and tracked more than 300 injuries caused by the Israeli security forces at the demonstration sites and during the demonstrations.
With the exception of one incident in North Gaza on 14 May that may have amounted to “direct participation in hostilities” and one incident in Central Gaza on 12 October that may have constituted an “imminent threat to life or serious injury” to the Israeli security forces, the commission found reasonable grounds to believe that, in all other cases, the use of live ammunition by Israeli security forces against demonstrators was unlawful.
Victims were hundreds of metres away from the Israeli forces
Victims who were hundreds of metres away from the Israeli forces and visibly engaged in civilian activities were shot, as shown by eyewitness accounts, video footage and medical records. Journalists and medical personnel who were clearly marked as such were shot, as were children, women and persons with disabilities.
The Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities. Less lethal alternatives remained available and substantial defences were in place, rendering the use of lethal force neither necessary nor proportionate, and therefore impermissible.
The commission therefore found reasonable grounds to believe that demonstrators were shot in violation of their right to life or of the principle of distinction under international humanitarian law.
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The conclusion any normal person would draw from this report is that the IDF, far from being a ‘moral’ army, is capable of killing or maiming men, women, children, the disabled, reporters and medical personnel with no compunction. It is perhaps worth bearing this in mind in the ‘fog of war’ around the bombing of the Al Ahli hospital.
There is an important difference between these 2018 victims – and the victims of the bombing of Gaza this week – on the one hand, and the Israeli victims of the October 7 Hamas atrocity on the other. It is that in the case of most of the Palestinians, they appear to have no names. Unlike the Israeli victims, for the mainstream media, Palestinians who die are largely anonymous.
The Palestinian victims have no Facebook profiles, no family portraits and no smiling faces to be carried on front pages. For a socialist, an atrocity is an atrocity, whether it is committed by Hamas or the Israeli army, but we are also aware of the different presentations that are given in the media that surrounds us. More importantly, we are also aware of the background and the root causes of the conflict, and on that score there is no ‘equivalence’ between Hamas and the IDF.
The bombing of Gaza is killing scores more people every day, between a third to a half of them children. But alongside the physical war, there is also a propaganda war, a war of public opinion, and as resolutions and demonstrations show, no amount of firepower and military prowess can change the fact that in this war of opinions Israel is losing ground among workers and youth world-wide.
[All graphics taken from OHCHR website here]
