Francis A. Boyle calls on UN General Assembly for War Crimes Tribunal for Israel over Gaza attacks

Listen to this week’s broadcast here. Also here.

This is part one of a two part special on Gaza produced by Dori Smith, at WHUS, a Pacifica Affiliate at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT

TRT: 29:08

Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org for various formats including podcasting.

Stay tuned to Talk Nation Radio for part two of this interview plus our weekend special, an interview with Amnesty International’s Zahir Janmohamed, AI’s Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. He spent the day Friday January 30th, 2009, working on Capital Hill, explaining to members of Congress and the Obama administration why this Non Governmental Human Rights monitoring agency is calling for an impartial investigation of war crimes in Gaza. We focus on Israel’s crimes, though AI will also seek an investigation into the actions of all parties. Of special significance are reports that parents were shot in front of their children, that members of Congress should pay special attention to the use of White Phosphorus which indicates US culpability. We also discuss Israel’s use of Flechette weaponry as described on the group’s web page.

Coming Soon!

Amnesty International reports targeting of civilians in Gaza:

“There is evidence that, and we have this on our blog, which is blog.amnestyusa.org that Israeli soldiers went into homes, they often times forced people in their homes and then used their homes as base, that constitutes human shielding, which is also a war crime, there are instances in which they dragged people out of their home and shot them at point blank range, there are instances in which parents were shot in front of their children, there are also instances of racist graffiti, like saying things like one down 999 thousand to go or death to all Arabs. So this idea that Israel had a map and they were only firing at Hamas targets is absolutely ludicrous. What we see here is that this was an attempt to punish all people in Gaza, not just Hamas.”

PT 1 interview with Francis A. Boyle

Francis A. Boyle has called on the UN General Assembly to set up an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) under U.N. Charter Article 22. He discusses how this would be set up. Professor Boyle also discusses the matter of accountability for crimes committed by George Bush and others in his administration as well.

Boyle indicates that his first impression of President Barack Obama’s choice of US envoy to the MidEast George Mitchell is that he is better than the other choices floated by the transition team, but the question remains, how will Mitchell negotiate peace between Israel and Palestinians if he won’t meet with democratically elected Hamas?

The UN is calling for a massive aid effort to help wounded Palestinians (See Ban Ki Moon appeal) and many still without food or water.

We end with a clip of MidEast envoy George Mitchell who held another press conference to discuss his meeting with Mahmoud Abbas.

In this part one of a two part interview we also hear Professor Boyle’s assessment of President Obama’s interview on Saudi run Al Arabiya TV, Israel’s rationale for the Gaza attacks as Hamas rockets, which he said were not legitimate due to Israel’s use of disproportionate force, and criticism about Israel’s actions in Gaza.

International Law professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois School of Law has advised numerous international bodies including the Palestinians. He was their adviser during the 1990s and the Oslo peace talks.

His latest book is, ‘Tackling America’s Toughest Questions’ and his many other texts include: ‘Defending Civil Resistance Under International Law;’ ‘Destroying World Order: U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East Before and After September 11th’, ‘Biowarfare and Terrorism’, and ‘Palestine, Palestinians & International Law’ by Francis Anthony Boyle and Haidar Abdul Shaffi.

Talk Nation Radio is produced at WHUS Radio FM 91.7 in Storrs, CT. Our music was written and performed by Fritz Heede

You can listen to the show when it airs live at 5 PM Wed. online at www.whus.org.

Don’t miss this Democracy Now interview with Kathy Kelly.. And this update from Iraq by journalist Dahr Jamail. Dahr Jamail also writes for Inter Press Service. We hope to speak with him when he returns from Iraq.

UPDATE: George Mitchell has called for Hamas border police to be replaced.

See this important story on Professor Francis A. Boyle’s challenge to the UN General Assembly. And this on the call for a tribunal.

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