Israel in Gaza - Shaming testimony

Thursday, July 16, 2009

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has acknowledged that Palestinians cannot be treated as they have been by Israel and that progress will have to be made towards establishing and independent homeland for those displaced by Israeli expansion.

Our Foreign Minister Micheál Martin has been severely criticised by Israel and its supporters for his justified criticism of the methods and weaponry Israel used in Gaza during the recent conflict.

How much more critical those men might have been had they seen the report, published over recent days, and based on testimony of Israeli soldiers involved in the attacks.

Israeli soldiers say the military forced Palestinians to serve as human shields and used reckless firepower that caused needless deaths. One said the army used powerful weapons such as mortars and white phosphorous. Unarmed Gazans were shot dead needlessly.

More than 1,400 Palestinians, including 900 civilians, were killed. Thousands of homes were destroyed and Gaza’s infrastructure all but razed.

Thirteen Israelis were killed.

Israel has legitimate aspirations but these do not allow it to continue to behave as a rogue state and jeopardise the brittle peace in the Middle East.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, July 16, 2009