Alternative MR headline: “Oh Please:”
Girl, 15, seeks justice for Gaza in world court (AFP) – Aug 31, 2009 – THE HAGUE — A 15-year-old Palestinian girl who says Israeli troops killed her father and two siblings in Gaza in January, sought justice from the International Criminal Court on Monday. “I am here to lodge a complaint against the occupying army,” Amira Alqerem told journalists in The Hague, seven months after her family was killed in an early-morning assault in the Tal Al Hawa neighbourhood that also left her severely injured. “I hope this complaint will succeed because it is the truth,” the soft-spoken teenager said, seated next to her lawyer on his way to the ICC to file the complaint with the office of the prosecutor…
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced in February he had begun a “preliminary analysis” of alleged crimes committed by Israel during the Gaza offensive… Amira, meanwhile, is undergoing physical and psychological rehabilitation in France. “I am doing this for all the children of Gaza,” she said through an interpreter. “I want to do something to change the situation.”
The headline for this oh-so-conveniently timed ICC prosecution, as it appeared on the blog of anti-Zionist activist Kawther Salam: “A Palestinian Child Against Israel at The ICC.” Which means that an unedited blogger writing for a froth mouthed audience still managed to be less incendiary than the AFP hack who penned this crap agitprop.
As for the timing: putting aside the cringe-inducingly brutal and ongoing shreddings of the Goldstone Report, I don’t think the specific charges were ever meant to be taken seriously. They were meant to create a sense of Israeli brutality, so that if any particular one was debunked anti-Israel partisans could slide to the next. And if all the smears were eventually debunked? Well, the effort that would take would be paradoxical lady-doth-protest-too-much proof of the charges in the first place. Elegant.
The Goldstone Report, the anti-Israel motions at the UN launch, this ICC nonsense, the impending collapse of the peace process, pressure on Israel’s nuclear arsenal – these are a cascade of ad hoc and foggy accusations that amount to a drip drip drip erosion of Israel’s diplomatic and public positions. They’re meant to set up a global anti-Israel boycott effort over the next few months, the first stirrings of which are already under way:
British trade unions approved a boycott against importing goods produced in some Israeli settlements. The boycott was approved Thursday by the Trade Union Congress at its annual conference. The congress also called for an end to arms trading with Israel and for disinvestment from some Israeli companies. According to the London Times online, the unions had considered a comprehensive boycott of consumer goods produced in Israel but reconsidered following “frantic behind-the-scenes negotiations.” The statement approved by the delegates read: “To increase the pressure for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories and the removal of the separation wall and illegal settlements, we will support a boycott of those goods and agricultural products that originate in illegal settlements through developing an effective, targeted consumer-led boycott campaign.”
It’s weird though: when Israel withdrew from Gaza you actually saw boycott calls increase, as if anti-Israel sharks smelled blood in the water. It’s almost as if the shrill histrionics over the “Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories” are just a pretext for opposition to Israel that comes from a much uglier place (h/t: Richard Landes for the Salam post).
References and previously after the jump…
References:
* Girl, 15, seeks justice for Gaza in world court [AFP]
* Goldstone Report: 575 pages of NGO “cut and paste” [NGO Monitor]
* A Palestinian Child Against Israel at The ICC
* The Goldstone Commission on human shields: Lies and damned lies [Israel Matzav]
* Goldstone report inaccuracies part 10 (updated) [Elder of Ziyon]
* British trade unions approve Israel boycott [JTA]
Previously:
* AFP Helpfully Provides Crisp Example Of Institutional Anti-Israel Media Bias
* AFP Anti-Israel Bias Reaches Sublime Proportions
* AFP Lede: “Crippling Israeli Blockade”
