Expert Accuses Israel of War Crimes

AP via NYTimes.com ^ | 6/14/02

[GeneD]

Filed at 9:20 p.m. ET

GENEVA (AP) -- Israel's policy of building settlements in Palestinian territories and destroying Arab homes and farmland is a war crime, a United Nations investigator said Friday.

``Israel has used the current crisis to consolidate its occupation'' of Palestinian areas, said Miloon Kothari, the housing expert of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

Yaakov Levy, Israel's ambassador to U.N. offices in Geneva, rejected Kothari's ``wild compilation of one-sided accusations.''

Kothari, an Indian architect who visited Israel and Palestinian territories earlier this year, told reporters, ``The serial and deliberate destruction of homes and property constitutes a war crime under international law.''

The building of new Jewish settlements is ``incendiary and provocative'' and settlers are ``free to indulge in violence and confiscate land,'' he said.

Kothari cited international accords like the Geneva Conventions on warfare, which govern the behavior of occupying powers.

Israel has built more than 100 Jewish settlements -- home to about 200,000 Israelis -- on land conquered in the 1967 Middle East war and is continuing construction. It claims the territory it seized is disputed, rather than occupied and that the Geneva Conventions do not apply.

``The issue of settlements is a political issue on which Israel and the Palestinians disagree,'' Levy told The Associated Press. Both sides discussed settlements ahead of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and Palestinians and during later talks in 2000 and 2001, he said.

``We made detailed suggestions on how to solve the issue, but the Palestinians broke off negotiations. The difficulties were caused by a conscious Palestinian decision not to work with us and resort to a policy of violence.''

In a 27-page report, Kothari said Israel claimed that settlement expansion was necessary because of ``natural'' population growth. But while settler numbers have risen by 12 percent a year, the Israeli population has been growing by just 2 percent a year, he said.

[GeneD]

Come on, Miloon (may I call you Loon?), why don't you go for the big kahuna and say -- Israel's existence is a war crime! The UN's already passed a resolution on that.

[cardinal4]

Perhaps the writer hasnt heard about the weekly homicide bombings in Israel./sarcasm

[College Repub]

The reason settlement population grows so much is because the people living there don't have abortions, and, generaly don't use birth control (at least as much as the rest of Israelis). There is nothing abnormal about that growth number!

[lawdog]

"... said Miloon Kothari, the housing expert of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights."

Carl Sandburg described an "expert" as anybody who could "spit over a boxcar". I guess he was right.

[My Identity]

War Crimes? I Got Your War Crimes Right Here:
The Phantom Massacre http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/672761/posts War Crimes in Jenin were committed by the Palis	The 'Jenin Massacre' Hoax http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/677148/posts Living in a world of monstrous moral inversion
Terrorists admit they carried out atrocities http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/679306/posts Fanatics brutalize women, children, old men	Jenin's War Criminals http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/675340/posts What the Palestinians did was the real war crime

[mrustow]

Kothari cited international accords like the Geneva Conventions on warfare, which govern the behavior of occupying powers.

News flash to UN: Israel isn't an occupying power; the land is in its country.

[Diogenesis]

Here the EU and the UN leaders show their judgment
as they line up to share sputum with Abd al-Rahman abd al-Bauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini
the chief Terrorist in the Middle East.

---

The EU and the UN continue to encourage murderers, bombings,
worldwide atrocities against Jews, Christians, and Americans,
Arab slavery of black children and women in Africa,
Arab gang beatings of Jewish women in Germany,
Arab gang beatings of French Jewish athletes,
Kiev and European synagogue burnings, worldwide burning of churches,
the destruction and defacement of Jewish historical sites,
and their attempts to dismantle and destroy Israel and America.

[Apollo]

the housing expert of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

Well if anyone should know what constitutes a war crime....

[Mo1]

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[PaImettoHawk]

Why, oh why, would the UN call what Israel is doing a war crime? After all, this is the same UN that had children going around in the US taking donations for starving world children(UNICEF). THEN using the money taken for funding the buying of weapons against peaceful people in Africa (Yep, it happened). The same UN that happily takes China's membership to "Human Global Rights Commission", as though nothing happens in China against people who so much as raise a voice against their ruler's murder of innocent citizens. I must say that if the UN is condemming Israel, then Israel must be doing something right.

[monkeyshine]

But while settler numbers have risen by 12 percent a year, the Israeli population has been growing by just 2 percent a year, he said.

The "settlers" are largely religious families who don't practice birth control, but rather practice the commandment "be fruitful and mulitply". It's natural that they would grow in numbers faster than, say, the secularists in Tel Aviv.

Maybe it would be more accurate to compare the "settler" growth rate to the Palestinian growth rate.

[SpottedBeaver]

Perhaps the writer hasnt heard about the weekly homicide bombings in Israel./sarcasm

Weekly? Try almost daily.</adding dripping to sarcasm>

[blackbart.223]

"Carl Sandburg described an "expert" as anybody who could "spit over a boxcar". I guess he was right."

Never heard that one but it sure fits.

[blackbart.223]

``Israel has used the current crisis to consolidate its occupation'' of Palestinian areas, said Miloon Kothari, the housing expert of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

Enough said. There is no reason to listen to this idiot.

[xm177e2]

I dunno about you, but that flag makes me want to enlist in the UN. At least pirates were more honorable than the UN, because they never pretended to be anything other than what they were.

[_Jim]

The 'Jenin Massacre' Hoax

Careful -

- you're going to get old michael rivero all worked up with an 'expose' on the truth like that ... (he's pro-Pali you know)