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On a beautiful Tuesday evening, April
8, the Israeli army killed seven people and sent 40 other
people to the hospital, bleeding, traumatized, and with
urgent wounds. The Israeli army’s mission was to
assassinate two Hamas activists, which they executed, using
terrifying F-16 fighter jets to fire three missiles into a
poor, over-crowded neighborhood. One does not need
expertise in military weapons or a long memory to know that
this type of (illegal) attack on a residential neighborhood
kills and maims many others than the intended. This time, 2
children were among the dead and 22 children were among the
wounded. The Israeli army said, yes, indeed, they had
intended an assassination, and disregards the dead and
injured that lie in the wake of their state-justified terror
attacks. These are the 127th and 128th
assassinations since the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
Showing particular contempt for human
life, is the Israeli army’s decision to wait until a group
of civilians gathered around to help those hit by the first
missile dropped, and then target these people with two more
missiles. If they were “only” assassinating two people
(though the first hit killed 3), whom were instantly killed
in the first direct hit to their car, then who was the army
trying to kill with the other two missiles? The result was
the 4 other innocents, two of them children, that were slain
yesterday. At the rate of death in the Gaza Strip, the
wounded are lucky to be alive.
Interestingly, the dead and wounded
numbers sound strikingly similar to that of a suicide
bombing, except this time, President Bush isn’t condemning
it and no official political policies get put on hold
because of it.
PHRMG asks exactly how many people can
the Israeli army slay down in the favored and heralded style
of assassination before they have to pay consequences for
this blatant human rights violation? PHRMG is all too
frequently in disgust over the State of Israel’s habit of
condemning people to death without a trial and then, with
the blood still on their hands, look defiantly in the face
of the world and say they are a democracy. This is
repugnant hypocrisy, plain and simple.
Just for the record, assassination is
clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which
Israel has signed. PHRMG beckons the State of Israel to
stop its policy of contempt for international and human
rights law and to try to make an honest effort to abide by
agreements one assumes are made in good faith.
PHRMG also calls on all of those with a
conviction and even the remotest opportunity to speak out
against this policy of assassination, in addition to the
reckless shooting of civilians and the rest of the elaborate
list of other human rights violations performed by the
Israeli army. One way to do that is to contact the Israeli
embassy in your country and voice your concern that
democracies do not kill without trial or disregard civilian
life. A list of contacts follows.
London
Public Affairs
info@israel-embassy.org.uk
Tel 0171-957 9500
Fax 0171-957 9555
Rome
Tel. centralino 0636198500
Fax 0636198555
israel.roma@agora.stm.it
Japan
igto@israel.co.jp
Netherlands
Telefoon 070-3760500 (centrale)
Fax 070-3760555
ambassade@israel.nl
New
Zealand
Embassy of Israel, Wellington
Tel 04 472 2368
Fax 04 499 0632
israel-ask@israel.org.nz
Stockholm
08-661 33 09 Fax 08-662 53 01
israel.embassy@swipnet.se
Washington
DC
Tel (202) 364-5500
Fax (202) 364-5423
ask@israelemb.org |
