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The Dahiya Doctrine: Evidence of Israel's Intentional Mass Slaughter in Gaza - TheRealNews
The Dahiya Doctrine: Evidence of Israel's Intentional Mass Slaughter in GazaMichael Ratner says a recent release by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shows brutal depths of Israeli policy towards Gaza
The RealNews
August 24, 14
DESVARIEUX: So, Michael, what are you working on this week?
RATNER: You know, this week, of course, I think a lot of us are concerned by many issues, from the Middle East to Ferguson. And I've been focusing mostly on Gaza and the Israeli assault. And I wanted to bring to the viewers' attention a doctrine and an Israeli practice that probably a lot of people are not familiar with. I'd like to call this segment Gaza, the Dahiya doctrine, WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange. And they're all related.
Most of us probably have never heard of what Israeli generals call the Dahiya doctrine--that's D-A-H-I-Y-A. I only know it because WikiLeaks exposed it in the cable, a United States State Department cable from 2008, that summarized an Israeli general's statement on approved war plans, the plans that were used in Lebanon in 2006 in the Israeli war against Lebanon and are to be used in the future. Dahiya, which is the name of the doctrine, refers to a civilian neighborhood of Beirut that was leveled, utterly destroyed by Israel in the Second Lebanon War in 2006. In Israel's war planning, the Dahiya doctrine refers to Israel's intentional and massive killing of civilians and destruction of civilian villages, the intentional disproportionate use of force constituting collective punishment of a population. Dahiya plan leaves no doubt, none, that it involves the knowing and intentional commission in carrying out of war crimes. The killing of civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, whether in Lebanon then or Gaza today, is no mistake. It's on purpose, a purpose that is flagrantly illegal under the Geneva Conventions. Israeli soldiers, Israeli leaders, and Israeli generals could be tried for the crimes that the Germans were tried for in Nuremberg, for carrying out the intentional killing of civilians, destruction of civilian infrastructure.
When you look at the continued war and devastation in Gaza today, we're seeing the manifestation of the Dahiya doctrine. It's carried out to its barbaric extreme. Israel attacks Gaza from the air, the sea, and the ground with a force that is meant to obliterate civilians and destroy Gaza. It's carrying out the Dahiya plan. The figures are astoundingly awful. These are from the Palestine Committee on Human Rights in Gaza. Two thousand eighty-six Palestinians killed as of August to 21, three-quarters (75 percent) civilians--that's 1,602 out of those 2,000 killed were civilians, one out of every thousand people in Gaza. Almost 25 percent of them were children, almost 500, 494. People should be screaming about this. Ten thousand wounded, mostly civilians, one out of every 200 people in Gaza. And this just today from United Nations: 350,000 people displaced out of their homes, homeless in what was already an outdoor refugee camp. UN spokesperson Pernille Ironside said that it was going to take 18 years to rebuild the housing in Gaza. Think about that--18 years. And that's if they ever get the materials to rebuild it, which the Israelis don't allow in. It was dire before this recent onslaught for children. Half of Gaza's population our children, half of the 1.8 million people. They've grown up with trauma of war, devastation, killing of their families and relatives.
The purpose, of course, of what Israel is doing is to try and end resistance to the occupation...
RATNER: You know, this week, of course, I think a lot of us are concerned by many issues, from the Middle East to Ferguson. And I've been focusing mostly on Gaza and the Israeli assault. And I wanted to bring to the viewers' attention a doctrine and an Israeli practice that probably a lot of people are not familiar with. I'd like to call this segment Gaza, the Dahiya doctrine, WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange. And they're all related.
Most of us probably have never heard of what Israeli generals call the Dahiya doctrine--that's D-A-H-I-Y-A. I only know it because WikiLeaks exposed it in the cable, a United States State Department cable from 2008, that summarized an Israeli general's statement on approved war plans, the plans that were used in Lebanon in 2006 in the Israeli war against Lebanon and are to be used in the future. Dahiya, which is the name of the doctrine, refers to a civilian neighborhood of Beirut that was leveled, utterly destroyed by Israel in the Second Lebanon War in 2006. In Israel's war planning, the Dahiya doctrine refers to Israel's intentional and massive killing of civilians and destruction of civilian villages, the intentional disproportionate use of force constituting collective punishment of a population. Dahiya plan leaves no doubt, none, that it involves the knowing and intentional commission in carrying out of war crimes. The killing of civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, whether in Lebanon then or Gaza today, is no mistake. It's on purpose, a purpose that is flagrantly illegal under the Geneva Conventions. Israeli soldiers, Israeli leaders, and Israeli generals could be tried for the crimes that the Germans were tried for in Nuremberg, for carrying out the intentional killing of civilians, destruction of civilian infrastructure.
When you look at the continued war and devastation in Gaza today, we're seeing the manifestation of the Dahiya doctrine. It's carried out to its barbaric extreme. Israel attacks Gaza from the air, the sea, and the ground with a force that is meant to obliterate civilians and destroy Gaza. It's carrying out the Dahiya plan. The figures are astoundingly awful. These are from the Palestine Committee on Human Rights in Gaza. Two thousand eighty-six Palestinians killed as of August to 21, three-quarters (75 percent) civilians--that's 1,602 out of those 2,000 killed were civilians, one out of every thousand people in Gaza. Almost 25 percent of them were children, almost 500, 494. People should be screaming about this. Ten thousand wounded, mostly civilians, one out of every 200 people in Gaza. And this just today from United Nations: 350,000 people displaced out of their homes, homeless in what was already an outdoor refugee camp. UN spokesperson Pernille Ironside said that it was going to take 18 years to rebuild the housing in Gaza. Think about that--18 years. And that's if they ever get the materials to rebuild it, which the Israelis don't allow in. It was dire before this recent onslaught for children. Half of Gaza's population our children, half of the 1.8 million people. They've grown up with trauma of war, devastation, killing of their families and relatives.
The purpose, of course, of what Israel is doing is to try and end resistance to the occupation...
Moe (w/Video): http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12271
