Shhhhhh...don't say MASSACRE, please! (by Latuff)

Of course! Every time the UN gets up the courage enough to make some statement which does not coincide with the official "Palestinian" stance then Israel and Ameriaca are bullying the UN. Perhaps there was no massacre. Or is Human Rights Watch in on this hush hush conspiracy also? Perhaps the satellite photos of jenin (which proved that only a small area Jenin was razed to the ground) were also fabricated. There comes a point when the "facts" have departed from reality and are simply being used b/c they further political platforms.

Of course! Every time the UN gets up the courage enough to make some statement which does not coincide with the official "Palestinian" stance then Israel and Ameriaca are bullying the UN. Perhaps there was no massacre. Or is Human Rights Watch in on this hush hush conspiracy also? Perhaps the satellite photos of jenin (which proved that only a small area Jenin was razed to the ground) were also fabricated. There comes a point when the "facts" have departed from reality and are simply being used b/c they further political platforms.

"What, and that makes it all right?"

It makes it quite different from what was repeatedly claimed here about Jenin being utterly devastated. Just as the death toll of 52 Palestinians is much different than the tales posted here about piles of bodies being bulldozed into mass graves and -- in the figure given by the Palestinian representative in the UN -- five hundred Palestinian civilans dead.

The report apparently _does_ fault Israel for several things, such as using such heavy equipment in a densely populated area -- although at the same time it faults the Palestinians for putting munition dumps and other obvious military targets in the center of a populated area, thereby using their own civilians as human shields. The report also faults Israel for interfering with emergency vehicles and ambulances.

But in terms of pure black-and-white propaganda, which is all Latuff has ever seemed capable of grasping anyway, the real problem is that it showed that the Palestinian government (such as it is) inflated the number of deaths tenfold in a bid to stir up international hate against those wicked Zionists, and that many of you here fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

So now Latuff has to hide his embarrassment by pretending that Annan -- who has always been willing to condemn Israel when Israel deserves it -- had been somehow threatened into lying. And naturally he'd rather it turn into a wordgame about how one defines "massacre," or another insinuation of Zi-i-ionist blackmail, rather than make some kind of a direct acknowledgement that the claims that Jenin civilians were slaughtered wantonly by the hundreds turn out to have been, gee, imagine, not true.

At the moment the UN site is being swamped, so I haven't yet seen the full text of the report.

@%<

Al-Ahram Weekly reporter Nyier Abdou talks to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee President Ziad Asali
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A doctor by training, Asali was born in Jerusalem. Though many of ADC's programmes focus on the nuts and bolts of fighting discrimination in America -- from inaccuracies in schoolbooks to launching several legal suits against American airlines for ejecting passengers from flights based on their perceived Arab ethnicity -- it is hardly surprising that the ADC also turns its attention to the explosive issue of Palestine. When I spoke to Asali, the United Nations fact-finding committee set up to investigate Israel's violent operation in Jenin had recently been disbanded due to unacceptable Israeli demands. A high-level ADC committee, including Asali, had met with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan not long before and was assured by him that he was certain the mission would go forward quickly.

But news came the next day that there would be no mission. Asked if he felt betrayed by the development, Asali insisted that Annan was not to blame. "I want to state, for the record, I do not feel betrayed by Secretary Annan," Asali said. "I know that he tried fully and that he was sincere in his efforts to get this mission to go through."

Many have suggested that the disbanding of the mission was a straight exchange: burying the demons of Jenin for the release of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from his besieged compound. Asali disagrees, saying that there are many factors at play. Having only returned from the region a week before, he stressed that the inclination to view events through the prism of a "conspiracy theory" is rife among the disaffected. He denounced the allure of pinning everything on foreign plots and the fatalistic attitude that is the inevitable result of such beliefs. "This is completely self-defeating and takes away the responsibility of people for decisions that they make and analyses that could help them forward their cause." It also robs people of any sense of empowerment. "If you are the subject of a conspiracy somewhere else, which is so powerful, then you might as well just watch TV and go to bed. This is not how it should be, at all."

"I want to state, for the record, I do not feel betrayed by Secretary Annan," Asali said. "I know that he tried fully and that he was sincere in his efforts to get this mission to go through."

Ziad, at least you are correct in this respect. Kofi Annan did sincerely want to get that fact finding mission underway. It was all over the news at the time. He struggled to expose the "massacre" of jenin. Yet the does this supposedely unbiased international authority not show equal zeal in helping israel in her time of need. Close to ten months ago three israeli soldiers were kidnapped along the Lebanese border by hizbullah. israel spent nine months trying to gather information on the culprits. Isreal appealed on numerous occasions to Kofi Annan for any form of help specifically about a rumoured video tape of the vehicles of the kidnappers. Fast forward NINE MONTHS (nowhere close to the expediency with which he reacted to Jenin), Annan forks over the tape. He claims he didn't know about the tape. I don't buy it! Somebody must have known about. So either he is incompetant and couldn't ask if the UN had come across any crucial information (like a video tape) in the kidnapping or he's a liar. In any case he did not make even close to the effort he made with Jenin, and it would've been simple--no committees no headlines. All that was necessary was handing over a tape, but that was TOO hard for the champion of international justice.

"I want to state, for the record, I do not feel betrayed by Secretary Annan," Asali said. "I know that he tried fully and that he was sincere in his efforts to get this mission to go through."

Ziad, at least you are correct in this respect. Kofi Annan did sincerely want to get that fact finding mission underway. It was all over the news at the time. He struggled to expose the "massacre" of jenin. Yet the does this supposedely unbiased international authority not show equal zeal in helping israel in her time of need. Close to ten months ago three israeli soldiers were kidnapped along the Lebanese border by hizbullah. israel spent nine months trying to gather information on the culprits. Isreal appealed on numerous occasions to Kofi Annan for any form of help specifically about a rumoured video tape of the vehicles of the kidnappers. Fast forward NINE MONTHS (nowhere close to the expediency with which he reacted to Jenin), Annan forks over the tape. He claims he didn't know about the tape. I don't buy it! Somebody must have known about. So either he is incompetant and couldn't ask if the UN had come across any crucial information (like a video tape) in the kidnapping or he's a liar. In any case he did not make even close to the effort he made with Jenin, and it would've been simple--no committees no headlines. All that was necessary was handing over a tape, but that was TOO hard for the champion of international justice.

"I want to state, for the record, I do not feel betrayed by Secretary Annan," Asali said. "I know that he tried fully and that he was sincere in his efforts to get this mission to go through."

Ziad, at least you are correct in this respect. Kofi Annan did sincerely want to get that fact finding mission underway. It was all over the news at the time. He struggled to expose the "massacre" of jenin. Yet the does this supposedely unbiased international authority not show equal zeal in helping israel in her time of need. Close to ten months ago three israeli soldiers were kidnapped along the Lebanese border by hizbullah. israel spent nine months trying to gather information on the culprits. Isreal appealed on numerous occasions to Kofi Annan for any form of help specifically about a rumoured video tape of the vehicles of the kidnappers. Fast forward NINE MONTHS (nowhere close to the expediency with which he reacted to Jenin), Annan forks over the tape. He claims he didn't know about the tape. I don't buy it! Somebody must have known about. So either he is incompetant and couldn't ask if the UN had come across any crucial information (like a video tape) in the kidnapping or he's a liar. In any case he did not make even close to the effort he made with Jenin, and it would've been simple--no committees no headlines. All that was necessary was handing over a tape, but that was TOO hard for the champion of international justice.

LATUFF, YOU ARE A GENIOUS!
LATUFF, YOU ARE A GENIOUS!

Arab lobbyists show their true colors now thanks to this cartoon. They always hang on every word the U.N. and Human Rights Watch say even quoting them constantly.

But the minute the U.N. or Human Rights Watched catches at their own propaganda game the Arabs they come up with a childish cartoon condeming their "old friends." Nice, very nice.

Keep up the good work your just making it tougher on yourselves. As they say in Canada, have a nice day!

(By the way these sad cartoons are spammed on every IndyMedia site.)

Israel is still wanted for questioning
Leader
Friday August 2, 2002

In the wake of the Israeli assault on Jenin camp in the West Bank last April, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, was in no doubt what needed to be done. "It is very urgent that we go in, find out what happened, and put all the rumours and accusations behind us," he said.

But Mr Annan's hopes, backed by the security council, of quickly dispatching a fact-finding mission to Jenin and other besieged towns were thwarted.

Israel, with tacit US support, flatly refused to cooperate. The subsequent inquiry launched by default via the UN general assembly published its findings yesterday.

Israel barred its authors from visiting Jenin or other parts of the Occupied Territories. It also refused to provide any information. As a result the report's objective, as stated by Mr Annan, is seriously compromised. The UN is forced to concede that some of its conclusions are tentative.

Given its obstructive attitude, Israel's almost enthusiastic welcome for the report is disingenuous.


[disingenuous-insincere, having secret motives, not candid:oxford dictionary - Hey, I have the Sex Pistol's 'Liar' going through my head right now!!]


Its officials claim that the inquiry has cleared up "misconceptions" about what Israeli forces did in Jenin.

In fact, it seems largely to confirm what many suspected at the time: that Ariel Sharon's army frequently acted recklessly and illegally in Jenin and other towns by disregarding the safety of Palestinian civilians, demolishing their homes about their heads, and blocking medical and humanitarian aid.

This behaviour was serial. In fact the civilian toll in Nablus was perhaps double that in Jenin. The report reveals that 497 Palestinians were killed and 1,500 wounded in "Operation Defensive Shield" from March to May - far higher than previous figures.

Palestinian gunmen also acted recklessly and illegally, as the report notes, thereby increasing the civilian toll. And indeed, both sides' continuing, callous disregard for civilian life is the single most distressing feature of this conflict. Its resulting horrors were again evident in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

But in Jenin and elsewhere last spring, as in Gaza last week, Israel exceeded the limits of its legal right to self-defence. It placed itself in prima facie breach of the fourth Geneva convention and the international covenant on civil and political rights. Specifically, after an ambush on April 9 in Jenin that killed 13 soldiers, it resorted to random, vengeful acts of terror involving civilians.

As we said last April, the destruction wrought in Jenin looked and smelled like a crime. On the basis of the UN's findings, it still does.

UN issues 'seriously flawed' report on Jenin killings

Long awaited investigation repudiates massacre claim and fails to blame Israel

By Justin Huggler in Jerusalem

02 August 2002

The United Nations yesterday released its report on Israel's attack on Jenin in April. The report has been long awaited by Palestinians and by human rights groups who accused the Israeli army of war crimes in the Jenin refugee camp.

However, the new report contained little new information and did not do much to address those accusations. It accused both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants of endangering the lives of civilians.

Human rights groups said yesterday the report was "seriously flawed". The Israeli government welcomed it, saying it repudiated Palestinian claims there had been a massacre of 500 people in Jenin. The report says at least 52 Palestinians - of whom up to half may have been civilians - and 23 Israeli soldiers died during the fighting in Jenin.

Allegations of a massacre have obscured the issue from the moment they were first made by Palestinian officials without evidence.

The Israeli authorities did not allow the UN to visit Jenin to reseach its report, but investigators from the independent Human Rights Watch organisation (HRW) who did visit the site shortly after the fighting ended, found prima facie evidence of war crimes.

An investigation by The Independent inside Jenin shortly after the fighting unearthed numerous corroborating accounts of atrocities.

Of the many victims whose stories were published on 3 May in The Independent, only Fadwa Jamma, a Palestinian nurse who was shot through the heart while trying to tend a wounded man is mentioned in the new UN report. She was in full uniform and could be clearly seen.

Fourteen-year-old Faris Zeben, who was shot dead by an Israeli tank when he went shopping when the curfew was lifted, is not mentioned.

Nor is Afaf Desuqi, killed when Israeli soldiers blew open the door of her house as she tried to open it for them. Nor Kemal Zughayer, shot dead as he tried to wheel himself up the road in his wheelchair.

The Israeli army's complete bulldozing of an area of housing that measured 400 metres by 500 metres is not described. The report notes that 150 buildings were destroyed.

There is no mention of evidence found by both HRW and Amnesty International that extrajudicial killings of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers took place. The UN report is carefully worded not to give offence to Israel or its allies. It deliberately draws no conclusions, but only compiles evidence from various sources. It came about after the debacle when a fact-finding mission mandated by the UN security council was refused access to Jenin by the Israeli authorities - who originally said they would cooperate.

Because the UN was refused access, the report is based entirely on evidence from secondary sources, much of it already in the public domain. Despite being invited to, the Israeli government did not provide any evidence.

"Of particular concern is the use, by combatants on both sides, of violence that placed civilians in harm's way," the report says, accusing Palestinian militants of establishing bases in the heavily populated Jenin refugee camp, and the Israeli army of using heavy weaponry on the camp.

"That the Israeli Defence Forces [army] encountered heavy resistance is not in question," the report reads. "Nor is the fact that Palestinian militants...adopted methods which constitute breaches of interntaional law...Clarity and certainty remain elusive, however, on the policy and facts of the IDF response...The government of Israel maintains the IDF 'clearly took all possible measures not to hurt civilian life'...some human rights groups and Palestinian eyewitnesses assert that IDF soldiers did not take all possible measures to avoid hurting civilians, and even used some as human shields."

The use of Palestinians as human shields by the Israeli army in Jenin has been extensively documented, both by human rights organisations and reporters who were on the scene. The UN report consistently gives equal weight to evidence collected on the ground and to Israeli government statements.

The report is at its clearest on Israel's blocking ambulances' and medical workers' access to the wounded, a breach of the Geneva conventions. "There is a concensus among humanitarian personnel who were present on the ground that the delays endangered the lives of many wounded and ill," it says. The report notes the targetting of medical personnel like Fadwa Jamma by the Israeli army.

On the number of civilians among the 52 confirmed Palestinian dead, the report is vague. "It is impossible to determine with precision," it says, quoting both the Israeli government's figure of 14, and HRW's of 22.

"The UN's report is seriously flawed," said Miranda Sissons, a co-author of the HRW report on Jenin. "It could have done much more and it doesn't move us forward in trying to establish the truth. It's a good example of the dangers of doing a report with no access to evidence on the ground."

In its response to the report, the Israeli government concentrated on the finding that Palestinian claims of 500 deaths were unfounded.

"The report overwhelmingly negates this Palestinian fabrication and repudiates the malicious lies spread regarding the issue," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"It does confirm what we felt all along which was that there was no massacre in Jenin," said John Negroponte, the US ambassador to the United Nations. The Palestinians, too, welcomed the report, trying to find what they could in it. Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Planning Minister, said: "I know it does not satisfy everybody ... but still it identifies what happens in Jenin as a war crime against humanity and that is very important" - although the report does not mention war crimes.

Kofi Annan said: "While some of the facts may be in dispute, I think it is clear that the Palestinian population have suffered and are suffering the humanitarian consequences which are very severe".

This cartoon puts a nation the size of New Jersey on the same level as the U.S.
Is anything this cartoon makes Isreal seem more powerful then it is. I did not know they had that kind of pull in the U.N.

How can you expect impartiality from a vicious organization like the UN? Last month Syria - a dictatorship and a police state was the head of the Security Council. The UN is a purely anti-Israeli organization, and the statement regarding the "massacre" in Jenin is exposing the Palestinians for what they are, deceiving bloodthirsty animals.

You know,the site that carries Latuffs work editorailcartoons.net is a little fishy.Every cartoon is either Anti-American,Anti-Isreal or Anti-capitalist.There are several artists that glorify China and Arafat.
I have never seen a cartoon on that page that showed China or the Palastinians in a bad light,is this sight being funded by something?China?,Hamas?Al Queda?
Something to think about.

It's a wholly owned subsidiary of The International Communist Jewish Bankers Conspiracy, Inc.

Everybody knows that.

much like indybay, are merely propaganda vehicles for party bosses. Indybay for the liberal left, and Lattuf for the socialist red China. Don't let him fool you into believing he's from Brazil. These guys are the Tokoyo Roses of our day.

Just cheak it out,when 911 happend,the next couple of days there were dozons of catoons on that site that supported the attacks.And not just by Latuff either.
Try http://www.editorialcartoons.net for propaganda
Cagel's http://www.politicalcartoons.com is much better for a more balanced view.