Towards the end of February, I had the privilege of attending the Jury International de Conscience pour Le Liban which took place in Brussels over a long weekend. The Jury was charged with investigating the horrific crimes committed by the Government of Israel during the Israel-Lebanon conflict in the summer of 2006. The Jury comprised of five eminent jurists from five separate countries: Colombia, Cuba, Italy, India and Egypt (though the jury was reduced to four after the Egyptian judge was refused a visa to enter Belgium). The tribunal was supported by efforts from all over the world including the US-based International Action Center (founded in 1992 by former US Attorney General Ramsay Clark) and other individuals from Europe and the Arab world. The tribunal took place over three days in the Maison des Associations Internationales in central Brussels.

Many people had flown in from all over the world to participate in this tribunal and the Arab and European press were present. Firstly, a long indictment sheet was read out by one of the leading Lebanese lawyers present. Secondly, victims of the war came to give evidence and they were questioned by lawyers and also by the panel of judges. After the victims gave their evidence and had been questioned, it was the turn of various expert witnesses to take the stand. These included environmental experts, economists, medical experts, psychiatrists, weapons experts, physics experts and international lawyers. For those of you who are outraged at the defendant seemingly being ‘tried’ in absentia, the Government of Israel were indeed invited to attend but unsurprisingly, they declined to respond to the kind invitation. The hearings were conducted in French, Arabic and English with simultaneous translation between any of those languages available on earpieces for all those present.

I do not intend for this to be an article written in legalese for it would be too complicated and I fear I would not be able to do justice to the topic which of course is International law so when I use the term law, it is used loosely and is purely demonstrative. However it is worth remembering that the lawyers questioning the witnesses are experts in international law and that three members of the tribunal are very experienced judges in their own countries and so the conclusions that they come to based upon the evidence that they heard during the course of the hearing are likely to be accurate. One further thing to add and I must make this very clear, is that this article is not an attack on the Jewish majority in Israel or the Jewish religion. The purpose of this article is simply to make people aware.

The ‘kidnapping’ by Hezbollah (a de facto government and armed forces controlling a large part of Lebanon, but not the official Government of Lebanon) of two Israeli soldiers was all that the Government of Israel needed to launch straight into a full scale war. One would have thought that diplomacy could have been used, some discretion and manoeuvring on the part of the international community, but nothing was done and the results are patently obvious for all to see. The Government of Israel, through the Israel Defence Forces or IDF, systematically tore the country apart, targeting especially Beirut and Southern Lebanon. All this for the ‘sake’ of two soldiers. If only Britain looked after its citizens so well!

The weapons that were used by the IDF came under much scrutiny during the course of the tribunal. I heard countless times that the injured were being brought into surgeries and that doctors did not know how to treat them; they had not seen such weapons before (suggesting that experimental weapons were used). Indeed for a layman, it was certainly illuminating as I had no idea that such bombs as were described even existed. What good use technology has been put to. A common characteristic of the dead was that the side of them exposed to the explosion was burnt to a crisp, they were completely black on one side and the other side was normal. The weapons expert told us that these were a new kind of bombs which had been classed as ‘flash’ bombs as the effect of the bright flash was what produced the effects on the victims. Others were brought in with not a mark on their bodies even though they had been caught up in explosions. I was again told that these bombs produce vibrations at a certain frequency which ruptures internal organs without marking the shell of the body i.e. the skin. This appears to be an attempt to ‘normalise’ killing and make it as acceptable. As if by having no visible signs of injury, it is possible that the world would views these acts as more acceptable. The last of these ‘innovative’ weapons I shall mention even stranded the weapons expert. Victims were brought in with dozens of lesions all over their bodies, however, there was no material inside these lesions and there was also no exit wound… These dozens of little lesions more often than not got infected securing a slow and painful death for the unlucky ones. Another disturbing aspect of the bombing of Lebanon ties in with the next paragraph. There has been much anecdotal evidence of the so-called ‘toy bombs,’. Essentially a child usually finds an interesting looking, colourful piece of metal, with perhaps a ribbon attached to it. The child goes to pick up the ‘toy’ and it explodes in his or her hand, killing or maiming the child. These are usually small cluster bomblets which seem to have been specially prepared. A present from the IDF.

Cluster bombs deserve a paragraph all to themselves. Israel fired over 1,800 cluster bombs containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets into Lebanon during the course of the conflict. 75% of these were fired during the last 72 hours of the conflict. The UN estimates that 40% of such bomblets do not explode upon impact leaving a vast quantity of exploded bomblets all over the areas targeted. We learnt during the course of the weekend that the areas targeted by the IDF were mainly agricultural areas. So farmers have a choice: either not harvest and starve, or attempt to harvest in a field full of cluster bomblets and risk death or being maimed. It was suggested during the tribunal that this was a calculated attack by the IDF in order to stunt the economic growth of Lebanon. Indeed it is hard to come to another conclusion when one considers any possible rationale the Government of Israel had for targeting such areas. Unless perhaps Hezbollah hide in olive trees? Maybe they do.

The economic expert showed us two very illuminating maps. The first map he showed us was a map of IDF rocket attacks. Next to it he put up a map which showed the relative wealth of all the areas of Lebanon. From looking at the maps side by side on a large projection it was evident that the richer parts of Lebanon were bombed and the poorer regions of the country were left relatively untouched. It was quite remarkable how close a fit the two maps were. This of course lends great credence to the viewpoint that the Government of Israel was economically targeting Lebanon with a view to causing some long term damage. (Lebanon had made an impressive recovery from its civil war, 1975-1990, and tourists were returning to Beirut.) Further bolstering this fact are the words of the rather eloquent Dan Haloutz, Chief of Staff of the IDF, who stated that he wanted a total war against Lebanon to ‘put it back’ 20 years and in fact Ehud Olmert graciously promised Lebanon a ‘very painful counterattack on a large scale’. Well, that is exactly what they got. And why not?

Now to the environment, an often forgotten factor in war. The main primary damage to the environment was caused by the IDF targeting the main power station in Beirut. The power station had been stocked for the summer. When bombed, an estimated 150,000 tons of heavy IFO 150 fuel spilled into the Mediterranean. The fuel spread over 120km and in places it is 50cm or so deep. Everybody knows what risks are brought in by fuel spills and so it is not worth me cataloguing them here. The Government of Lebanon have to be criticised heavily for the inadequacy of their response to this environmental disaster as they were incredibly slow in even attempting to deal with this. In fact, that fuel was being held in two separate containers which were both bombed by the IDF, on separate occasions. It does pay to make sure after all…

What I have written sadly is only the tip of the iceberg and I have repeated pleaded with Mr Ajumogobia for more column inches but my requests fall on deaf ears. What I have tried to bring out here is the nature of the attacks on Lebanon in 2006 which any impartial observer would describe as collective punishment. The specific targeting of civilian infrastructure; roads, bridges, water sources, power stations, tower blocks, schools, ports and agricultural areas all point to collective punishment (indeed it is so obvious that to me it is not even an issue).

32 vital points (water distribution, electricity, bridges and ports), 109 bridges, 137 roads destroyed or damaged, over 1000 civilians killed, over 4400 civilians injured, over 7000 air attacks conducted in an area not exceeding 1500km2, destruction of the main runway of the airport, farms, schools and factories destroyed. The total estimated cost for Lebanon was between £4 billion and £8 billion. The Jury found Israel guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The sad irony in all this is that, despite all the above, the Government of Israel lost the war (this, admitted by Major General Yiftah Ron Tal). The IDF was defeated by an ‘army’ of roughly 5000 fighters. The theme of this issue is ‘Peace in our time’ and in closing I will comment briefly on that. The impunity with which the IDF acted during that summer is nothing new. This has been happening for years in the Occupied Territories, and as long as this impunity continues, aided by the biggest bully in the playground (the United States), there can be no prospect of peace in the Middle East. Governments wishing to condemn and discourage terrorist acts must do so from a position of moral superiority. The tragic reality is that, through reckless use of lethal force that would clearly violate the right to life in Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (if it applied), the IDF have killed many more innocent civilians in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza than all Arab militant groups (including Hezbollah and Hamas) have killed in Israel.