Stephen Lendman

Israel is a serial lawbreaker. A state sponsor of terrorism. A criminal enterprise. "(A) state of child killers and land robbers," according to one European parliamentarian.

Multiple incidents occur daily. Including attacking Palestinians without just cause. Invading their communities.

Destroying their property. Kidnapping Palestinian men, women and children. Political arrests and imprisonments. Cold-blooded murder.

Some incidents are more outrageous than others. Many are crimes of war and against humanity. Ruthlessness defines Israeli policy.

America operates the same way. Both countries want a special Fourth Geneva Convention blocked. For good reason.

Intended to address West Bank and East Jerusalem occupation conditions. Gaza post-Operation Protective Edge.

The last Geneva event of this type followed the 2001 second intifada outbreak.

Swiss authorities want this year's December conference focusing on upholding international law. A three-hour session is planned. At an ambassadorial level.

With few speeches. No media coverage. A final press release only. According to an unnamed Swiss diplomat:

"We made it clear we didn't want a political event or debate club, or a conference that would blame or criticize one of the sides."

Precisely what's needed. No punches pulled. Israel held accountable for high crimes against peace. Even without follow-up prosecutorial authority.

Israeli officials are going all-out to prevent Geneva discussions. Not wanting its dirty linen aired.

Claiming forthright examination would be one-sided. In an international forum. Intended to make Israel look bad. Its ruthlessness speaks for itself.

The whole world knows about occupation harshness. Horrific Israeli Operation Protective Edge war crimes.

Previous ones since Israel's establishment. Ongoing ones. Countless Palestinian corpses attest to Israel's brutality.

Hundreds of thousands more ethnically cleansed. Economically strangled. Socially deprived. Politically denied.

Geneva discussions can help highlight what everyone needs to know. Perhaps inspire similar future events.

Examining occupation harshness. Illegal settlements. Dystopian Gaza conditions. Israeli war crimes too serious to be ignored. Demanding accountability.

America, Canada and Australia are involved. Helping Israel exert pressure on Switzerland. Saying they'll boycott any conference held.

US State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said Washington "strongly oppose(s) the convening of the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions and have made our opposition unmistakably clear."

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman tried pressuring his counterparts worldwide against attending. Saying Israel will boycott the conference if held.

Israeli ambassadors in key Western states doing much the same thing. Reports suggest with little success.

Swiss authorities are expected to formally announce a conference date shortly. Perhaps by early December or sooner.

Western diplomats familiar with what's going on say they're determined to proceed. Despite pressure not to.

Fourth Geneva deals with protecting civilians in times of war. Preamble language saying:

"The High Contracting Parties, conscious of their obligation to come to an agreement in order to protect civilian populations from the horrors of War, undertake to respect the principles of human rights which constitute the safeguard of civilization and, in particular, to apply, at any time and in all places, the rules given hereunder:

(1) Individuals shall be protected against any violence to their life and limb.

(2) The taking of hostages is prohibited.

(3) Executions may be carried out only if prior judgment has been passed by a regularly constituted court, furnished with the judicial

safeguards that civilized peoples recognize to be indispensable.

(4) Torture of any kind is strictly prohibited.

These rules which constitute the basis of universal human law, shall be respected without prejudice to the special stipulations provided for in the present Convention in favour of protected persons."

Treaty language forbids harming noncombatants. Including civilians, prisoners and wounded soldiers.

Transferring an occupying power's population to territory it controls is prohibited. Or moving occupied people outside their borders.

Israel is a Fourth Geneva signatory. Knesset members never incorporated it into Israeli law. Ludicrously claiming it doesn't apply to the West Bank or East Jerusalem.

Territories it calls "disputed." Settlements on stolen Palestinian land it calls 'legal." War crimes it calls "self-defense."

The whole world knows otherwise. Even some of Israel's closest allies acknowledge clear indisputable facts. Israeli Big Lies don't change them.

Daily criminality speaks for itself. Israeli police operate like Hitler's

Gestapo.

Last week, they assaulted a 55-year-old disabled Jerusalemite woman and her 22-year-old daughter. Without just cause.

Ten police officers were involved. Knocking the mother to the ground. Severely beating her daughter when she tried to help.

With rifle butts. Kicking her in the abdomen numerous times. Dragging her to their jeep. Tearing her clothes.

The mother suffers from partial paralysis in one leg. Requires crutches to walk. Israeli security forces are thugs. Showing no mercy.

Treating Palestinian women and children like men. Assaulting them without just cause. Beating them viciously.

At times injuring them severely. Remaining unaccountable. Free to terrorize at will.

Perhaps reaching a new low. Arresting 11-month old Balqis Ghawadra and 2-year old Baraa. After visiting their father in Eshel prison with their mother, Nihal.

Arrested with her two children. On bogus charges of trying smuggle a cell phone to her husband.

Fuad al-Khuffash heads the Ahrar Center for Prisoners' Studies and Human Rights.

"The Israeli occupation targets every Palestinian who talks about Palestine and works for Palestine," he said.

It "targets the trees, and the stones, so it's no wonder (it) target(s) every person who defends human rights and the rights of the Palestinian people."

Israeli authorities "don't hesitate to do such things. What they are doing, forcing the Palestinians out of the lands where they were born, violates all international laws and treaties."

Al-Khuffash is a former political prisoner. Targeted for his human rights activism. Including extensive writing and outspokenness.

He called Israel's treatment of Nihal and her children flagrant human rights violations. Crimes against humanity.

Urging international human rights groups and Palestinian authorities intervene on their behalf.

In 2011, Israel released Nihal's unjustly imprisoned husband Mu'ammar. After serving eight years of a life sentence plus 20 years. Part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

Re-imprisoning him again months earlier without charge. Targeting 62 other Palestinians released in exchange for Shalit.

According to al-Khuffash, holding them as hostages. Pawns in any future prisoner swap.

Israel holds thousands of Palestinian political prisoners. Incarcerated for wanting to live free on their own land in their own country.

An unfulfilled dream. Israel categorically rejects Palestinian self-determination. Despite Big Lies claiming otherwise.

On Friday, French parliamentarians began debating a non-binding resolution. Urging government recognition of Palestinian statehood.

On December 2, France's lower house is expected to endorse it.

The text "invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict."

French parliamentarian Elisabeth Guigou calls Palestinian statehood "the best guarantee for peace."

"If we do not act now, there is a risk of entering into an irreversible cycle of violence and transforming this territorial conflict into a regional conflict," she added.

"Nothing would be worse for the region and for Europe."

Ahead of the vote, Netanyahu reacted as expected. Calling French recognition "a grave mistake."

Claiming Palestinians will be encouraged to "harden their positions." Making peace tougher to achieve.

Impossible because Israel rejects it. Goes all-out to sabotage it.

Putting a lie to so-called peace talks. Dead on arrival when convened. The greatest hoax in modern times.

In November 2012, France was one of 14 EU nations voting to grant Palestine UN observer status.

On Wednesday, European parliamentarians began debating recognizing Palestinian statehood. What one MP calls "a right to be recognized."

A vote delayed until December. On October 30, Sweden became the first Western European nation to officially extend recognition.

Britain, Spain and Ireland approved non-binding resolutions to do so. Germany is Israel's closest EU ally.

Unequivocally against extending Palestinian statehood recognition until Israel does. Ludicrously claiming doing so will cause more harm then good.

Chancellor Angela Merkel wanting both sides focusing on no-peace-peace-talks. A formula for failure.

Since the 1949 Lausanne, Switzerland peace conference. Proposing a three-tier agreement.

Including diaspora Palestinians' unconditional right of return.

Jerusalem as an international city under a UN protectorate.

A two-state solution based on equal portions of land.

Israel rejected it. Kept 78% of historic Palestine. The remainder occupied after its June 1967 Six Day War.

Opposed peaceful conflict resolution from then to now. Despite Big Lies claiming otherwise.

Peace in our time never came. Nothing in prospect looks promising.

Palestinians struggle alone for justice. Liberation remains a distant dream.

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.