raeli Sniper Gets Only 45 Days for Killing of Two Women under White Flags
- Common Dreams staff

An Israeli soldier accused of killing a mother and daughter carrying a white flag in Gaza during Israel's 2009 'Operation Cast Lead' has received a sentence of only 45 days following a plea deal approved by a military court on Sunday.

Rayah Abu Hajaj (in this family photo) and her daughter Majedah were shot while walking with a group of Palestinians holding white flags after their home was bombed during Israel's 'Operation Cast Lead' in the Gaza Strip in 2009. The charges against the soldier -- known only in court documents and the Israeli media as "staff sergeant S" -- were reduced from 'manslaughter' to 'using a weapon illegally'. In addition, as the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem points out, the deal does not recognize guilt for the killing of Majedah and Rayah Abu Hajaj, but rather punishes the soldier for the "killing of an unidentified individual."

"Following a mediation process and upon examination of the evidence with the recommendation of the military court, both sides have reached a plea bargain in which the indictment will be adjusted, and he will be convicted of using a weapon illegally," a military statement said.

B'Tselem challenged the decision and called for the reopening of the case for a full and thorough investigation.

"If the military prosecution accepted the claim brought by the soldier's lawyers, that there is no connection between the shooting he admitted to, and the killing of the Palestinian mother and daughter, this means that the investigation into this incident was never completed," the group said in a statement.

"B'Tselem demands that the Military Police investigation unit reopen the file."

According to B'Tselem, on January 4, 2009, the Abu Hajaj family evacuated their home after it was hit by an Israeli tank shell.

"When they saw tanks about 150 metres (yards) from them, two of them waved the (white) flags, and the children in the group sat on the ground," B'Tselem said.

"Suddenly, and without warning, shots were fired at the residents, killing Majda Abu Hajaj on the spot. Her mother, Riyeh Abu Hajaj, was severely wounded by the gunfire," it said. She later died of her wounds.

The incident was one of those raised in the UN Goldstone Report on alleged war crimes by both Israel during its incursion of the Gaza strip in late 2008 and early 2009.

More than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the conflict.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/13-1

Goldstone has long ago repudiated the report. Charges against the
Israelis were trumped up.

Hamas and the Palestinians used their own people as human shields
while launching rockets at Israeli civilians for months until
Israel was forced to act to stop the attacks.

Israel warned the Palestinians also for months to stop the rocket
attacks or they would have to be stopped by force. They stopped the
rocket attacks by force.

There certainly was a lot of bloodshed and it is all the responsibility
of the Palestinians and Hamas who could have stopped the rocket attacks
anytime and avoided the costly conflict.

As of now they are, target practice. Sad.

Gosh that sounds an awful lot like what the Nazis used to say to the Poles or any other occupied country.

Barbarossa Decree

The background behind the Barbarossa Decree was laid out by Hitler during a high level meeting with military officials on March 30, 1941,[34] where he declared that war against Soviet Russia would be a war of extermination, in which both the political and intellectual elites of Russia would be eradicated by German forces, in order to ensure a long-lasting German victory.[34] Hitler underlined that executions would not be a matter for military courts, but for the organised action of the military.[34] The decree, issued by FeldMarshal Keitel a few weeks before Operation Barbarossa, exempted punishable offenses committed by enemy civilians (in Russia) from the jurisdiction of military justice. Suspects were to be brought before an officer who would decide if they were to be shot. Prosecution of offenses against civilians by members of the Wehrmacht was decreed to be "not required" unless necessary for the maintenance of discipline.

The order specified:

"The partisans are to be ruthlessly eliminated in battle or during attempts to escape," and all attacks by the civilian population against Wehrmacht soldiers are to be "suppressed by the army on the spot by using extreme measures, till [the] annihilation of the attackers;
Every officer in the German occupation in the East of the future will be entitled to perform execution(s) without trial, without any formalities, on any person suspected of having a hostile attitude towards the Germans", (the same applied to prisoners of war);
"If you have not managed to identify and punish the perpetrators of anti-German acts, you are allowed to apply the principle of collective responsibility. 'Collective measures' against residents of the area where the attack occurred can then be applied after approval by the battalion commander or higher level of command";
German soldiers who commit crimes against humanity, the USSR and prisoners of war are to be exempted from criminal responsibility, even if they commit acts punishable according to German law.[34][35]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht

Goldstone was pressurized big time .

What happened in Gaza was A War Crime

Read it in Goldstone's own words:

"We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document."

"The purpose of the Goldstone Report was never to prove a foregone conclusion against Israel. I insisted on changing the original mandate adopted by the Human Rights Council, which was skewed against Israel. I have always been clear that Israel, like any other sovereign nation, has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within. Something that has not been recognized often enough is the fact that our report marked the first time illegal acts of terrorism from Hamas were being investigated and condemned by the United Nations. I had hoped that our inquiry into all aspects of the Gaza conflict would begin a new era of evenhandedness at the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted."

"I hoped that in the face of a clear finding that its members were committing serious war crimes, Hamas would curtail its attacks. Sadly, that has not been the case. Hundreds more rockets and mortar rounds have been directed at civilian targets in southern Israel. That comparatively few Israelis have been killed by the unlawful rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in no way minimizes the criminality. The U.N. Human Rights Council should condemn these heinous acts in the strongest terms.

In the end, asking Hamas to investigate may have been a mistaken enterprise. So, too, the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds."

"The Palestinian Authority established an independent inquiry into our allegations of human rights abuses — assassinations, torture and illegal detentions — perpetrated by Fatah in the West Bank, especially against members of Hamas. Most of those allegations were confirmed by this inquiry. Regrettably, there has been no effort by Hamas in Gaza to investigate the allegations of its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity."

-Richard Goldstone

=-=-=-=

So while Goldstone finally concluded that the Israeli's were honest
in their investigations, Hamas lied and misrepresented the facts and
inappropriately blamed Israel for Hamas' own actions against their
own civilians.

Yet, the title of this thread attacks the Israelis who were defending
themselves from terrorist attacks despite the fact that Israeli
policy is to never target civilians and Hamas' policy is to
intentionally target civilians.

Reeks of hypocrisy!!

Woman waving a white flag? How can even you defend this horrific crime.

Just exactly which terrorist group like Hamas was lauching thousands
of rockets at the Wehrmacht?



There is no comparison between Israel defending itself from bus
bombs, cafe bombs and rocket attacks and the Wehrmacht rounding
up and gassing Jews.

Such lame-o arguments are the clearest examples of unjustified
anti-Israel bias as can be!

Goldstone produced a report that Israel did not like and applied pressure to change it...simple as that.


1400 murdered in 23 days of bombing of an open air prison.

A sophisticated Air force committing murder.

Teaching those Palestinians a lesson they will not forget.


They sure as hell wont.


They aint going away you know.

They get stronger as every day goes by...exactly the way it happened here in Northern Ireland.

You cannot defeat a people who have lost everything except their dignity.

Operation Cast Lead is probably one of the greatest atrocities of the modern era.

I despise this horrific accident which was a direct result of the
Hamas rocket attacks and the Israeli's attempts to stop them after
many months of warnings and attempts to dissuade them from continuing
the attacks.

I blame Hamas and their policies of targeting civilians and their
use of innocent Palestinians as human shields against their wishes.

Disgusting.

The IDF seem to be very accident prone

Ridiculous. Israel has no leverage on Goldstone. He could not be
forced to change it. He only changed it when the Hamas lies became
obvious and tainted the whole report.

Cast lead was a successful defensive battle that stopped thousands
of rocket attacks. It is no crime to defend yourself.

It is a war crime for Hamas to launch rockets indiscriminately into
towns, schools, play areas, and to use their own citizens and human
shields.

It is difficult when enemies push Palestinians into harms way as
they continue to launch attacks on Israeli families in their
homes and schools, stores and buses.

Come on Slowhand even you can agree that a woman with a white flag is pretty clear looking down a sniper scope. A mother and daughter!

The killing Ratio of Operation Cast Lead was 100 to 1

That is 100 Palestinians Killed for Every 1 Israeli.

Use ones Imagination

A sophisticated Air Force attacking a defenseless open air prison.

Nothing more than a Turkey shoot for the most moral Army in The World.

I now rest my case because no one in their right mind can justify that murderous action.

Hamas chose to conduct their military operations in a large heavily
populated city to try to get as many Palestinians killed as possible.

Had Hamas stopped the attacks there would never have been any need
for the Israelis to go in there and stop them by force.

For that matter, Hamas could have surrendered after the first
casualty and stopped shooting rockets into Israel but they did not.
The blood of these poor people killed is on Hamas hands alone.

Perhaps they were moved in front of a rocket garrison that was
operating behind them and the Israelis were trying to stop the
rocket launchers when they got it the way.

The only sure way to keep such civilians out of harms way is for
there to be no rocket attacks in the first place and for Hamas
to engage Israel away from civilian areas.

But Hamas wanted to get Palestinians killed. They want to create
sensational casualties. It is repugnant beyond belief.

Hamas did not stop rocket attacks on Israeli homes. They did not
choose to conduct their military operations away from Palestinian
homes.

This was no random act of collateral damage this was the targeting of a woman and a daughter with a white flag. NO Excuse can justify it.

Where is the youtube video showing the truth?