The dust has settled over a stricken, but not conquered, Gaza Strip after 23 days of unremitting Israeli bombardment from the air, sea and land. As a shaky truce took hold, the full scale of mayhem and destruction began to emerge. Shocked Gazans were still pulling out bodies and human remains from under the rubble, while surveying the extent of devastation to their homes. Gaza is an afflicted territory where scenes of carnage and tragedy of unbelievable dimensions continue to emerge. The death toll will continue to rise and a final count will not be declared for a few more weeks, maybe months.
Israel has wrapped up its offensive just in time to allow President Barack Hussein Obama to enjoy his historic inauguration. It called it a victory, although few will agree. Aside from exposing itself as brutal entity that has deliberately unleashed its massive firepower disproportionately against a predominantly civilian population, one fails to see what else the Israeli leadership has achieved in Gaza.
The army is now withdrawing and the world is seeing with disgust and awe what tanks and airships have left behind. Israel is a country which, for decades, has bragged about holding an invincible moral high ground. It has accused its enemies of barbarity and disregard for human life. But with children and women making up more than half of its victims, one must deduce that the Jewish state’s moral shield lies abandoned somewhere in the debris of a residential neighborhood in Al-Zaitoon suburb of Gaza city.
Israel has left behind much more than dead and injured Palestinians in the bleeding Strip. It had audaciously flaunted claims that its wars were fought in self-defense; that its decades-old conflict is not with the Palestinian people, but with “terrorist” movements sworn to its destruction. But in its war on Gaza, Israeli jets, tanks and battleships could see only one target on their radar screens: Civilians. And yet they fired.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has defended the army’s conduct in Gaza by saying Palestinian civilian deaths were a “product of circumstance.” Such an unnerving statement would probably be used again to justify the shelling of UN relief agency headquarters and schools, designated as civilian safe havens, hospitals, over 20,000 homes, 1,500 government buildings, mosques and ambulances.
Accusations that Israel used banned weapons and allegations that its soldiers executed civilians, used women and children as human shields, denied the injured access to medical help in addition to many other violations make the victims of its war on Gaza more than a product of circumstance. Livni and the rest of her Cabinet should be told they are in fact guilty of war crimes and that there is ample evidence to warrant independent international investigation.
So now comes the issue of accountability. It is not enough to secure a sustainable cease-fire, open all passages into Gaza and launch a billion-dollar fund for reconstruction. The people of Gaza deserve all this, and more, because it is their right under international laws and conventions. These are not breakthroughs, historic settlements or Israeli concessions, but legitimate claims that precede the aggression.
What Israel has done to the people of Gaza will never be repaired. It is not an issue of hauling a million tons of flour and medicine into the beleaguered Strip, nor is it a technical matter of how to carry out reconstruction and by whom. The plight of Gaza has one root-cause: Occupation. What took place in Gaza was not a precedent. In 2001, Israel carried a gruesome assault against the people of the West Bank, killing hundreds, arresting thousands, destroying Palestinian National Authority buildings, blowing up homes, crippling civic and industrial infrastructure, besieging towns and refugee camps, and finally holding President Yasser Arafat hostage in his own Ramallah compound.
Again Israel walked away from these crimes having acted with impunity. Killing Palestinians in cold blood, anytime, anywhere, by any means and for whatever reason, has become an Israeli prerogative to exercise as it pleases. If the world acted with complacency and indifference then, and on many other occasions, it must not do so now.
Accountability also means that Israel must pay for its crimes, or else justice and international law would mean nothing. It is Israel’s responsibility, as an occupying power, to protect the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza. To say Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 exempts it from such responsibility is political and legal hogwash. And even so nothing can justify its 18-month siege of the Strip in spite of UN protests and the incriminations of humanitarian and human rights bodies.
Israel’s latest crime would not have lasted for so long if it was not for the collusion of the United States government. The US is an accessory to the crimes committed in Gaza. It bears direct responsibility for the killing of a largely civilian population. It is accountable too for allowing Israel to continue its killing spree by providing it with diplomatic and political support.
The use of American-made weaponry against civilians violates a number of bilateral agreements between Israel and the US. And while it would be capricious to think the incoming administration would even contemplate holding its predecessor accountable for what took place in Gaza, the fact is that the American people have a right to know and act accordingly.
Additionally, accountability means that Israeli leaders can be charged with crimes against humanity; that Israel can be found legally liable and therefore ordered to compensate the citizens of Gaza for their losses, both human and material. This is not a whimsical proposition but a serious one.
Israel is not above the law, and if we are to believe that the international order is a functioning one, then we must press for justice in international courts and special tribunals. Palestinian victims today are no different from the casualties of the Nazis half-a-century ago. They are no different from the victims of Serb nationalists in Bosnia, or demented warlords in Liberia and elsewhere.
There are legal, political and diplomatic hurdles ahead. There will be matters of jurisdiction and sovereignty. The road is long and the goal is far away, but not far-fetched. But every free and responsible citizen on this planet can push this cause further. Israel is accountable — more than 1,300 dead, about 5,000 injured and maimed, and millions of displaced and terrorized civilians say so.
— Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and political commentator.
