Two-faced on human rights

Instead of pushing the U.N. to indict Syria, why doesn’t Washington call for an international tribunal to indict Israel for last year’s bombardment of southern Lebanon cities and towns? Human rights groups have already denounced the systematic destruction of the civilian population there as a war crime.

At the very least, Washington could call for international condemnation of Israel for dropping 100,000 cluster bombs in southern Lebanon. According to U.N. human rights head Jan Egeland, “What’s shocking and completely immoral is: 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution.” (BBC, Aug. 30, 2006)

Don’t hold your breath waiting for U.S. censure. After all, the Pentagon gave Israel these anti-personnel weapons and the green light to use them.

Lest we forget, for three decades the U.S. used its veto to stop U.N. condemnations of Israeli aggression against Arab countries. Many of the bombings and attacks were directed against Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government reacted derisively to the July 2004 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel’s Apartheid Wall was a “grave violation of the Geneva Conventions.”

Showing just how much it cares about international law, at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Washington blatantly and daily violates the provision of these same conventions on the prevention of torture.

—J. Chediac