MID-EAST REALITIES - Sunday 20 April 1997
M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S - QANA MASSACRE ANNIVERSARY
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ON THIS DATE LAST YEAR THE JEWISH COMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST (JCOME)
CONDEMNED ISRAELI ACTIONS IN LEBANON IN THE ATTACHED PRESS RELEASE
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For COME 4/16/97 Press Release see: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/Qana2.htm
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THE DAY THE QANA MASSACRE TOOK PLACE
[The following Press Release was sent out on this date last
year, 4/18/96, by the Jewish Committee On The Middle East
immediately upon learning of Israel's massacre at Qana, the
U.N. Base in southern Lebanon where hundreds of refugees had
taken shelter. The day before information condemning
Israel's invasion of Lebanon had been circulated to the
American press and is appended.]
J e w i s h C o m m i t t e e On The M i d d l e E a s t
P.O. Box 18367 - Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 362-JCOME / Fax: (202) 362-6965 / Email: JCOME@USA.Net
Supporting Palestinian Statehood and real democracy for all
the peoples of the Middle East
The only national organization led by American Jews advocating a
sovereign, independent and truly democratic Palestinian State in
all of the occupied territories with capital in Jerusalem
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J C O M E P r e s s R e l e a s e - 4/18/96
[For additional information and press commentator contact
JCOME Chairperson Mark Bruzonsky at (202) 362-5266,
Ext 278 (24-hours). Bruzonsky is former Washington
representative of the World Jewish Congress, has visited
the Middle East region over 150 times, and has published
books about the Middle East with Congressional Quarterly,
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the
Smithsonian, and the National Geographic. Bruzonsky provided
the live commentary for Canadian National TV during the
White House Rabin-Arafat ceremony and now hosts the new TV
program, Mid-East Realities, which shows weekly on all cable
systems in the Washington, D.C. area.]
JCOME CONDEMNS ISRAEL ACTIONS IN LEBANON
JCOME condemns Israeli actions in Lebanon. Furthermore JCOME believes
the Israelis are involved in a gross campaign of disinformation and
deception regarding their actual policies and motives, both in regard
to the Palestinians as well as in Lebanon. This afternoon the Israeli
Army Chief of Staff said there have been "no mistakes on Israel's part"
and Prime Minister Shimon Peres blamed Lebanon and Hizballah for what
Israel is doing claiming Israel's policies of gross collective
punishment are justifiable. These Israeli attitudes, coupled with
Israeli policies are totally unacceptable. Furthermore, the complicity
of the United States government, especially the Clinton Administration,
in arming and encouraging the Israelis should be of growing concern to
all Americans.
Just yesterday JCOME sent out the information contained on page 2 which
has appeared in the British press outlining the cynical Israeli policy
of targetting civilians and devastating Lebanon -- and this was all
published prior to today's tragic developments.
It should not be forgotten that Hizballah was created in the aftermath
of Israel's terrible destruction of Lebanon in 1982 -- during which tens
of thousands of people were killed and terrible massacres comparable to
war crimes occurred with clear Israeli complicity and knowledge.
Israel's occupation of parts of Lebanon ever since has created the
conditions for Hizballah's growth and support in opposing Israel's
occupation.
JCOME believes Israel should immediately suspend all military operations
in Lebanon and should immediately agree to fully withdraw from all
Lebanese territory as a precondition for serious negotiations with
Lebanon, Syria, and Hizballah. JCOME further believes that Israel should
stop its policies of attempting to put Palestinians on reservations in
the name of peace and public accept Palestinian Statehood in the areas
of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
Since 1988 JCOME has supported full Palestinian Statehood in all of the
territories occupied by Israel including East Jerusalem, and full
Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon to the recognized international border.
JCOME helps produce and distribute the unique weekly TV Program
"Mid-East
Realities" showing on all cable systems in the Washington area.
Supporting JCOME are Jewish Professors at over 175 Universities
throughout the U.S. and thousands of concerned Americans of all
backgrounds nationwide.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The following information was sent out yesterday prior to today's
Israeli attack against the U.N. base in Lebanon.
MORE ISRAELI TERROR & BIG LIES
The Israelis have mastered the arts of double-speak and the Big Lie.
Far worse however is how the American media plays along with Israeli
duplicity and technological terror. The influence and power of the
Israeli/Jewish lobby over everything in the U.S. -- from the Presidency
to the media -- should never be forgotten.
"THE ISRAELIS KEEP RELEASING MILITARY VIDEOS WHICH ARE
DESIGNED TO SHOW THEY ARE HITTING ONLY MILITARY TARGETS --
PRECISION BOMBING OF HIZBALLAH BASES... IT'S QUITE CLEAR
EITHER THE ISRAELIS ARE SIMPLY LYING ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE
DOING OR THEIR 'DEFENSE FORCES' ARE SINGULARLY INCOMPETENT."
ALEX THOMSON, Independent Television News - 16 April 1996
"GIVEN THE AIR ATTACKS ON THE TWO ELECTRICITY STATIONS OVER
THE PAST TWO DAYS -- THE ONLY 'SURGICAL STRIKES' ISRAEL HAS
ACTUALLY UNDERTAKEN -- THE COLLAPSE OF THE CITY'S INFRASTUCTURE
IS CLEARLY WHAT THE ISRAELIS INTEND... BEIRUT'S POWER SUPPLY WAS
CUT BY TWO-THIRDS AFTER AN ISRAELI HELICOPTER FIRED A ROCKET
INTO
THE STATION AT BSALEEM OUTSIDE THE CHRISTIAN EASTERN SUBURBS OF
BEIRUT -- AN AREA INTO WHICH NO HIZBOLLAH HAS EVER SET FOOT...
"SINCE THE OFFENSIVE BEGAN ON 11 APRIL, NOT ONE HIZBOLLAH
MEMBER...HAS BEEN REPORTED KILLED."
ROBERT FISK, THE INDEPENDENT - 4/16/96
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M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
For latest information go to: http://www.MiddleEast.Org
To contact the Jewish Committee On The Middle East:
Email: JCOME@USA.NET
Phone: 202 362-5266, Ext 526
Fax: 202 362-6965
MID-EAST REALITIES - Sunday 20 April 1997
M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S - Arab Press Article About Qana
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Web Site: http://www.MiddleEast.Org
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ISRAELI MASSACRE AND LIES
[MER - The attached two-part article about the
Qana Massacre appeared in the London-based and
Saudi-owned Arabic-language daily AL-HAYAT on 16
and 17 April. Much more information about the
Qana Massacre can be found at
http://WWW.MiddleEast.Org]
Last year, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) called the
deadly artillery barrage on the UN base at Qana an "unfortunate
incident." The IDF stated that it "has always directed its armed
forces that civilian targets are not to be attacked," and held
fast to the position that the attack was an accident due to
mapping and measuring errors. "Any attempt to claim that the
extremely unfortunate results of the Qana incident were anything
but accidental, as implied by the UN report, is totally
unfounded," the IDF wrote in an official response dated May 9,
1996. Residents of south Lebanon, who bore the brunt of Operation
Accountability in July 1993 and Operation Grapes of Wrath in
April 1996, view the massacre at Qana as anything but accidental.
For years, they have endured indiscriminate attacks by Israeli
aircraft, and Israeli and South Lebanon Army (SLA) artillery,
which have killed, maimed and injured their children and
neighbors.
Qana was not an exception to this pattern, and the only
reason that the world took notice was because it was the most
horrific Israeli attack to date. The enormous casualty toll, and
the gruesome images of charred and dismembered victims, many of
them infants and children, could not be easily ignored, nor could
the fact that the shells exploded -- in broad daylight and clear
weather -- in the middle of a UN base where over 800 civilians
were openly being sheltered.
Evidence to support those who maintain that the artillery
fire at Qana was not an accident can be found not only in the UN
report that was so vigorously dismissed by Israel and the United
States, but also in events that took place elsewhere in south
Lebanon. In the days before the Qana base was transformed into a
bloody tableau, other attacks demonstrated that Israeli military
forces were operating in flagrant disregard of international
humanitarian law, the laws of war. The civilian deaths and
injuries at Qana should be viewed in this broader context.
On April 17, the day before the Qana debacle, there was a
remarkably similar but little-noticed artillery attack on the
small UN base in the front-line village of Majdal Zoun, where 60
civilians were sheltered. There was massive destruction inside
the base but, miraculously, no loss of life. Was this, like Qana,
also an accident? On April 16, a clearly marked ambulance in the
village of Aabba, near Nabatiyeh, was blown to bits by Israeli
aircraft. There also was the destructive shelling of the Hospital
of the South in downtown Nabatiyeh on the morning of April 15,
and the rocketing of another well-marked ambulance as it was
leaving the village of Mansouri on April 13, which claimed the
lives of four children and two women. Accidents, or war crimes?
Consider these attacks, described in detail below, in light
of the words of then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres to the Israeli
parliament: "The government, in its instructions to the IDF on
the operation, ordered it not to harm civilians or civilian
targets, and to concentrate solely on Hizballah installations and
on the terrorists themselves." Either Peres was being less than
honest, or Israeli military commanders ignored not only the laws
of war but also the express instructions of their own government.
* * *
* April 17, 1996, Majdal Zoun: During the first week of
Operation Grapes of Wrath, most of the residents of the small
front-line village of Majdal Zoun had fled in fear. But some of
them sought shelter in the UN base there, which had been manned
by Nepalese soldiers for 12 years. There were sixty civilians
inside the compound when it was shelled on April 17, and it was
sheer luck that no one was killed.
Commanding officer of the base, Lt. Col. Rana Dhoj Limbu,
recounted the events leading up to the attack. On April 14,
there was "a lot of shelling around the village, damaging houses
and roads," he told me. On April 15, journalists came to inspect
the destruction, travelling in a convoy of UN vehicles and
private cars. The convoy came under "close fire" from 155mm
artillery. On April 16, the road to Majdal Zoun was bombed about
one kilometer northwest of the base, cutting off access.
The next morning, a UN force of Polish engineers and
Nepalese soldiers attempted to clear the road, arriving in an
armored personnel carrier, a front-end loader, and a Toyota van.
At about 11 am, after the peacekeepers had filled two bomb
craters and cleared debris from about 700 meters of the road, an
Israeli fighter jet dropped a bomb 150 meters north of them. They
continued working for another half-hour, but left when two
rounds, fired by tanks or artillery, exploded 200 meters in front
of them.
About ten minutes later, the UN base itself came under
direct fire, receiving eight incoming rounds. The mix of shells
was similar to what would explode the next day at Qana: half of
them were "proximity-fuzed" devices that explode in the air over
a target rather than on the ground. It was these air-burst shells
that exploded near the prefabricated buildings that housed the
camp's kitchen and dining room, causing extensive damage, and
above roads inside the base. The bathrooms, sentry tower, and
water tank also were damaged in the attack. "Many other rounds
fell nearby, which we did not report," the commanding officer
added.
According to Lt. Col. Limbu, at the time of the attack,
there had been no guerrilla military actions in the area, no
firing of Katyushas. "Most of the resistance activity was in
Yatar," he said, another front-line village some 10 kilometers to
the east. He also noted that, in a departure from normal
operating procedure, there had been no shell warning from the
Israeli side prior to the attack. The next day, the Qana base did
not receive a shell warning either.
"It could not have been a mistake," Lt. Col. Limbu told me
as we toured the compound. "They know this base.This is one of
the UN bases that is closest to the IDF positions. Maybe it
happened because we were sheltering civilians and they did not
like this." Col. Limbu pointed out that Yarin, "a main firing
position" during Operation Grapes of Wrath, was only five
kilometers away, near the Israeli border, and that another IDF
position was less than a kilometer from the base. He noted that
the weather was clear when the attack occurred and, after the
first shell (a smoke bomb) landed, the peacekeepers fired eight
red flares. "This is normal [procedure] when we are attacked.
They can see the flares from Yarin," he noted. The flares did not
halt the attack, and shells were fired into the base for five to
seven minutes, he said. Unlike the situation at Qana, where
indirect fire was used, the nearby artillery gunners had clear
lines of sight to Majdal Zoun.
* April 16, 1996, between Zahrani and the coastal highway: In
addition to organizing convoys for villagers who wanted to
evacuate, and sheltering some 5,000 civilians on its bases during
the conflict, UN peacekeeping soldiers distributed food and
relief supplies to residents throughout the south who were unable
or unwilling to flee. A UN official told me that UNIFIL, the UN's
peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, always informed the Israeli
military of the movements of its humanitarian convoys, and that
the IDF "told us officially that [the convoys] would not be
impeded." Despite this assurance, UNIFIL vehicles that carried
out humanitarian missions came under dangerously close Israeli
fire on many occasions. The official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said that he went out in some 15 to 16 such convoys
during Operation Grapes of Wrath and experienced ten cases of
close fire near the vehicles he traveled in.
On the afternoon of April 16, six Finnish UN soldiers set
out from their base in an armored personnel carrier (APC) and a
container truck, on their way to Zahrani to collect humanitarian
supplies. When they reached Zahrani, the soldiers loaded the
truck for about ninety minutes. During this time -- at about 3:30
pm -- Israeli aircraft began to bomb the road about one kilometer
away. "They dropped at least four or five bombs," recalled Capt.
Ville Pouttu, who was in the convoy. "They were trying to cut the
road. It was the only road leading to Nabatiyeh."
When the truck was loaded, the Finns travelled west, in the
direction of the coastal highway. They found the four-lane road
blocked by three enormous bomb craters "in a line," each about
ten meters in diameter and four meters deep. While the soldiers
were outside their vehicles, an Israeli jet swooped down and flew
two times over the APC. After the second overflight, as the men
were mounting the APC, a bomb was dropped into one of the craters
on the road in front of them, about 50 meters from their vehicle.
The site of the attack was an open area, with no buildings or
trees obstructing a view of the clearly marked vehicles. A second
attack followed. The drivers put the vehicles into reverse and
drove about 300 to 400 meters toward a building with a driveway,
where they hoped to be able to turn around. Two more bombs were
dropped, about 100 to 150 meters from the vehicles, according to
an internal UNIFIL report obtained by Human Rights Watch.
Some UNIFIL personnel told me that they viewed the "close
fire" incidents as deliberate attacks, aimed at impeding or
discouraging the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Lebanese
civilians. "They were not happy that we were bringing in aid.
They knew that they were cutting it close. The question is, who
made the decision to allow firing so close to our convoys?" a
senior official remarked. His question remains to be answered,
but the frequency of such incidents leaves no doubt that Israeli
military forces did not fulfill their duty under the laws of war
to refrain from indiscriminate attacks and to take precautions to
ensure that only legitimate military targets would come under
fire.
* April 16, 1996, Aabba: The laws of war specifically protect
hospitals, ambulances and medical personnel from attack. Human
Rights Watch documented that Israeli military forces attacked
clearly marked ambulances and vehicles of relief organizations in
July 1993 during Operation Accountability. In a letter that we
received in May 1994, the IDF denied that ambulances had been
targeted during that conflict. But less than two years later,
Israeli aircraft again attacked and destroyed ambulances.
On April 16, Mustafa Ali Mansour, 25, a volunteer ambulance
driver during Operation Grapes of Wrath, drove from Nabatiyeh to
the village of Aabba, southwest of Nabatiyeh, responding to a
call that there were three wounded children in the village. Two
other civil defense volunteers accompanied him. Mustafa saw three
types of Israeli aircraft in the sky above the village: bombers,
a drone (pilotless aircraft), and helicopters, which were
hovering close by. He told me what happened: "We reached Aabba
and found three kids who had been injured in an Israeli raid. We
parked the ambulance near the house. I stayed in the ambulance
and the others went into the house to give first aid and bring
out the wounded. While they were doing this, two missiles
exploded between the house and the ambulance, creating a lot of
smoke. I jumped from the ambulance, called the hospital and said
that we were hit, and then I ran." Mustafa was wearing a flak
jacket and a helmet, but was injured when shrapnel cut through
his right wrist as he ducked and protected his head by lowering
it and putting his hands behind his neck. Mustafa saved his life
by running away from the ambulance. About three minutes after the
first attack, there was a second one. "The planes came back, hit
the ambulance, and blew it to pieces," he said.
The ambulance, a white Mercedes stationwagon, was parked in
a completely open area on the main road, with residential
buildings on both sides of the street, Mustafa said. It was
equipped with a blue beacon on the roof, was flying a flag of the
Islamic Health Society, and was clearly marked in red writing as
a civil defense ambulance.
Mustafa sustained severe neurological damage to his right
hand and wrist, which was bandaged when I interviewed him. He had
undergone ten operations and said that doctors told him that his
hand "will never be the same" because "the nerves are dead." He
was still in need of another operation for reconstructive plastic
surgery. Mustafa had worked as a car painter in a small shop in
Nabatiyeh owned by his family, but has been unable to work since
his injury.
* April 15, 1996, Nabatiyeh: At about 9:00 on the morning of
April 15, the Hospital of the South was hit by shells reportedly
fired from Taibeh, an Israeli position south of the city. The
hospital, located on a busy main street in downtown Nabatiyeh, is
the largest Islamic hospital in south Lebanon, with 30 beds. It
is part of the Islamic Health Society, a nationwide medical
services network administered by Hizballah. The hospital was hit
during a ten-shell barrage. The first shells slammed into a
nearby seven-story office building southeast of the hospital and
another building just to the south, eyewitnesses told me. Workers
who were in the hospital at the time said that they heard the
shelling "getting closer and closer."
The four shells that hit the hospital damaged the southwest
roof and exterior walls of the building, and rooms on the first
and second floor of the southwest side. The obstetrics ward of
the hospital, on the second floor, sustained heavy damage, and
two expensive incubators and one fetal monitor were destroyed. I
was given copies of color photographs, taken at the time, that
documented the damage. On the floor below, another room was
damaged, but it was empty of patients. Casualties were minimized
because there were only seven patients in the hospital at the
time of the attack. Others had been moved earlier to a primary
health care center located on the basement level of a building
near the hospital. Three hospital workers were injured in the
attack, one of them seriously.
There had been no Hizballah military activity in the area
prior to the attack, Dr. Adil Oclaik, the hospital director, told
me, nor were any fighters present in the hospital or the
immediate area. "We do not allow any military around this
hospital. It is our policy, and everyone in the area knows this,"
he said. He noted that there have been no Islamic Resistance
offices in Nabatiyeh ever since a military target in the town was
attacked by Israeli forces in 1992. The doctor believed that the
hospital was deliberately targeted, in order to encourage
residents to flee Nabatiyeh, which was one of the towns ordered
evacuated on April 12. "One of the reasons people did not leave
was because they felt secure, knowing that medical assistance was
available, if they needed it." Rocketing ambulances and shelling
a hospital helped shatter this security by sending an
unmistakable message to residents of the south that civilian
objects were not immune from attack.
* April 13, 1996, Mansouri: Two days before the Hospital of the
South was shelled, an Israeli helicopter rocketed an ambulance
leaving the village of Mansouri, killing four children and two
women. With words that mocked the internationally recognized laws
of war, the initial reaction of the Israeli government was to
blame the victims. "We gave the residents advanced warning to
clear out so as not to get hurt," said government spokesman Uri
Dromi. "All those who remain there do so at their own risk
because we assume they're connected with Hizballah," he told the
Reuter news agency after the attack was reported. Top brass in
the Israeli military later in the day provided additional
information that was never substantiated. "We hit a car in which
a Hizballah activist was travelling. The car was travelling in
the exact area...where Katyushas were fired only a few hours
earlier," IDF chief of general staff Lt. Gen. Amnon Shahak said.
The head of the IDF's Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Amiram Levine,
told reporters: "The vehicle was sighted by the Israeli army and
the terrorist was killed....If children were killed I regret that
but repeat and stress they were in an area from which the
Hizballah fires Katyushas and they were warned not to be there.
We will continue hitting anyone who goes around in the places
from which Hizballah fires."
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