Israel under UN investigation for using uranium weapons in Lebanon.

galway | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Monday October 30, 2006 18:23

by TJ - Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

"Elevated war crime signatures".

Todays Independent (UK) newspaper and the Democracy Now website are reporting that the "United Nations Environment Programme is investigating allegations, first published in The Independent, that Israel may have used uranium-based weapons during this summer's war in Lebanon. Twenty UN experts, working with Lebanese environmentalists, have spent two weeks assessing various samples. They are planning to report their findings in December".

Chris Busby, the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, based in Brussels, reported last week that two soil samples thrown up by Israeli bombs in the south Lebanese villages of Khiam and At Tiri, centres of fierce fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, showed "elevated radiation signatures". Dr Busby warned that particles from the explosions were long-lived in the environment and could be inhaled into the lungs, causing "significant" health effects on civilians.

True to form, the Israeli military is denying this point blank with Major Avital Leibovitz, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defence Forces saying: "We deny using any weapons containing uranium." However, Israel's past history in blatantly lying about its criminality such as the cold blooded murders of Tom Hurndall, Rachel Corrie, James Miller, the use of phosphous in its summer onslaught on Lebanon, etc, has to be borne in mind - last week the Israeli military admitted for the first time that it had dropped phosphorous bombs on Lebanon.

In a related article published on 28th October in the UK Independent, Chris Bellamy, professor of military science and doctrine at Cranfield University stated that It "uncertain whether the munition was made in the US or by the Israelis themselves. If the Israelis or the Americans want to avoid accusations, at the very least, of a cavalier attitude to the use of nuclear waste products, they need to explain what was in that bomb and why it was there".

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Comments (4 of 4)

Israel couldnt care less.

by Cernunnos

Sat Nov 04, 2006 23:26

Israel has been useing DU tank and artillary rounds since the early 90s,made in the good ould US of A .Do they care if the UN knows or not? Answer : not in the slightest.
Israel has the UN wrapped around its little finger.

Throwing in the towel.

by PaddyK

Wed Nov 08, 2006 03:14

What is going on with the Electronic Intifada Site??

Anybody who follows the plight of the Palestinians and supports them in that struggle will know a couple of websites that can be tapped daily for updates on the continuous damage to their social circumstances and on the political climate change that subtley effects their future. A very important site is The Electronic Intifada.

http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml

Today, I got a fright when I checked the submissions on that site and I read this, by Roni Ben Efrat :

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5970.shtml

He starts with this strange phrase:

"America's entrapment in Iraq creates a vacuum through the Middle East."

Entrapment ???? To be Entrapped one has to be unaware of a crime being committed! One has to be unwittingly lured in by a knowing party. WMD? Faked Reports? Colin Powells speech, Etc...Enough said ?
I thought, this can't be an opening to an informative article on the Occupation of Palestine....I wondered, But I read on.

Efrat Immediatley tells us that America is Paralysed, Efrat persists and repeats it. He insists America has no options.

Doesn't an unexpected paralysis usually come as a result of an accident, or worse, a hostile attack against the injured party? Who's Paralysed, Iraq? No. Efrat insists, the USA!

I scratch my head. Is this the Palestinian position properly presented , or is this someone spinning a yarn of dual sadness, dual victimhood? Emoting sympathy from the Audience? If this is the case then be assured it is utterly uncharacteristic of Electronic Itifada. Something is wrong today with the EI Editors .....but I read on.

So, Efrat declares:

"Consider Gaza, on the brink of armed chaos. Or the Lebanon War. No one planned it, no one wanted it."

What? Not planned ? Do you live in a cave or do I ? Im sorry, lets just google that absurd notion. http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Leban...meta=

Efrat suggests, the horriffic siege of Gaza, where indiscriminate murder is an unplanned international disgrace is an accident? Well, Mr Efrat, No, wrong forum . This is the Electronic Intifada, this is not Israeli Hasbara kindergarden gone for an innocent walk and got lost on The EI.

Note to EI Editor: WAKE UP!

Efrat muses about the disgruntled Palestinian masses starving to death in localised, town sieges and he wonders.. How, Why, Who? He unexpectedly, but philosophically, pauses in his musings to add in commas : "(For its part, Israel is illegally withholding tax money and customs duties that it has collected, under the terms of Oslo, for the PA.)"
Oh Brackets, I Do Say... How inconsequential to the economic siege : Israel is withholding millions and millions, I do wonder about that siege.

Efrat recognises that the Palestinians are indeed hostages , but who's hostages are they? The outrageous and illegal Israeli Army? No Way! BUT... He does have a couple of suggestions.

Suggestion No. 1....."The Palestinian people is hostage to the West, which feels no obligation to support a government that refuses to oppose terrorism or recognize Israel."

Suggestion No.2 .... "But the Palestinian people is also hostage to the movement it chose." i.e The democratically elected government that was kidnapped by Israel and put in Jail.

Whos Hostage ??? Not Israel anyway...anyone else. You perhaps. But certainly Not him.

Please read this Article, and wonder, are the Palestinians losing it? When Roni Ben Efrat is posting this weird story on Electronic Intifada is it time to pull the Palestinian Fighter out of the ring.
Is there a Refereee ? Is the Palestinian coach rigging the fight now?

Electronic Intifada, What the hell are you doing today?

apology required

by ofek5

Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:35

well after all the rhetoric and the clear bias of this website in particular toword israel i wonder why this is not given the same coverage

Israel did not use depleted uranium during conflict with Hizbollah, UN agency finds

all the time

by electroniclies

Mon Nov 13, 2006 13:59

What is going on with the Electronic Intifada Site??

Maybe for once, just once they are telling it how it actually is, i.e the truth, not some pallywood fairytale to appease and seduce the dumb lefties of the west

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Israel under UN investigation for using uranium weapons in Lebanon.

Comments (4 of 4)