By:  Kawther Salam

The Jewish State of Israel considers itself above the laws and has imposed a blockade on any criticism against its violations of the International laws, of its barbaric Apartheid regime and of its many crimes against humanity, by the UN human rights organizations and members of the International community.

The representatives of this so-called "state" lose control each time any criticism against them, as small and innocuous as it may be, arises here or there. Each time they are criticized according to international laws and agreements to which Israel has acceded, and which in part were even redacted with help of representatives of Israel, these saints of the "unique and aloof" morality of their state give themselves the right to punish, to lambast the international organizations and their representatives, instead of accepting punishment or even mild criticism from these organizations which constitute the forum for the representatives of a great part of humanity.
The representatives of the Israeli occupation regime reacted arrogantly after the Human Rights Council of the UN in Geneva unanimously released a list including 99 recommendations at the end of a two-day review of Israel's record on human rights last Tuesday 9 December 2008. The council urged Israel to take 99 step to end its violations of human rights, including to lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip, freeing Arab detainees, and to allowing international observers to enter Palestine.

The president of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto, a Catholic priest and former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister, received death threats last Monday 15 December 2008. The spokesman of Mr. d'Escoto confirmed that "very serious threats" against the life of the UN General Assembly president were published on the Internet and that "competent authorities took the case for investigation".

The media of Israel "reported" that Miguel d'Escoto had supposedly prevented Israels ambassador to the United Nations to speak during a plenary session of the Assembly. Mr. d'Escoto described the Israeli allegation as "offensive and slanderous", and his spokesman said that the accusation hurled by the representatives of Israel at the United Nations were "an aggressive and unconvincing lie which can also be described as an irresponsible fabrication".

Earlier, the State of Israel, perpetrator of innumerable war crimes and crimes against humanity, took revenge against the Special Rapporteur of the UN for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk. Mr. Falk was denied entry to the occupied Palestinian territories through Israel, and when he came nonetheless, he was arrested on past Sunday 14 December 2008 at Ben Gurion Airport, and deported to Geneva on Monday 15 December 2008. The result of the arrest and deportation of Mr. Falk came as a result of his criticism of Israel, its flagrant crimes against humanity and the many violations of the international law in Gaza and the West Bank.

Last week, on 9 December 2008, professor Richard Falk condemned the collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza and described it as a clear violation of article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. He said that the Israeli policies against the Palestinians were tantamount to a "crime against humanity", and the Israeli blockade of Gaza against 1.5 million Palestinians is a war crime and a crime against humanity.

Professor Falk called the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the situation in Gaza, and to determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza blockade should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law. Mr. Falk broke the omertá of the international community which until now covers all Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, and because of this he was unjustly arrested, humiliated and deported by Israel. His intervention is all the more remarkable and courageous because Mr. Falk is himself a Jew.

What Israeli leaders have failed to understand is that each murder, each mistreatment of any Palestinians, each humiliation at a checkpoint, each incursion of their death squads, each of the 13.000 Palestinians in their gulag, each time one of their ministers calls for even more destitution and crimes against Palestinians, each new illegal settler in my homeland … is at the same time a nail in the coffin of the project Israel.

Israel is now like a big ship with a broken engine, advancing only with whatever impulse it has left. What will happen when the ship stops? And, will it stop first, or will it crash into something ugly ahead? Whatever lays ahead, the power to decide its fate is not in the hands of Israel anymore, despite all its military might an all its bought and paid for "friends".