We’ll be talking about the Middle-East crisis in depth today with these three terrific guests:
MARY ROSE OKAR,
http://www.adc.orgOkar is president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee, which today filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
failed to fulfill their constitutional and professional obligations and
protect U.S. citizens in a crisis or time of war.
Okar, who is a former member of Congress, said today: "At no time
has President Bush, Secretary of State Rice, or Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld called for a ceasefire in Lebanon. To the contrary, the Bush
administration has encouraged the violence by sending an urgent shipment
of bombs to Israel giving that country the green light to continue in
its indiscriminant bombing of Lebanon. This has placed innocent
civilians, including thousands of U.S. citizens, in harm's way and has
resulted in injuring several U.S. citizens in Lebanon."
FRED ABRAHAMS,
http://www.hrw.orgFred Abrahams is senior emergencies researcher for Human Rights
Watch actions in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon. He said today: "Human Rights
Watch has serious concerns about Israel and Hezbollah's compliance with
international humanitarian law (the laws of war) during military actions
in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon. Two fundamental tenets of international
humanitarian law are those of 'civilian immunity' and the principle of
'distinction.' They impose a duty on all sides in a conflict to
distinguish between combatants and civilians, and to target only the
former. Serious violations of international humanitarian law are war
crimes."
JOHN QUIGLEY,
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/jfc/staff/quigley.htmlProfessor of law at Ohio State University, Quigley is author of
numerous books on international law including "Genocide Convention" and
"Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice."
He said today: "Yesterday's bombing of the UN compound has striking
parallels with the shelling in April 1996 by Israel of the UN compound
at Qana, Lebanon, when:
1. IDF
knew that this was a UN compound, because
it was a long-established UN compound.
2. IDF knew at the time of firing that it was a UN compound and
inhabited, because IDF had a drone overhead sending real-time pictures
back to the gunners.
3. Shelling went on for a period of time, during which UN officials made
desperate phone calls to IDF positions telling them they were killing
civilians and asking them to stop.
4. UN complained (General Assembly passed a resolution of condemnation
of Israel), but Israel made no serious investigation and wrote it off as
a tragic mistake."
Quigley was involved in filing a complaint over the shelling of Qana
to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
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Guy