Israel criticised over blocking UNHRC mission

[Jefferson23]

Israel denies the UN Rapporteur on human rights access to West Bank amid reports that abuses have 'sharply increased'.

Creede Newton Last updated: 25 Sep 2014 10:15

Jerusalem - On September 20, Makarim Wibisono was expected to begin his first mission as the newly appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

However, Wibisono will not be afforded the chance to do so - at least until now - since Israel has not yet granted him access to the occupied Palestinian territory on his first mission. "I deeply regret not having the opportunity to visit the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to speak face-to-face with victims and witnesses of Israel's alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law."

As Special Rapporteur, Wibisono acts as an independent, unpaid inquirer, charged with investigating allegations of human rights violations in the blockaded Gaza Strip, occupied West Bank, and annexed East Jerusalem. The Special Rapporteur reports to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) based in Geneva.

Speaking on his new position, Wibisono stressed that it is his "priority to see with [his] own eyes the situation on the ground, to listen and to speak face-to-face with victims and witnesses, and to discuss issues of concern with officials on both sides" of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/09/israel-criticised-over-blocking-unhrc-mission-201492412923169111.html

[Fred Sanders]

1. What does the IDF have to hide, they bombed the schools for good reason, did they not?

[Jefferson23]

2. Their military strategists came up with the metaphor, mowing the lawn..make of that what

you will.

[oberliner]

3. Mowing the lawn means cutting down Hamas's military capabilities when they grow too strong

Not sure what you are taking the meaning to be.

[Fred Sanders]

4. The meaning is the cold hearted evil of IDF to compare people with blades of grass....and it also

means demoralizing civilians by killing many of them and their children.

[oberliner]

5. People aren't being compared to blades of grass

The military strength of Hamas is the grass. Israel is comfortable with it only being so high. When their military strength grows to a point that creates a situation where Israel feels a viable threat from Hamas, they take action to bring the threat down to a lower level.

[Fred Sanders]

6. No need for repetition, we all get it.

[oberliner]

7. OK - thanks

Wasn't sure if it was clear the first time through.

[whosinpower1]

8. Yeah - well the metaphor gets lost

When the outside world hears of 2100 deaths, and the IDF senior admin discussing "mowing the lawn".

One can certainly understand how repugnant that sounds. I find it hard to believe that whomever came up with the metaphor, was not absolutely fully cognizant that its interpretation would have negative connotations.

And if they were not aware - it does not speak highly for them.

[oberliner]

9. Israel is often tone deaf in that regard

It's amazing how frequently this sort of thing occurs.

[Scootaloo]

11. Odd, how a nation so obsessed with PR is also so consistently "tone deaf"

What you mean to say, of course, is that Israel is now so far in the deep end that it thinks referring to a campaign of civilian slaughter as 'mowing the lawn" is acceptable rhetoric to the rest of the world - or at least, that we're all so inured to the necessary atrocities of the "Jewish State" that we'll give it a pass.

oops.

Maybe israel really does mean hamas' "military capabilities" when it uses the phrase. But it so happens that it regularly slaughters far more civilians than fighters, destroys more infrastructure and homes than weapons depots, and so the phrase takes on an unintended, but perfectly accurate meaning, of purging those humans regarded as non-humans by Israelis and their supporters aroused the world.

You embrace the action Oberliner. You welcome the slaughters, you endorse the oppression. You might as well back up the rhetoric for it, too.

[oberliner]

12. "You welcome the slaughters, you endorse the oppression..."

I don't understand comments like this.

[Scootaloo]

13. It's pretty plainly-stated. What's your confusion?

[oberliner]

16. My confusion is why anyone would type something like that

What is the point in making up such hateful nonsense?

[Scootaloo]

22. What's the point of uncritically defending the purveyors of death and oppression?

I'm simply telling you that since you obviously support the actions being performed, you might as well embrace the rhetoric. 1,800 civilians were killed. Tens of thousands injured. Hundreds of thousands homeless. Israel calls it "mowing the lawn." Your only complaint is about people pointing out that this is what Israel calls it. How dare we be unflattering towards Israel for using its own term to describe the situation Israel uses that term to describe!

If only you could be as loyal to human life as you are to the public image of the state of Israel, oberliner. So much energy and thought wasted, to defend the indefensible for just... one... more... day.

[King_David]

15. Again with the personal attacks

This time telling Oberliner that he believes repugnant things.

Why don't you stick with telling us what you believe and let other fellow DUrs speak for ourselves.

How many time outs have you had now?

[Scootaloo]

17. I don't stop you from speaking for yourselves at all, Dave

If you support Israel, you by necessity support the oppression of and violence against Palestinians. There's no way around this simple fact, Dave. and you know it. This is especially true in the case of persons like yourself and Oberliner, who can never find it within themselves to criticize or oppose such repression. The both of you choose, instead, to bitch and whine about people who do have a problem with it.

Israel is killing lots of people, oppressing lots more. And you guys are dancing about it. You're laughing about efforts to stop it. You offer a constant stream of excuses and justifications for the killing, no matter who or where or why.

[King_David]

18. I have no intention of answering that

I only read through a couple of lines anyway.

[Scootaloo]

19. Nor the ability to so do, sadly. n/t

[shira]

21. We support Israel's right to defend its citizens from Hamas fascists....

We support disarming Hamas or severely hindering their terror capabilities.

This will significantly reduce the possibility of more wars in the future.

We welcome a more liberal/progressive Gaza & West Bank that will work together with Israel and benefit all Palestinians greatly.

[Scootaloo]

23. Not by bombing the shit out of palestine, it doesn't

We've covered this before. It's illegal to use military force against the people you are occupying. and Palestine - including gaza - is occupied. Israel wants to defend itself? Go arrest some motherfuckers, instead of blowing up four civilians for every one combatant you catch in the blast.

You want Gaza and the west bank to be a nice place? Maybe try stop killing and oppressing them. Treat them as equal human beings, rather than captive animals. Stop using the least of their number to excuse every oppression you decide to levy against them.

Radical ideas, if you're a Zionist.

[Jefferson23]

10. Noam Chomsky: The Real Reason Israel "Mows the Lawn" in Gaza

9/9/2014

Like other states, Israel pleads "security" as justification for its aggressive and violent actions.
But knowledgeable Israelis know better.

On August 26th, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) both accepted a ceasefire agreement after a 50-day Israeli assault on Gaza that left 2,100 Palestinians dead and vast landscapes of destruction behind. The agreement calls for an end to military action by both Israel and Hamas, as well as an easing of the Israeli siege that has strangled Gaza for many years.

This is, however, just the most recent of a series of ceasefire agreements reached after each of Israel's periodic escalations of its unremitting assault on Gaza. Throughout this period, the terms of these agreements remain essentially the same. The regular pattern is for Israel, then, to disregard whatever agreement is in place, while Hamas observes it -- as Israel has officially recognized -- until a sharp increase in Israeli violence elicits a Hamas response, followed by even fiercer brutality. These escalations, which amount to shooting fish in a pond, are called "mowing the lawn" in Israeli parlance. The most recent was more accurately described as "removing the topsoil" by a senior U.S. military officer, appalled by the practices of the self-described "most moral army in the world."

The first of this series was the Agreement on Movement and Access Between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in November 2005. It called for "a crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah for the export of goods and the transit of people, continuous operation of crossings between Israel and Gaza for the import/export of goods, and the transit of people, reduction of obstacles to movement within the West Bank, bus and truck convoys between the West Bank and Gaza, the building of a seaport in Gaza, [and the] re-opening of the airport in Gaza" that Israeli bombing had demolished.

That agreement was reached shortly after Israel withdrew its settlers and military forces from Gaza. The motive for the disengagement was explained by Dov Weissglass, a confidant of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was in charge of negotiating and implementing it. "The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process," Weissglass informed the Israeli press. "And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders, and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a [U.S.] presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress." True enough.

http://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-real-reason-israel-mows-lawn-gaza?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark

[King_David]

14. Not so sure the average person

Who doesn't follow IP has ever heard the metaphor even.

[whosinpower1]

24. That does not dishcharge the negative connotations

Associated with the metaphor.

Go to google and type in "mowing the lawn."

Oberliner's explanation is the first one I have read that tried to explain it as something other than what most reasonable people would infer.


While I do register that his explanation of the metaphor may have a sliver of validity, I do not buy that Israel (IDF Senior whomever who came up with the metaphor) are so tone deaf as to not recognise what many would interpret the metaphor to mean. Nor do I hear them change the narrative to be more explanatory as Oberliner's description above.....