By Nykoel Dinardo
Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

United Nations – On July 14, an explosion in Southern Lebanon triggered a slew of accusations that Hezbollah has been and is still violating UN Resolution 1701 by gathering and storing arms.  Resolution 1701, which was signed in 2006, led to a halt in firing between Hezbollah and Israel following a 34 day armed conflict.  It imposed a strict embargo on weapons to Lebanese or foreign militias in Lebanon. 

According to Israeli military officials, the explosion in Lebanon was composed of “a new stock of short range missiles” and that those weapons were the property of Hezbollah.  Israeli Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi explained to journalists on July 15 that he believed the building also contained mortars, shells, rockets and other ammunition as well.  The explosion collapsed a two-story building on the outskirts of the village of Khirbet Silim, twelve miles from the Israeli border.  The cause of the explosion is still unclear.  No one was injured in the blast.  However, many residents in the area were panicked as the explosion took place on the third anniversary of the 2006 war. 

Israeli officials asked for an official UN investigation.  Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev asked the UN to take action and at least begin an investigation citing this incident, and two others, that she claims are “severe violations” of Resolution 1701.  The UN sent an envoy of soldiers serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.  However, demonstrations at the site of the explosion turned violent when UN soldiers arrived.  Fourteen soldiers were injured and several UN vehicles were damages.

UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams has spoken out since this incident calling for restraint.  Williams said that the UN needs to “lower the temperature, to try and address the issues and not see any escalation” of the situation.  In a statement to the press on July 20 explained that “clearly there were violations of 1701” and he has been meeting with several Lebanese officials to address the problem.  He called on both Lebanon and Israel to renew their commitment to the Resolution and exercise restraint during this period.

For more information, please see:

United Nations – Top UN Envoy Urges Restraint After Recent Incident in Southern Lebanon – 21 July 2009

Associated Press – Israel to Lebanon: Stop Border Violations – 20 July 2009

CNN – Lebanon: Crowd Attack U.N. Peacekeepers – 20 July 2009

AFP – Israel Demands Tougher UN Action Against Hezbollah Arms – 16 July 2009

New York Times – Israel Sees Evidence of Hezbollah’s Rearming in Explosion – 15 July 2009

Ynet – Explosion in Hezbollah Arms Cache Stirs Panic in South Lebanon – 14 July 2009

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel– A bill that would deny government funding to state-supported groups that give monetary support to activity that is deemed “detrimental to the state” was passed through a ministerial committee on July 19. The bill was introduced by Avigdor Lieberman’s ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.

Many Palestinians fear that this bill will effectively limit their speech, because supporting “armed struggle or terrorist acts” against Israel or “rejecting Israel’s existence as the state of the Jewish people” are examples of activities that would qualify as “detrimental to the state.”

This bill is a diluted version of a bill that was abandoned in June, after it was deemed to stringent. The original bill was also introduced by Lieberman and the Yisrael Beitenu party. The first bill would have made it a crime to observe “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” on Israel’s Independence Day. Nakba is the Palestinian recognition of the creation of Israel. The holiday is designed to recognizethe “catastrophe” that Israel’s creation was for many Palestinian citizens.

The original bill would have also forced sixteen year-old Israelis and new citizens to take a loyalty oath in order to receive an ID card. The Loyalty oath required each citizen to pledge loyalty to the “State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state.”

The loyalty oath provision was removed from the newer version, and instead of an explicit banning of the celebration of Nakba, funding restrictions have been imposed. While much less harsh, many Arab citizens of Israel are still very offended by the withholding of government funds for what they see as free speech.

For more information please see,

AFP – Israel Committee Passes Softened Naqba Bill – 19 July 2009

Haaretz – Revised Bill Would Ban Funding Nakba Events – 19 July 2009

Jerusalem Post – ‘Softer’ Version of Nakba Bill to be Approved – 19 July 2009

Reuters- Bill Outlawing anti-Israel Protest Nears Approval– 19 July 2009

Impunity Watch – Israel ‘Loyalty Oath’ Bill Voted Down in Committee – 1 June 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JUBAISH, Iraq – Oil may be the most notoriously fought over commodity in the Middle East, but there is one resource that can surpass “black gold” in its necessity and ability to provoke conflict:  water.

As the Middle East is in the grip of a drought that has lasted over two years, Iraq’s Euphrates River, one of the boundaries of region known as the Cradle of Civilization, has begun to shrink.  But the drought is only one cause; water policies by Iraq’s neighboring countries have exasperated the crisis.  There are at least seven dams in the Euphrates’ headwaters in Turkey and Syria, and there are no water treaties between the three nations.  Turkey has recently agreed to increase water flow by 60 percent during July and August, which will cover about half of what is needed for Iraq’s famed Anbar rice crop.  This allotment, however, is not a permanent agreement; Turkey has also consistently refused to sign international agreements on water use, such as the 1997 UN Convention on the Law on Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.

While Iraq’s government often blames Turkey and Syria, Turkish officials say that Iraq’s almost nonexistent water management policies are the real culprit, and that the current finger-pointing is election-year posturing.  Iraq’s canal and irrigation systems have been notoriously leaky for centuries, and poor drainage leaves fields so salty, local farmers scrape off white mounds of salt at the edges of drainage piles.

Iraq’s marsh Arabs are perhaps most at risk from the effects of a dwindling Euphrates.  The marshes at the meeting point of the Tigris and Euphrates was intentionally flooded in 2003 in an attempt to revive the dying culture, but many marsh Arabs believe that if their crops and livestock do not survive this year’s season, the few marsh Arabs who remain will be forced to leave their ancestral homes in search of more viable economic opportunities.

For more information, please see:

Today’s Zaman – Ankara Deflects Criticism From Iraq Over Water Usage – 17 July 2009

Foreign Policy – What Iraq Needs More Than Oil – 16 July 2009

New York Times – Iraq Suffers as the Euphrates Dwindles – 13 July 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
 
GAZA CITY, Gaza – A human rights group founded by Israeli veterans has published testimonies from former soldiers, all of whom report that they were ordered to protect Israeli military lives at any cost.

The veterans are part of Breaking the Silence, a group funded by the EU and several European countries. The soldiers describe that they were given orders to use Palestinian civilians as human shields, as well as deliberate targeting of civilian structures.

One soldier related that in pre-invasion briefings, his officers told him to shoot first, ask questions later. The soldier said the officer told the soldiers that “[i]f you’re not sure, kill. Fire power was insane.”

Another soldier said he felt like “a child playing around with a magnifying glass, burning up ants… A 20-year-old kid should not be doing such things to people.”

Several soldiers also described how the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) used white phosphorus, a substance banned by international law. One soldier described walking on the beach in Gaza and finding an area covered in glazed sand, melted by white phosphorus.

A military spokesman has questioned the credibility of Breaking the Silence, calling the veterans’ testimony “defaming and slandering the IDF commanders,” but also said the military would investigate the allegations.

For more information, please see:

The Times – Breaking the Silence: Israeli Soldiers ‘Used Human Shields’ in Gaza– 16 July 2009

BBC News – Breaking Silence on Gaza Abuses– 15 July 2009

Huffington Post – Breaking the Silence: Former Israeli Soldiers Call Gaza War Reckless– 15 July 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 
JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Israeli officials have signaled they would be open to a three- to six-month halt to settlement expansion as part of a U.S.-backed peace deal with the Palestinians.

While such a sentiment has widely been hailed as progress, it falls short of what the U.S. Obama Administration had called for. Such a freeze would not include any construction already underway, nor expansion in East Jerusalem, according to Israeli officials speaking in advance of the meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. envoy George Mitchell at the end of June. Ehud Barak refused to publically address the possibility of a temporary freeze ahead of his meeting, but said that the issue of settlements is merely one among many to be addressed in the peace process.

Members of the international community continue to call for a complete halt to settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. On July 6, the executive arm of the European Union (EU) renewed its condemnation of Israeli settlements, saying that continued Israeli expansion is strangling the fledgling Palestinian economy, stunting Palestinian independence and forcing the Palestinian Authority to rely on foreign aid. In addition to the cost to Palestinians, the EU said that European taxpayers had paid approximately 280 million U.S. dollars so far this year in aid to the Palestinian Authority.

For more information, please see:

Ma’an News Agency – European Commission: Settlements Strangling Palestinian Economy– 6 July 2009

Ha’aretz – Barak: Progress in Talks with U.S. Over Settlements, But Still a Way to Go– 30 June 2009

New York Times – Israel Said to be Open to Settlement Freeze– 28 June 2009