False proportionality

Ehud Gol, the outgoing Israeli Ambassador to Malta, refused to acknowledge that Israeli's response to the soldiers' kidnappings was disproportionate (July 17). I beg to differ. The reality on the ground proves otherwise.

When the interviewer insisted that international media are reporting large figures of civilian deaths, including children, Mr Gol retorted: "So what? You're a journalist. Do you think that everything reported is the truth?" Here I agree. The actual situation is much worse than as reported in mainstream newspapers. Here are some facts:

¤ Israel's ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip is producing a dire shortage of water, food, medicine, and electricity - a form of collective punishment.

¤ Israel is deliberately destroying the civilian infrastructure in Gaza - a form of collective punishment.

¤ Israel destroyed Gaza's only power plant with the result that in Gaza's main hospitals, infant incubators, dialysis, and oxygen machines stopped running - a form of collective punishment.

¤ Israeli fighter pilots are causing supersonic booms that terrorise the population - a form of collective punishment.

¤ Children are psychologically harmed by the systematic, around the clock use of sonic booms - resulting in panic attacks, sleep disturbances, bedwetting and other detrimental effects - a form of collective punishment.

¤ Since the bombing of the power station, treatment plants cannot pump and treat sewage in Gaza - a form of collective punishment.

¤ Sonic booms are leading to spontaneous abortions (miscarriages) and premature births - a form of collective punishment.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's tactic is to "apply pressure" to the civilian population of Gaza. Collective punishment violates the Hague Convention as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitutes a war crime.

"No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible" - article 50 of the Hague Convention.

"No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed" - article 33, Fourth Geneva Convention.

These war crimes are being committed with weapons supplied by the United States, including fighter planes manufactured by Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

The use of US-made weapons to target civilians violates the US Arms Export Control Act as well as the Geneva Conventions.

The sonic boom raids are a clear violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is a signatory.

"In accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population in armed conflicts, states parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict" - article 38, Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Israel has a responsibility to protect its population from armed attack. Equally all civilians - whether in Palestine, Israel, or Lebanon - warrant protection.

Mr Gol's cynicism about Europe ignores the fact that more compassionate voices exist even outside Europe - even in Israel itself. The Ha'aretz editorial of June 30 urged the Israeli government to return to its senses at once, free the detained Hamas politicians and open negotiations. B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights has turned to the Israeli Judge Advocate General requesting that he immediately initiate a military police investigation against those responsible for the very bombing which Mr Gol seems to negate - that which killed Nabil and Salwah Abu Selmiyeh , together with seven of their children: Nasrallah, four; Aya, seven; Yihya, nine; Ayman, 12; Huda, 14; Sumayah, 16 and Basma, 17.

Way back in 2002, Great Britain's Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, made hard-hitting comments on the "morally corrupting" effect of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and strongly criticised the idea of Israel ruling over another people.

At that time Rabbi Sacks had said: "There are things that are happening on a daily basis which make me feel very uncomfortable as a Jew", adding that he was "profoundly shocked" by reports of smiling soldiers posing for a photograph with the corpse of a slain Palestinian. "There is no question that this kind of prolonged conflict, together with the absence of hope, generates hatreds and insensitivities that in a long run are corrupting to a culture."

Perhaps Mr Gol's comment can be seen within this context.

Mr Caruana is assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Education of the University of Malta and a founding member of Kopin (Koperazzjoni Internazzjonali - Malta).