Bert Sacks
6550 Greenwood Ave N, #11
Seattle, WA 98103
May 18, 2009
The Honorable Rob McKenna
Washington State Attorney General
1125 Washington Street SE
Olympia, WA 98501-2283
Dear Attorney General McKenna:
I am writing concerning the letter you co-signed – along with nine other state attorneys general on March 30, 2009 – to Secretary of State Clinton, “conveying strong support for the State of Israel’s actions in Gaza.” Your office has kindly sent me a copy of the letter.
I have lived five years in Israel and was married for over ten years to an Israeli woman. As you might expect, I am deeply concerned about Israel and her future. However I believe the letter that you co-signed is not helpful for that future.
I am asking you to please consider my reasons and then respond to my concerns below.
I am sure you have already heard from other Washington State residents regarding whether it is appropriate for our state attorney general to weigh in on a matter of foreign affairs. However, in as much as you have chosen to do so, you have an obligation, I believe, especially writing as a representative of our state, to present fairly all of the facts.
Regarding those facts, I include a report on Israel’s recent actions in Gaza from Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University. He is also the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories.
Professor Falk’s article discusses the Israeli-Palestinian situation in Gaza from the perspective of both human rights and international law. He is certainly a qualified and credentialed observer, arguably a pre-eminent expert in both of these areas.
I wish to focus on one aspect of what Professor Falk writes: “For eighteen months the entire 1.5 million people of Gaza experienced a punishing blockade imposed by Israel” which has “restrict[ed] the entry to Gaza of food, medicine, and fuel to a trickle.”
I also include an article by Gideon Levy in the major Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz from over three years ago. It begins with a joke – a rather infamous joke – by Prime Ministerial adviser Dov Weissglas about Israel’s impending economic siege on Gaza.
Moving forward in time to about a year ago, “Last April, UNICEF reported that more than 50% of children under five in Gaza are anemic, and that many children are stunted due to a lack of vitamins” – conditions the Red Cross has called “devastating”.
I have read that the number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza was limited to one-seventh of the number previously allowed. The question I wish to ask you is not, Did Israel allow some humanitarian aid into Gaza? – but rather, What legal justification exists for Israel to have restricted any amount of available humanitarian aid to civilians?
In your letter, you cite the Geneva Convention requirement, which provides that “… the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants.” You cite this as the basis of a war crime committed by Hamas, firing rockets which don’t discriminate between military and civilian targets. I quite agree!
But restrictions of food, medicine and fuel (essential for running electrical generators, for hospitals, and to pump and process water and sewage) also fail to satisfy this same Geneva Convention requirement. Trucks with food, medicine and fuel were all waiting at the Israeli-Gaza border. Denying humanitarian aid clearly also fails to discriminate.
Further, the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time of War, Article 23, states that even in war, parties to the treaty: “shall allow the free passage of all consignments of medical and hospital stores … even if the latter is its adversary. It shall likewise permit the free passage of all consignments of essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers and maternity cases.”
This denial of essential humanitarian aid over such an extended period – including during the cease-fire, when rocket attacks had stopped and when Israel had agreed to end its blockade of Gaza but refused to do so –was an act that Richard Falk called “a crime against humanity” and a “flagrant and massive violation of international law.”
Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, recently in Gaza, said, “There was not enough food for families, not enough healthcare.” Jimmy Carter called the siege “an atrocity, a crime, an abomination.”
I am glad to put you in touch with doctors from Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR) who have traveled to Gaza and know the situation – and with the Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights. Physicians from both groups will be able to testify as to the potentially lethal consequences of a blockade of humanitarian goods.
As I indicated earlier, I certainly agree that firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas constitutes a war crime and terrorism. I often heard on American media the question, How would we react if rockets were fired on U.S. civilians across a border? But I never heard, How would we react if food and medicine were being denied us?
Therefore my request to you, Mr. McKenna, is to ask you to reply to these concerns:
Do you have any doubt that Israel restricted the entrance of food, medicine and fuel to Gaza? Do you believe there is a legal basis for any denying of humanitarian aid? Isn’t it a violation of the Geneva Convention and the rules of discrimination and proportionality? In fact, isn’t it an act “dangerous to civilian human life” done to “coerce or intimidate”?
I trust by this point you’ll understand why I believe condemning Hamas rocket fire – a condemnation with which I agree – without also condemning the Israeli policy of humanitarian siege, is not a proper position for the legal representative of Washington State. It is simply not helpful in promoting a peaceful future for Israelis or Palestinians.
If you disagree with my view, I respectfully ask you to please explain your disagreement. If you agree with (at least some of) what I have argued, would you please state that too?
Thank you. I look forward to your response to my concerns.
Sincerely,
Bert Sacks
Attachment:
Richard Falk article, “Understanding the Gaza Catastrophe” (Jan. 2, 2009)
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_162fc67x7zf
Gideon Levy column, “As the Hamas team laughs,” in Ha’aretz (Feb. 19, 2006)
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_164hj5p5vzf
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