TV interview

I received a call from Russia Today asking if I would do a TV interview to discuss the decision of the Israeli Military Advocate General to close two of the criminal complaints submitted by PCHR following the November war, saying that it was unnecessary to carry out any further investigation.

I was very nervous, particularly after waiting in the chair for 20 minutes with an earpiece that kept falling out of my ear. While I was on-air, I could see myself on a screen in front of me with a two-second delay, which was very distracting! I think I did okay though, all in all. I was eager to do it, just to raise awareness of the cases.

The targeting of the Al Dalu family home was one of the worst atrocities of the November offensive. 12 civilians were killed on 18 November 2012, while the father of the family had ventured out to buy food. I will never forget watching the television and seeing the bodies of the four youngest children, aged between 1 and 7, laid out on a slab in the hospital morgue.

I previously wrote about the family here.

The Shawwa case was also terrible. A drone targeted the upstairs story of a house on a busy street in Shejayiya. Four civilians, including the uncle of a dear friend, were killed by shrapnel, and another six were injured.

It is hard to understand how the Israeli MAG can conclude that the cases require no further investigations, when they resulted in the deaths and injuries of so many civilians, yet the so-called legitimate targets have not been identified.

PCHR has prepared two new reports which outline how Palestinian victims are systematically denied access to justice and redress. An Illusion of Justice demonstrates how the Israeli criminal law system lacks impartiality and is inherently biased against Palestinian victims. Penalising the Victim outlines the recent developments in the Israeli civil law system. These changes not only absolve the State of Israel of any liability arising from damages caused in the context of a broadly-defined 'combat action', the victim is now financially penalised for even taking a case in the first place through the charging of 'defence costs'. Amendment No. 8 is applied retroactively, so some victims have had their cases closed and been charged high sums of money, even though they filed the case before the amendment was passed.

It is now virtually impossible for victims from Gaza to obtain justice or redress for attacks carried out against them. It seems ever clearer that Palestine must resort to international justice mechanisms to seek justice for her victims.