The National Lawyers Guild sent a delegation of 8 American lawyers to the Gaza Strip “to assess the effects of the recent attacks on the people, and to determine what, if any, violations of international law occurred and whether U.S. domestic law has been violated as a consequence.”
The group interviewed communities particularly impacted by the recent Israeli offensive, including medical personnel, humanitarian aid workers and United Nations representatives. The delegation examined three legal issues: 1) targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure; 2) illegal use of weapons and 3) blocking of medical and humanitarian assistance to civilians.
They found strong indications of Israeli violations of the laws of war. Though we blogged about the delegation’s findings before, several delegation members have since written about their experiences:
Reem S. of Deaf Walls was also there and put up several posts about her trip. Her most recent post, Justifying Israeli War Crimes, is a powerful overview and reflection that gives context and a fearful look at the road ahead.
Noura Erakat wrote in the Huffington Post a rebuke of Anthony Cordesman’s methodologically-flawed report finding that Israel was complicit with the laws of war. His report could be summed as arguing, Israel obeyed international law because Israeli officials say so.
Related posts:
- Delegation of American lawyers reports back from Gaza
- I Told You So
- Israel’s War Crimes
- PRCS Report
- Palestinians Initiate Letter Writing Campaign
And once again it is necessary to point out that NLG has no credibility.
Since its founding, the NLG has been the focus of controversy and criticism, primarily from more conservative elements but also from moderates and liberals. Sidney Hook described the individuals who founded the NLG as “not being capable of taking any stand that conflicts with the CPUSA (the Communist Party of the USA)”. Hook illustrated this point with the NLG’s repeated refusal to defend the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party members prosecuted under the Smith Act in 1941 but being one of the first legal defense teams involved in the defense of CPUSA membership prosecuted under the Smith Act in 1947. Central to these critics’ arguments is the claim that the organization is a supporter of communism, or, more recently, terrorism. These claims have been repeatedly denied by the organization’s leadership as “red-baiting”.
In 2003, a controversy arose around the case of NLG member attorney Lynne Stewart, who was charged with transmitting “terrorist communications” from prison for Omar Abdel-Rahman, her former client and mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Stewart was ultimately convicted of the charges and sentenced to 28 months in federal prison. The NLG supported Stewart, condemning the charges and the conviction. NLG Attorney Elaine Cassel stated that “Stewart never provided any financial support, weaponry — or any other concrete aid — for any act of terrorism. No act of terrorism is alleged to have resulted from her actions.”
The ONLY legal association of relevance in the US is the American Bar Association.
Posted by Anonymous | February 22, 2009, 2:23 amHis report could be summed as arguing, Israel obeyed international law because Israeli officials say so.
How about, because there is no evidence they didn’t? Innocent until proven guilty. As of yet, nobody has even been able to present a valid enough case to get an indictment. And yet, there have been “convictions” in the press. It’s a fucked up world when Hamas gets a pass for real war crimes and Israel gets gets smeared by journalists who don’t even have a passing familiarity with international law.
Posted by programmer craig | February 22, 2009, 1:04 pmKabob isn’t reporting videos like this. I wonder why. Remember when we heard about Hamas breaking legs of Fatah collaborators in Gaza? It’s all so neat and clean in black and white letters. Behind each pair of those broken legs is a human being.
Watch for yourself how acts the Palestinian government of Gaza.
Posted by Anonymous | February 25, 2009, 11:07 pm