Soccer Dad

Suing for war

HRW recently released a report condemning Hezbollah for violations of international law during last year's war.

Funny thing, Hezbollah's not happy about this turn of events. Not surprisingly HRW found that it couldn't promote its report in Lebanon. Imagine that.

Human Rights Watch accused Hezbollah of trying to silence it on Wednesday as the U.S.-based watchdog faced heavy criticism in Lebanon over a report critical of the guerrilla group's rocket attacks on Israel last year.

Both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government slammed Human Rights Watch (HRW) over the report, which states that the rocket attacks targeted Israeli civilians in violation of the laws of war during a 34-day-long conflict with Israel.

HRW had planned to launch the report in Beirut on Thursday. But a hotel had revoked permission for the organisation's news conference following a furore in Lebanese media over plans for the Beirut launch.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV led its news broadcasts with reports containing scathing criticism of HRW.

LGF notes Hezbollah's pain and points out that now the shoes on the other foot.

Note to Hussein Rahal: Human Rights Watch “started” criticizing Israel a long, long time ago. How does it feel to have the shoe on the other foot?

(Just in case you thought that HRW was no longer making false charges against Israel, Kenneth Roth, last month wrote that Israel was guilty of targeting civilians too.

We found that for the vast majority of Lebanese civilian deaths that we investigated, including Qana, there was no Hezbollah military presence anywhere near the site at the time of the IDF attack. Hezbollah mainly fired its rockets from dug-in positions in the hills outside of villages. Its fighters were not present where most civilians were killed. That conclusion is firmly demonstrated by our extensive interviews with eyewitnesses, our physical surveys of attack sites, and our review of graveyards where civilian victims are obvious because any fighter is proudly honored as a "martyr."

Do you imagine that during those "extensive interviews" that eyewitnesses may have found speaking freely as easy as HRW found it to publicize its report in Beirut? Cemeteries, too, prove nothing. People were not necessarily buried where they were killed. After Garlasco doesn't HRW realize that its objectivity concerning Israel is suspect?

But I digress.)

Perhaps the reason that Hezbollah's so upset about the HRW report is that it will hinder its credibility in court.

Hezbollah is organizing lawsuits against Israel seeking reparations for damage caused during the summer 2006 Lebanon conflict.

Hezbollah legal affairs director Ibrahim Awada told Syrian media last week that Hezbollah will pay legal fees to facilitate lawsuits filed by Lebanese citizens with multiple-citizenships in third-party states. Hezbollah says the move was necessary because Lebanese officials were reluctant to pursue claims against Israel .

Israel Matzav notes an interesting item in Ha'aretz about the proposed Hezbollah lawsuits.

The Lebanese government began mulling lawsuits against Israel immediately after the war ended last summer, but was stymied by the fact that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war, blamed Hezbollah, rather than Israel, for its outbreak. The government therefore set up a legal committee to explore more limited options, such as suits specifically over Israel's use of cluster bombs and destruction of infrastructure.

Meryl Yourish on the Hezbollah/Lebanon lawsuit.

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Israel isn’t going to bother responding to this one. It’s almost as stupid as the Egyptians threatening to sue Israel for the property the Hebrew slaves took from Egypt. (That one was ended when Jewish lawyers threatened to countersue for 400 years of slavery.)

According to the Talmud the successful counter-argument was made by a man named Gevihah ben Pesisah. (BTW, a few years ago Egyptian lawyers were looking into the possibility of suing Jews for the money, again. And wouldn't you know it back in 2005 the UN was looking to sue Israel for the damage caused by the Security fence!)

hezbollah, israel.

Posted by SoccerDad at August 30, 2007 2:12 AM | TrackBack