by Stephen Lendman

War without mercy is official Israeli policy. Rule of law principles don't matter.

Throughout its entire history, Israel waged genocidal war on Palestine.

Its 1947-48 War of Independence prioritized an exclusive Jewish state with no Arab presence.

Strategy was by any means possible. It included mass murder, destruction and forced displacement.

According to historian Ilan Pappe, Israeli policy involved "large-scale intimidation; laying siege to and bombarding villages and population centres; setting fire to homes, properties and goods; expulsion; demolition; and finally, planting mines among the rubble to prevent any of the expelled inhabitants from returning."

Israel's dirty war took six months to complete. It was a walkover. It forcibly displaced about 800,000 Palestinians. It murdered many others.

It destroyed 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities.

Genocidal crimes were committed. They included premeditated mass murder, forced mass displacement, rape, destruction of homes, villages and crops, as well as other atrocities.

Israel's war without mercy never ended. Slow-motion genocide continues. It's official Israeli policy.

Occupied Palestinians are denied fundamental rights everyone deserves. They live in constant fear.

Military orders control virtually all aspects of their lives. They endure economic strangulation and collective punishment.

They're brutalized for praying to the wrong God. They're denied free movement, free expression and public assembly. They're isolated in enclosed population centers.

They endure state terror, racist oppression, land theft, targeted assassinations, mass arrests, torture, lawless imprisonments, daily neighborhood incursions, roadblocks, checkpoints, electric fences, separation walls, curfews, and numerous other human and civil rights abuses.

They're denied basic services. Their resources are stolen. They're marginalized and exploited. They're treated like subhumans.

Their right of self-defense is called terrorism. Cold, calculated, well-planned premeditated Israeli aggression is called self-defense.

Operation Protective Edge is the latest example. On July 8, it began. It continues. Talks to end it failed. Israeli obstructionism assured it.

It bears full responsibility. It deplores peace. It prioritizes violence and instability.

It's current government is its most hardline ever. Netanyahu is a world class thug.

He shames the office he holds. He's guilty of multiple high crimes against peace. He belongs in prison, not high office. So do other ministers and Knesset members.

Israel wages war on truth, journalists, Gazan healthcare workers, civilian men, women and children, Palestinian legislators for belonging to the wrong party, as well as human rights defenders.

Issam Younis heads the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza. On August 21, Israeli forces murdered his father and step mother in cold blood.

A same day press release condemned the killing. It called for an immediate investigation.

The attack killed 10 people. It injured 49 others. They included 20 children and 14 women.

According to Al Mezan, Israel escalated attacks on Gaza. It especially targets residential homes.

It uses "excessively heavy bombs and missiles." They kill many victims. They cause mass destruction.

They're "flagrant violation(s) of the principle of proportionality," said Al Mezan. They constitute serious crimes of war and against humanity.

Besides losing his father and step mother, two Issam Younis sisters-in-law, two nephews and two nieces were injured.

Al Mezan condemned Israel's war crime. Many Israeli attacks use "excessively heavy munitions in densely populated areas and spread excessive destruction of property and killing and injury of civilians," it said.

These attacks testify to Israel's flagrant disregard for fundamental rule of law principles.

Al Mezan was clear, unequivocal and forthright, saying:

It "insists that this crime, along with hundreds of other crimes including the killing of our colleague Anwar Al Za'aneen, be promptly investigated and prosecuted as per the established standards of international law."

"It reiterates its deploring of the stance of the international community, which has failed to take effective action to ensure Israel's full compliance by the rules of international law."

"This failure" lets Israel get away with genocidal mass murder and destruction. It "encourage(s) more and more IOF grave breaches of IHL, which Palestinian civilians have paid for with their lives."

Israel wants information about its high crimes against peace suppressed. It denied Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) entry into Gaza.

Both groups issued a joint statement. They asked Egyptian authorities to let them in through Rafah crossing.

Illegitimate junta power rules Egypt. Neither general/president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi or other Egyptian officials responded.

According to AI's Research and Crisis Response international director, Anne FitzGerald:

"The Israeli authorities appear to have been playing bureaucratic games with us over access to Gaza, conditioning it on entirely unreasonable criteria even as the death toll mounts."

"The victims' and the public's right to know about what happened during the recent hostilities requires the Israeli authorities to ensure full transparency about their actions and to refrain from hindering independent and impartial research into all alleged violations."

Since Operation Protective Edge began, Israel repeatedly blocked AI, HRW and other human rights groups from entering Gaza.

According to HRW's North Africa director, Sarah Leah Whitson:

"If Israel is confident in its claim that Hamas is responsible for civilian deaths in Gaza, it shouldn't be blocking human rights organisations from carrying out on-site investigations."

"Public pronouncements by a warring party don't determine whether attacks violated the laws of war, but field investigations could."

AI and HRC have some representatives in Gaza. The scale of mass murder and destruction requires many others to investigate Israeli war crimes thoroughly.

Both organizations called on Israel in vain. It refuses to cooperate with any groups investigating its high crimes against peace.

It wants them buried. It wants the right to mass murder and destroy whenever it wishes based on any pretext it claims.

It wants impunity for what demands accountability. It gets what it wants. Western leaders able to act support its genocidal wars.

Washington directly aids and abets its killing machine. Both nations partner in crime. Media scoundrels support them.

On August 20, Israeli soldiers targeted Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Khalida Jarrar in Ramallah.

They ordered her deported to Jericho for six months. They gave her 24 hours to leave.

Nonexistent secret information claims she "poses a threat to the security of the region, so she must be put under special monitoring."

Jarrar is a senior Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) member. She's an Addameer Prisoner Support group board member.

On August 20, Addameer issued an "Urgent Appeal." It called Jarrar "a prominent human rights activist for many years."

Since 1998, Israel banned her from traveling outside occupied Palestine. Once they let her go to Jordan for medical treatment.

Israel's diktat is based on Military Order 1651, Article 297 (2009). It outrageously calls Jarrar "dangerous to the general security of the area." It provides no corroborating evidence. There is none.

Expelling Jarrar is another example of Israeli lawlessness. Doing so violates Fourth Geneva protections. Forcible transfers are illegal.

It doesn't matter. Israel operates extrajudicially. It's longstanding Israeli practice. It includes genocidal war on Palestine.

Deaths and injuries mount. According to Maan News, "(s)even Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Sunday and dozens more wounded…"

As of early Sunday local time, the Palestinian death toll numbers 2,111. Over 10,500 others were injured. Many are maimed for life. Others won't survive their wounds.

More than 460,000 Palestinians are displaced. Survival throughout Gaza is a daily struggle.

No safe havens exist. Every square inch ot territory is vulnerable. Israel takes full advantage.

It deliberately targets residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, mosques and UN refuges.

Overnight, five rockets from unknown sources targeted Israeli-occupied Golan. Two rockets from Lebanon struck northern Israel. A Galilee house was hit.

These attacks perhaps with others to follow raise concern about potentially widening conflict.

On August 24, Reuters said Israel "took the Gaza war to a new level by flattening a 13-story apartment tower" on Saturday.

The Zafir 4 residential building was in Gaza City's Tal al-Hawa neighborhood. It was part of a larger complex. It housed almost 50 families.

They were warned to leave. At least 17 were injured. They included four children.

Israel lied. It claimed Zafir 4 "was a center of terror activity and housed several Hamas operation rooms." It offered no corroborating evidence.

Its dirty war continues. Deaths and injuries mount. Half a million Gazan children can't attend schools this week.

They were scheduled to open on Saturday. At least 277 were damaged or destroyed. Nearly one-third of those remaining are used as shelters.

Palestinian Minister of Education Khawla al-Shakhshir said 700,000 West Bank children will begin school on Sunday. For their Gazan counterparts, it's "delayed until further notice."

According to Deputy Minister of Education Ziad Thabet:

Reopening Gazan schools depends on "evacuating (those) used as shelters, providing other places for displaced families and preparing schools to receive students."

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates around 373,000 Gazan children need specialized psychological counseling.

All Gazan children require some form of psychological help, it added. Many are orphans. Many others are maimed for life.

Israel's killing machine shows no mercy. Its dirty war continues unabated.

Women, children, the elderly and infirm suffer most. Israel deliberately targets them. It's longstanding policy.

Doing so flagrantly violates international law. It doesn't matter. Authorities with power to act do nothing.

It bears repeating what a previous article explained. Western leaders support Israeli genocide.

Netanyahu's coalition government takes full advantage and then some. Accountability is nowhere in sight.

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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.

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