Oslo. “We do not need to lie or to exaggerate what we experienced in Gaza in January. Doctors have given the promise, and according to that promise our duty is to take care of war casualties,” said Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert.
Gilbert and his colleague, Erik Fosse were the only Westerner doctors in Gaza, during the Israeli attack. They have compiles their experiencea in a book, which is called the Gaza’s eyes. “Half a million people, half of them children, were bombed day and night, without them having a chance to escape,” Gilbert told in the book release ceremony in Oslo on Thursday.
The Norwegians were also the only foreigners on the spot, because Israel prevented journalists from entering the war zone. “We were not prepared for a situation. We were quite surprised when we saw the whole of the international press remaining at the border,” Fosse said.
The Audience at the book publication ceremony got a little taste of everyday life in Gaza during the war.
Sairaalassa äänitetyltä nauhalta kuului, miten ohjuksia jysähti lähistölle ja seinät vapisivat ja lasit helisivät. In the pre-recorded tape taken at the hospital, was the sound of missile thuds in the vicinity and the walls and windows shaking.
UPDATE: Reason why the HS ran the story about the propagandizing doctor’s book in today’s HS paper edition, the main editorial has the following nonsense to say about the heavily biased Goldstone report:
Both the Israeli armed forces and the Hamas organization have committed during the winter in the Gaza Strip, in some cases, war crimes, estimates the UN Human Rights Council appointed a team of researchers during the past week. The group’s findings are not new, but the statement is unusually authoritative. Richard Goldstone, the leader of a four-member research panel leader is internationally respected and recognized as a fair minded South African judge.
Wrong. Only the Hamas committed war crimes during the war, as been proven in countless reports, the only ones to actively pursue any wrong doers has been Israel, which has court martialed a number of individual IDF soldiers for acting outside of IDF and international law guidelines.
Died in the clashes of Gaza, civilians, soldiers and fighters together, counting more than a thousand Palestinians and 13 Israelis. The fate of civilians in the war, has been published over the year a series of reviews from different perspectives – including the Israeli human rights organizations, which have very critical of their own country, which in itself is evidence of Israel’s freedom of expression.
Israeli Leftist organizations are indeed heavily critical of the Israeli government, many of these members have a very ideological axe to grind with the Jewish state, like Zionism, Judaism and being a western capitalist state. I’ve personally heard these types speak in Finland, and when they believe they have a captured friendly audience, they let their guard down and throw out on lie after the other. These are highly motivated Leftist loons. Like a broken clock, they get it right once in awhíle, but as a trusted source….they fail to impress.
It was a clumsy arrogance that the Israeli government refused to let the Goldstone group into Israel and the Palestinian territories to gather data. The group eventually reached Gaza through Egypt.
The HS is amazingly wrong. They fail to recognize the inherent bias within the bloviating halls of that institution, which is par for the course for the HS, because they listen to the likes of Mads Gilbert and any other crank that has an anti-Israel message to spill. All they need is a cloak of dubious credibility from the other cranks in the international community, and there you have it,..an expert voice to interview!
Goldstone’s report has added importance because it also shows the way to bring suspected war criminals to account. The group calls on the UN Security Council to take recourse to the International Criminal Court, unless the authorities of Israel and the Gaza Strip, in half a year, fail to start independent investigations of suspected criminals.
Goldstone’s report has as much credibility as the organization it represents. NADA. The Jewish state can expect to receive the exact same kind of “justice” a black african American could expect from a white court in the old segregated south. It’s a meaningless court and a meaningless report, and the HS takes pride in pimping it as being something to the contrary.
It’s unlikely at this stage that suspects will end up in the international court. Israel has, as well as the Palestinians strong supporters in the Security Council’s permanent members.
Let’s be realistic here, and read inbtween the lines of what the HS editorial is actually saying, “Too bad the Jews won’t be hauled before the dock, but due to the US’s insistance in protecting the Jews from the internatioanl community, we won’t see any Jews being tried in the Hague.”
It is still appropriate to stop and listen to the warnings of Goldstone Group. Allowing illegal violence to time and again without being punbished breaks the basis for the possibilities of peace. The passivity from rest of the world sends the message that the vulnerable should seek security from somewhere else than from international law.
It’s appropriate to stop and ponder why the Helsingin Sanomat exists at all. In a just world, the paper would have been forced to reform itself and hire real journalists whoo would ensure that its editorial section and the views offered by its regular columnists, wouldn’t mirror the reporting found in its foreign news section.
