Wed, 15 Nov 2000

SPECIAL ICEJ REPORT: THE UN AND "EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE"

The UN Security Council on October 7 adopted by 14 votes, with the US abstaining, a resolution charging Israel with "excessive use of force" in their response to the 10-day old Palestinian uprising. The resolution read: "The Security Council this evening deplored the provocation carried out at Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem on 28 September, and subsequent violence there and throughout the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, which had resulted in more than 80 Palestinian deaths."

The US abstention allowed the resolution to pass, since a veto would have "caused more Arab violence and put American lives at stake in the region," according to officials with the Clinton Administration. (New York Times, October 9, 2000)

Amnesty International had already charged Israel on October 3 with using "excessive and indiscriminate force." Reversing their usual process however, an investigation was launched two days AFTER the denunciation. Also, although Amnesty announced that recommendations to Israel would follow, the PA was not promised similar advice.

In addition, United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson began on November 8 a week-long investigation in the area, AFTER the UN body had already condemned Israel with "excessive use of force" in the recent clashes. Of particular concern to Robinson, Amnesty and other harshly judging Israel were allegations that IDF forces were deliberately directing live fire at Palestinian children. Israel Foreign Ministry officials were ready to present a strong case about the Palestinians' deliberate use of children as human shields in the recent riots to the commissioner, but reports indicate she was not prepared to receive them.

The Committee for Accuracy in the Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) has produced an informative backgrounder which explains how, compared to other nations, and the UN itself, Israel has been restrained in its recent response to the Palestinian uprising. This despite the fact that the tiny democracy faces much greater threats that those posed to Western and UN forces in the past. In its report, CAMERA compares the recent Israeli-Palestinian confrontations with UN and US responses in such combat situations as in Somali and Panama in the past decade, with some astounding conclusions.

Reviewing the CAMERA report, the Somalian conflict contains perhaps the most troubling and sharpest parallels with the present Palestinian intifada. US forces accompanied by UN-led personnel from 25 other nations were deployed in a war-torn Somalia in 1991, in an attempt to restore order. The government had been overthrown, and the streets of the capital, Mogadishu, were being fought over by competing clan-based militias. One local Muslim warlord, Muhammed Farah Aidid, demanded complete control of the country, and rejected any compromises brokered by the UN.

On June 6, 1993, Aidid's forces, shielded by women and children, attacked Pakistani UN soldiers, killing 23. On approach, some rebels hid their sticks and knives until the onslaught began, which involved other Somalis firing from nearby rooftops.

The same day, the UN Security Council passed resolution 837, which "condemned the unprovoked armed attacks against [UN] personnel which appear to have been part of a calculated and premeditated series of cease-fire violations." The resolution called for "member states to contribute armoured personnel carriers, tanks and attack helicopters " These weapons would surely constitute the "heavy weapons" which Israel is condemned by the UN for deploying at present.

In response to sniper fire a few days later, Pakistani UN soldiers fired on a crowd of Somalis, killing two. The June 9 issue of the NEW YORK TIMES cited the UN response as one within a "pattern of intensifying harassment."

A week later, UN forces launched a full scale attack on densely populated Mogadishu. The June 18 issue of the NEW YORK TIMES reported: " General Aidid's neighborhood was shaken by cannon fire, missiles from Cobra helicopter gunships and a AC-130H Specter gunship Two helicopter missiles landed in the yard of a French relief agency " CAMERA notes that the AC-130 is a particularly devastating weapon. Among the targets was Mogadishu radio, bombed to silence for "anti-United Nations" incitement.

By evening, hospitals reported more than 60 killed and an estimated 100 wounded. An additional 20 civilians were killed when the Somali snipers fired in response: "The attacks have fed resentment and anger among Somalis against the Americans and the United Nations." (NYT) The UN envoy laid full blame on Aidid: "Admiral Howe accused General Aidid of using women and children as shields for gunmen, saying that the general's faction had organized the demonstrations and that he would be held responsible for the deaths."

The following month, US helicopters fired "16 missiles and more than 2000 rounds of 20-mm cannon rounds" into a villa hosting the "command and control" of Aidid's militia. (AP, July 12, 1993) The Red Cross reported at least 54 dead and another 174 wounded, while Somali sources placed the toll at 73, including women and children, reported the AFP the next day. The French news agency also said that four Western journalists were killed by a Somali mob outside the villa when they rushed to the scene to cover the incident.

A battle in September of 1993 provides perhaps the closest parallel to the current Israeli response to Palestinian violence. When Somalis attacked a US bulldozer crew, US Cobra helicopters fired anti-tank missiles and 22-mm rounds at the spectators, killing nearly 100. In the face of various charges of "excessive use of force," UN Military Spokesman Major David Stockwell defended the action against the crowd, which apparently began helping in the battle: "Everyone on the ground in the vicinity was a combatant, because they meant to do us harm." (Manchester Guardian Weekly, September 19, 1993)

Like the Israeli-Palestinian clashes, this incident was relatively small-scale, and involved an armed group which was joined by civilians in attacking UN soldiers. The differences of course, are that the UN presence really was an "occupying force," which considered the area a "free fire zone," with no qualms about killing EVERY Somali in the vicinity. The Somali death toll in this single incident equals that of the Palestinians in the first three weeks of the riots.

Then, in a botched raid on October 3, up to 500 Somalis and 18 US soldiers were killed in half a day, when US Rangers and Special Forces tried to capture Aidid's senior aides. The Somalis used RPG's to shoot down US Cobras. Fighting on the ground ensued when US forces refused to abandon the body of a dead pilot, and called for reinforcements. Aidid's men were armed with AK-47's and RPG's, while the US employed tanks and APC's. One estimate put the injured at 1000 - including hundreds of women and children - many due to fire from US helicopters.

US Army spokesmen denied the use of excessive force, saying it was "consistent with the right of self-defense under international law." They said that the gunmen "do not wear uniforms... do not carry arms openly... are not led by accountable military leadership... are not subject to military discipline and they do not comply with international law. It is they who initiated the firefight and who bear ultimate responsibility for this tragic loss of life." (NYT, October 14, 1993)

Israel has also found itself in a position in which soldiers were trapped by an extremely hostile mob at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus on October 1. While the US rescued their soldiers at the cost of more than 500 Somali lives, Israel spared Palestinian lives by not forcefully extricating a wounded officer, Cpl.Yosef Madhat who, after four hours, bled to death because the Palestinian Authority refused to allow his evacuation.

In another CAMERA case study, the US invasion of Panama in December 1988 was sparked by the killing by Panamanian soldiers of an off-duty US Marine and the wounding of another, after the Marines' car got lost and was stopped at a Panamanian checkpoint. The two US soldiers were only shot when they tried to flee. Credible reports indicate that up to 4000 Panamanians, mostly civilians, were killed in the ensuing US operation. The invasion force was 20,000 strong, and weapons used against the comparatively small Panamanian militias included mortars, APC's, Sheridan tanks, and A-64 Apache helicopters firing Hellfire anti-tank missiles. Forces initially employed F-117 Stealth fighter-bombers, and to finish, lethal AC-130 gunships which can "lay down 17,000 rounds of ammunition a minute". (Newsweek, January 1, 1990)

The US, Britain and France vetoed a Security Council Resolution condemning the US armed intervention. When Cuba pressed the General Assembly to pass a resolution, a senior State Department official that such a resolution would be "another example of hypocrisy visible to the rest of the world even it isn't to the members of the United Nations." (NYT, December 27, 1989)

By contrast, when two Israeli Army reservists got lost driving to their base, fell into Palestinian hands, and were murdered in cold blood (not the case with the US officer), Israel gave the PA three hours notice that certain buildings which related to the crime would be attacked. (The US included entire blocks of poor civilian neighbourhoods in their attack.) After the three hours had passed, Israel A-64 Apache helicopters fired warning shots before firing missiles at the buildings Palestinians had been warned to evacuate. The Israeli attacks resulted in some injuries, but no fatalities.

There is no doubt that had Israel employed the amount of force used in the UN/US operations in Somalia or Panama, the death toll would have been in the 1000s. And the circumstances are not dissimilar. As a US soldier recorded in September 1993, "they use women as cover and concealment for when they shoot at us to make it harder to see who is doing the shooting, if we can see them at all. Then they call us killers of women and children when we shoot the very same people who are shooting at us and we kill some of the people that they are using for cover." (Black Hawk Down, p 360, cited in CAMERA backgrounder)

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SOURCES: THE JERUSALEM POST, ISRAEL LINE, HA'ARETZ, REUTERS, CNN, ASSOCIATED PRESS, ARUTZ 7, ISRAEL WIRE, CAMERA, WASHINGTON POST, IBA NEWS, SKY NEWS, BCC, STRATFOR.COM

This bulletin was compiled and written by David Parsons, Amanda Ruth Thomas and Rashel Gibbs.

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ICEJ NEWS SERVICE Editor: David Parsons

Please feel free to publish/broadcast, with attribution.