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Amnesty calls for arms embargo on Israel

Amnesty International today called for an arms embargo on Israel and accused the IDF of carrying out war crimes in Gaza.

Unfortunately AI's report also accuses Palestinians fighting back in a massively unequal war of also committing war crimes by using unguided weapons. As one freedom fighter during the Algerian war of independence against the French put it: if we had fighter planes we'd use them.

AI in the name of 'balance' is in danger of undermining its own report with such a strange attempt at equivalence. By Amnesty's reckoning virtually every army since the second world war has committed war crimes by firing shells into civilian (unguided munitions) areas, notably the British Army in Basra a few years ago now..

BBC Radio 4's Today Programme this morning reported that among the weapons being used in addition to white phosphorus were specially designed anti-personnel weapons that left metal darts implanted in people's bodies, usually killing them. The awful Mark Ragev also admitted the Today Programme that the IDF had indeed used white phosphorus and 'they were investigating'.

The report, Fuelling conflict: Foreign arms
supplies to Israel/Gaza, can be downloaded here

From the Jerusalem Post
But the bulk of the text detailed Israeli actions against Palestinians in Gaza and US culpability for Israel's 22-day military operation in the Gaza Strip. Amnesty has been highly critical of Israel in past reports.

In this report, Amnesty focused on the issue of arms sales, and explained that due to a 10-year agreement lasting until 2017, the US was due to provide $30 billion in military aid to Israel.

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