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Yours,
IslamOnline Live Dialogue Editing Desk..
Name
Peders. K
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Profession
Question
Would you please highlight how your people are working now under this sever offensive launched almost everywhere in Lebanon? How could you reach all these places in the proper timing to see and document the Israeli atrocities closely?
Answer
It is indeed a difficult operation now in Lebanon; but our researchers on the ground have been to the maximum possible extent; visiting cites, hospitals; meeting with families of victims and conducting field research most of the time.. We need to be able to do that in order to collect facts, document the factuality of how things happened and examine whatever evidence we could collect.
Name
John.
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Profession
Question
In Your report you talked about cases in which Israel deliberately targeted civilians and committed war crimes. Do you have specific figures about such cases and the number of victims?
Answer
We have examined 20 cases in which civilians were the target of attacks.. we are talking here about cars and buildings that have been bombed.. . Of the 153 dead civilians named in our report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians. This was the toll when the report was released August 4.. The report is online at www.hrw.org
Name
Editor.
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Profession
Question
HRW and Annan talked about violating international law, what legal action the Lebanese can take against Israel, if any? Where should they take their legal case?
Answer
Human Rights Watch called on the UN SG to establish an international commission of inquiry to investigate possible war crimes as a result of the current conflict. Furthermore; the call to establish this commission included that the commission would forward its views on a possible mechanism to make accountable those who committed those crimes. To clarify; neither Lebanon or Israel are members of the ICC - International Criminal Court.
Name
Salma Rockal
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Profession
Question
Can you please highlight your role in the last few years against the Israeli atrocities in Palestine? What have you done so far to get beyond the circle of statements and reports to the circle of actions that all oppressed people in Palestine and Lebanon are seeking impatiently?
Answer
Our role as an independent neutral Human Rights group has always and will always be to monitor and document human rights abuses by governments and non state actors on the arena of international law..
In Palestine; we have also been monitoring conduct of the Israeli army in terms of failing to investigate and punish over the responsibility of killing civilians in the west bank and Gaza. We have also documented and reported on some of the illegal aspects of the construction of the Wall in addition to Razing Rafah.
In this context; we are a research organization and we do not take the action ourselves; we urge the players and the international community to make use of our reports and put the findings in a context of action.
Name
Omar Oladel
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Profession
Question
What the nature of your relationship with the US and the white house?
I just want to know the machinery that you use to practice pressure on The US as the only super power of today. And to what extent you can practice such a pressure to come up with fruitful results?
Answer
There is no relation between my organization and the white house or the US administration. We do of course talk to them, meet with them whenever this is needed and for the purpose of our own advocacy. In fact; we do put a lot of pressure if the US government on a number of serious Human Rights issues such as torture and renditions.. But there is no one way to practice that type of pressure on the US government. the media has been very good in exposing our reports and the US conduct in Abu Ghrib and elsewhere.. but that might not seem enough.. it's always a challenge.
Name
Jorhena Taileo
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Profession
Question
What actions can you practically take against Israel? I mean can you as an international organization of a heavy weight do something that can deter Israel and stop it from further broadening its atrocities and crimes against humanity in Lebanon and Israel?
Answer
The short answer is NO! We are not an action based organization; and we don't have armies as well:)
I believe that documenting the facts and putting them in a clear and neutral context could possibly bring the public opinion attention to how bad the situation is and that when crimes are committed, such as killing civilians; they need to be accounted for.
Name
Fesk Franklin
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Profession
Question
Israel repeatedly accused Hizbullah of using human shields and firing rockets from residential areas, have your teams on the ground found any evidence supporting this claim?
Answer
Not to the moment. In all of the cases that we have investigated; we found no evidence to support such Israeli claim.. But the real issue is that even if Hizbullah did so, it does not explain, let alone justify, Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Lebanon.
Name
Zaki Fathurohman
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Profession
Undergraduate Student
Question
Assalamu'alaikum warahmatullaah.
Ba'da tahmid wa shalawat.
Ustadz, how about the possibility to judge Israeli crimes on International Court?
Is there a willing to reformulation the concept of Human Right in order to keep the world peace?
And, how to get a complete Israel crimes documents on the cyberspace?
There need to be a mechanism to try crimes of war and similar.. Currently the ICC stands as a sound model.. But both Israel and Lebanon are not parts of it.
Name
Fadel Bilalli
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Profession
Question
What do you plan to do after documenting these crimes? Does your role end there?
Answer
It does not end; though it gets us into a new business around working with key players, governments; the media; the UN and other NGOs to put into force recommendations that could and should put an end to those crimes and establish an accountability mechanism.
Name
Concerned
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Profession
Question
Do you have evidence that can be used by Lebanese civilians in bringing legal action against Israel? Can you provide the Lebanese with such evidence?
Answer
Well; the evidence that those are "civilians" and have been under indiscriminate attacks is a proof itself.. But there are also evidence that Israel used cluster bombings in some of its attacks which also creates a basis for possible crimes.
Name
Editor
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Profession
Question
.
Answer
The session has ended. We would like to thank both Mr. Fady Al-Qady for taking the time to answer IslamOnline viewers' questions, and all those who participated in this live dialogue.
We apologize again for not being able to answer all your questions.
