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MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6/15: Years ago the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim, was brought before a mock international court through a joint effort of Home Box Office (HBO) in the USA and a major British TV network. The question before the court was whether Kurt Waldheim was possibly guilty of war crimes and should he be tried by some recognized international body, possibly the International Court of Justice. It was a very elaborate and expensive undertaking. It aired LIVE on HBO in the US and on national TV in England. The conclusion reached, very dramatic at the time and in the way it was done, was that there was insufficient evidence to even justify indictment of Waldheim on the charge of "war crimes".
It's time for a similar effort by someone in the international media in regard to Ariel Sharon, now the Prime Minister of Israel. Since there is no likelihood any other means will be found in the foreseeable future to pursue these very important issues, the time has come for the independent media to step up to the plate once again. In recent years international courts have taken on the former President of Chile on war crimes, even though his own government had given him immunity from the charges. Just last year it was a sitting President of Yugoslavia who was an indicted international war criminal according to a U.N. tribunal and NATO. If international law is to have real meaning and real legitimacy, the person and actions of Ariel Sharon must now be considered one way or another in the context of war crimes; and it appears BBC1 and the prestigious program "Panorama" are taking the first small but significant step this Sunday.
That the Israelis are already so furious and trying to block or somehow compromise the broadcast is certainly a good sign! But there's a very long and difficult road ahead. Who has the courage and integrity to take this one on? Will a group of credible Jews in the U.S. and Europe step forward and publicly call for such an international inquiry?
Please, email us at MER@MiddleEast.Org if you are willing and able to help make this happen, along with your ideas and suggestions.
*************************************** ABOUT PANORAMA Panorama is the BBC's flagship television current affairs programme. It has a distinguished history and it is the longest-running public affairs TV programme in the world. ***************************************
[The Guardian - Friday June 15, 2001]: Israeli officials attacked the BBC yesterday for a Panorama programme which concludes that the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, could be tried for war crimes in connection with the massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon in 1982. Israel army radio said efforts were being made to prevent the programme being broadcast on Sunday, or to include an Israeli reply in it.
After Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, its forces, under Mr Sharon's command as defence minister, allowed Lebanese Christian allies to enter the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.
More than 1,000 Palestinians were massacred by the Phalangist militias.
But the Israeli justice minister, Meir Sheetrit, said the programme made by Fergal Keane, The Accused, was proof of the BBC's consistently "anti-Israel" and "pro-Palestinian" bias.
Gideon Meir, the Israeli foreign ministry's deputy director of communications, said: "The programme is a scandal. It's a systematic decision of theirs [the BBC] that is entirely against Israel. There's no doubt we'll have to consider our path towards the BBC."
A BBC spokeswoman said it deplored the Israeli threats and stood by the programme.
Panorama interviewed Mr Sharon's foreign press adviser, Raanan Gissin, for the programme, but an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said: "It was not done in a bona fide, fair or professional way...
"They wrote a letter saying the programme was about Sabra and Shatila in the light of humanitarian law, but didn't mention war crimes.
"I'm 100% sure that if Gissin had known, he would not have given the interview.
"Somebody is manipulating the BBC by raising this specific subject. It's a public trial of the prime minister - the whole idea looks to us unfair."
He said Mr Meir's remarks did not threaten reprisals against the BBC as a whole. "We have constant dialogue with the BBC. We're speaking about Panorama and the fact that BBC1 is going to host it."
In London, the Israel press attache, David Schneeweiss, said: "We've been in touch with the BBC at all levels to find out what the programme's about. One has to question why they are focusing on old news. These events happened 20 years ago."
Mr Sharon resigned as defence minister in 1983 after an Israeli commission of inquiry criticised him for his role in the massacres.
It found that he had failed to carry out his duty by disregarding the risk that Phalangists would carry out acts of vengeance when he decided to let them enter the camps, and by "not ordering appropriate measures" to reduce the danger of a massacre.
It is believed that the programme does not reveal any new facts about responsibility for the atrocity, but shows interviews with legal experts who conclude that Mr Sharon could be indicted for war crimes for his role in it.
In a statement, the BBC said: "This week's Panorama is a legitimate analysis of a human rights issue. It looks at the question of ultimate legal responsibility for the massacres... at a time when Ariel Sharon was defence minister.
"Panorama asked Prime Minister Sharon for an interview about the issues raised, and that offer still stands. The programme contains a contribution from Raanan Gissin, who was made fully aware of the issues which would feature in the programme."
Sunday, 17 June, at 22:15pm London Time on BBC1
Nearly 20 years ago the man who is now Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, sent Lebanese militiamen into the Palestine refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla. When they left 36 hours later at least 800 people lay dead after a rampage of murder, torture and rape.
The massacre provoked international outrage. In Israel itself 400,000 people took to the streets in the largest demonstration the country had ever seen. Ariel Sharon was forced to resign as Israel's defence minister.
But he has maintained that he could not have foreseen the danger of a massacre in the camps. Fergal Keane investigates this claim, and talks to key witnesses and survivors of the massacre.
In the light of developments in international war crimes prosecutions the programme asks whether the evidence should lead to indictments for what happened in the camps.
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| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/6/246.htm |