Apartheid

Times: ‘There is hardly a single known or unknown form of chemical
or biological weapons which is not manufactured at Nes Ziona.’ The
IIBR is not shown on maps, and access to it was denied even to
members of the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defence committees,
who were concerned about health risks to the neighbourhood. 260
139
Not only ABC weapons are banned by international law. One of the most obvious
violations and war crimes perpetrated during the Second Intifada is Israel’s use of so-called
‘flechettes’ in densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip. Flechettes are dart-spraying shells
fired from tanks, grenade launchers or shotguns. International law does not prohibit the use of
flechettes in combat, but it is a violation once they are used against civilians or in civilian
areas. They are ‘illegal’ in densely populated areas because they are not accurate weapons.
Flechette rounds explode in the air and fling thousands of small, deadly, razor-sharp metal
darts as far as 300 meters in all directions. Flechettes look like ordinary nails with tiny,
stabilizing fins on the ends. So even if the Israeli army is not aiming at civilians, they are
likely to become the targets as well if they are anywhere within the 300 meters of where the
flechette shell impacts. The criminal irony is the fact that flechettes are only illegal when used
in densely populated areas and Israel only uses flechettes in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s
most densely populated areas. Israel has been condemned by human rights groups for the
practice, but its army still uses them, admits that it uses them, but denies that it targets
civilians even though the large majority of Palestinians killed with flechettes have been
civilians, including women, children and mentally ill people. So again, Israel is not only
disregarding international law but also making a mockery out of it by stating that it uses
flechettes in combat only, although the facts prove that the large majority of people injured or
killed by usage of this cowardly weapon are civilians living (and suffering and dying) in
densely populated areas. 261
Lately, Israel has also emerged as a leader in hi-tech unmanned aerial vehicles, socalled
‘drones’, which hunt and kill with camera surveillance and missiles. Only the USA is
known to have – and to use – similar weapons, and some of the technology for the Israeli
drones comes from Northrop Grumman, a US weapons manufacturer. An unknown number of
Palestinians – targeted individuals as well as bystanders – have been killed and maimed with
this weapon, unknown since Israel refuses to discuss ‘tactics’. 262
Israel, it is true, is a small state, but its military budget is comparatively gigantic.
According to some commentators, Israel – a tiny country with some six million people,
smaller in size and population than Hong Kong – is the fourth-largest military power in the
world today. In any case it is among the top eight. This is mainly due to massive military and
economic aid from the USA. Since 1987, Israel annually receives around $3 billion in foreign
aid from the US government, more than any other country does. Year after year, more than
half of that sum, usually around $1.8 billion, after the outbreak of the Second Intifada,
however, around $2.2 billion, is military aid, again more than any other US client state
receives or has received. During the same time period, other kinds of aid decreased in volume.
In 2002 and in US government stipulations for 2003 and 2004, the military portion of the aid
almost doubled in relative terms. In 2003, the non-military portion was down to $600 million.
In 2004 military aid had risen to $2.2 billion and non-military aid shrunk to $360 million. By
this time, the US had a record budget deficit. Federal US aid to Israel makes up 30 per cent of
all US foreign aid. A quarter of the Israeli military budget is in fact paid for directly by the
US. Every fourth bullet or missile fired by an Israeli, every fourth Palestinian killed, is
therefore actually due to courtesy of the US government and US taxpayers. (Of course the
260 Sammonds 2002
261 Al-Mughrabi: Use of Dart Shells Against Palestinians Condemned, 2003; Hauser: Israeli Army Says Bedouin
Deaths a Mistake, 2001; Hauser: Israel Said to Use “Silent Killer” Ammunition, 2001
262 Williams: Palestinians Fear Israeli “Hunter-Killer” Drones, 2004