Shame on Louis Arbour....
She sees moral equivalence between Israel and Hezbollah.
Jurist, the legal news website, reports that Ms. Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court Justice and war crimes prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia issued a "pointed" statement aimed directly at the two combatants and their leaders.The plain fact of the matter is that Israel IS showing significant restraint - both in their intent and in their actions. Could you imagine the civilian casualties if Israel showed no restraint? If they cut off the water supply? If they wouldn't let in humanitarian aid (like they are doing in Gaza).
"Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians. Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable. International humanitarian law is clear on the supreme obligation to protect civilians during hostilities. This obligation is also expressed in international criminal law, which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity. International law demands accountability. The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control."
posted by GayandRight @ 4:58 PM
7 Comments:
Why are you shocked>> She is a Liberal after all
I don't know Madame Arbour's politics, but her opinion will carry a lot of weight and influence a lot of Canadians!
Did you read the editorial of the Toronto Star lately? You should....The Star's editorial says that Harper's firm support for the State of Israel will be the death of his political career. Here it is:
Stephen Harper reminds me of the late King Fahd, of the American puppet state of Saudi Arabia, who was said to be more American than the American president.
By falling in lockstep with George W. Bush, the Prime Minister is either displaying his ideological commitment to the president or trying to please him, at any cost — from Afghanistan to Israel. Either way, he is compromising Canadian sovereignty and our reputation for even-handedness, as well as exposing our soldiers to grave risk in the questionable Afghan mission.
To be fair, Ottawa's pro-American tilt began under Paul Martin. But Harper is "out-bushing Bush," as Opposition Leader Bill Graham says.
Whereas several G8 leaders thought of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon as outrageously disproportionate, Harper found it "measured."
A Canadian prime minister thus did not utter a word of protest against the killing of eight Canadians, let alone of nearly 300 other people and the displacement of about 500,000 civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
It's a line of thinking in which the only lives that matter, and the only territories worthy of immunity from violence, are American and Israeli.
This is the immoral calculus that's at the heart of so much havoc in the world today. And it is this that Harper has committed Canada to, with little or no debate in Parliament or anywhere else.
Harper also parrots the line that the crisis emanates solely from "the actions of Hamas and the actions of Hezbollah." It does, but not completely.
The crisis in the Gaza Strip has been in the making for a year. Israel evacuated the territory, only to keep a stranglehold by controlling the movement of people and goods. This helped Hamas win the parliamentary elections, which triggered even more collective punishments.
Harper led Bush in initiating Western revenge on the Palestinians for electing the wrong people. Canada helped foment a humanitarian crisis, with mass starvation and the near-breakdown of the social order.
An agreement by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with Hamas to nudge it toward recognizing Israel got lost in the Hamas shelling of Israel and its June 25 abduction of one Israeli soldier in the hope of freeing some of the 1,500 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Israel retaliated with bombs, sonic booms, the arrest of cabinet ministers and MPs, and the killing of about 100 Palestinians.
Gideon Levy, columnist for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, wrote:
"It is not legitimate to cut off 750,000 people from electricity. It is not legitimate to call on 20,000 people to run from their homes and turn their towns into ghost towns. It is not legitimate to kidnap half a government and a quarter of a parliament. A state that takes such steps is no longer distinguishable from a terror organization."
It was into this mess that the terrorist Hezbollah moved, landing missiles on Israeli civilians and killing eight Israeli soldiers and abducting two. The Israeli offensive on Lebanon followed.
United Nations human rights chief, Canadian Louise Arbour, said yesterday the scale of killing in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories could involve war crimes.
Israel has an inalienable right to defend itself against terror, with proportionate force and an obligation to protect civilians during hostilities. It has a right to exist, indeed thrive. So do the Palestinians. One is not possible without the other.
Despite all the militant Arab bluster of driving Israel into the sea, nobody can. Yet, for all its power, Israel won't have peace unless the Palestinians have it as well.
Harper is either ignorant of this reality or chooses to ignore it. Now that he has made his choice, Canadian voters will, too, in due time.
If the Tories fail to procure a majority in the next election, their failure to crack through urban Canada and Quebec may be attributable to this moment when their leader's Stockwell Day-like zealotry got exposed.
Harper's mistake is of far greater magnitude, both internationally and domestically, than that of Joe Clark in 1979 when he pledged to move the Canadian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Harper may also be too ideological or too stubborn, or both, to recover, as Clark did by dispatching Robert Stanfield on a mission to the Middle East.
Quebecers tend to be more pro-Palestinian than English Canadians. That the Canadian family killed in Lebanon was from Montreal, and that most of the stranded Canadians there are from Quebec, can only add to that sentiment.
It is a mistake to see Harper's stance only through the window of our domestic ethnic politics, between the 350,000 Jewish Canadians and the 650,000 Muslim Canadians.
Half the Canadian Arabs are Christian, and not all Jewish Canadians agree with a military solution.
The issue also has wider resonance, as seen in the boycott call against Israel by CUPE Ontario and the Toronto branch of the United Church.
Finally, the struggle to keep Canada's voice distinct and separate from that of the United States is bred in our bones.
It is more urgent, not less, under a president whose deeply flawed vision has left even a majority of Americans distraught over what he has wrought, both at home and abroad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haroon Siddiqui, the Star's editorial page editor emeritus, appears Thursday and Sunday. hsiddiq@thestar.ca.
Well if Haroon Siddiqui says Harper's career must be over than it must be true....not.. The fact is he neglected several important facts: Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that routinely sends suicide bombers to market places in order to blow up innocent civilians. Israelis routine warn civilians before striking. Hezbollah deliberately hides military equipment in civilian areas even in back yards. Of course people near those areas will be hurt or killed. He has absolutely NO evidence that Israel deliberately targets civilians..NONE.. I listened to the Canadian Israeli ambassador today and he ridiculed people like Siddiqui questioning what they expect Israel to do.. sit back and let Hezbollah attack them? What is a "disproportionate" response? THEY killed 100 people so we are only allowed to kill 100? This is so fucking stupid. I believe Siddiqui's one-sided comments to be near antisemetism.
Re: Siddiqui
Anyone who gives one bit of credence to Haroon Siddiqui needs to give their head a shake. If they can't muster the sense or strength to do it themselves then perhaps a considerate bystander can will be kind enough to smack em' a couple of times.
Re; Arbour...
Just more lame assed shit from stupid leftist/liberals and closet Islamofacist supporters who are enjoying the life on the public teat a little too much.
Oh Ya it was also mentioned on CTV Newsnet that 40% of the Lebanese population SUPPORT Hezbollah. I suspect that was based on political opinion polls at the time. Hezbollah the OUTLAWED terrorist organization is supported by almos HALF of the Lebanese population!
My point is simply the fact that Haroon is the chief editorialist for the Toronto Star, the chief media supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada...You know, Toronto, that city with 22+ electoral districts!
If Harper wants to even come close to winning a majority government, he'd better start listening to what urban voters have to say, and pay less attention to the Reform/Alliance coalition that still dominates his caucus.
The Tories will end up losing seats with his uncritical support of the State of Israel, as many Lebanese Canadians live in Quebec.....And Quebec is the least likely province to have ever been pro-Israel.
Fascists in Hezbollah get a free pass from all kinds of Canadians.
Jack Layton and Bill Graham don't seem to be bothered by the fact that Hezbollah's only reason for existence is to kill people, just like it says in their founding charter.
Perhaps if Hezbollah chose different people to kill - like socialists or gays - then the NDP and Liberals might be a little disturbed, but killing Jews seems to be just fine by them.
Why 'liberal' people in the West support fascist groups is a mystery, the fascists would kill them all in an instant if they could.
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