On anniversary of AMIA and Burgas bombings, US urges global front against Hezbollah
The US urged countries around the world to step up action against Lebanese terror group Hezbollah on Monday, as relatives and others marked the anniversaries of two deadly bombings by the group nearly two decades apart.
On July 18, 1994, a van packed with explosives crashed into the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and wounding hundreds more in the country’s deadliest-ever attack. Exactly 18 years later, a bomb placed on a bus readying to transport Israeli tourists from an airport in Burgas, Bulgaria, exploded, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver and injuring nearly 40 others.
Emphasizing Iran’s sponsorship of the attacks, the US State Department called on more capitals to join “more than a dozen countries across Europe, South America, Central America, and the Pacific [that] have issued national level designations, bans, or other restrictions” against Hezbollah.
“The callous murder of civilians must not stand,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in the statement. “We urge more countries to take similar measures, which make it harder for the group and its backers in Tehran to threaten peace and security around the globe.”
The comments came days after US President Joe Biden visited the Middle East for meetings focused on bolstering countries in the region against Iranian aggression. During the trip, Biden and Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint declaration in Jerusalem in which they committed to “work together with other partners to confront Iran’s aggression and destabilizing activities, whether advanced directly or through proxies and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
While the State Department has urged action against Hezbollah in the past, it has not previously tied the call for more sanctions to the anniversaries of the bombings.
In Buenos Aires, hundreds gathered near the site of the former AMIA building to commemorate the victims and urge that those responsible be brought to justice. Iran and Hezbollah have long been linked to the suicide bombing. Based on the investigations of Argentine Jewish prosecutor Alberto Nisman, six Iranians and one Lebanese have been on Interpol’s most-wanted list since 2007.
However, Iranians accused of involvement in the plot are still able to move about freely. In January, a public appearance of Iranian official Mohsen Rezaei at the investiture of Nicaragua’s president angered Argentina and drew a harsh response from its Foreign Ministry, which called Rezaei’s presence “an affront to Argentine justice and to the victims of the brutal terrorist attack″ in the Argentine capital.
Israeli research institute publishes database of Palestinian child soldiers
Israeli research institute NGO Monitor released on Sunday a database of Palestinian youth combatants on its website. The database is intended to provide accurate information about young Palestinians whom Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) misrepresent to allege that Israel has violated children’s rights in order to get the international community to sanction the country.
According to NGO Monitor’s website, “terror-tied Palestinian NGOs — including Defense for Children International –Palestine (DCI-P), Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and Al-Haq — regularly distort the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Palestinian minors in terror incidents. They ignore or minimize the violent attacks perpetrated by the minors that precipitated their deaths and blame Israel for deploying self-defense measures to protect the victims of such attacks.”
These NGOs also “erase [the] essential element” of violent rioting when Palestinian youths die under such circumstances, and make claims that contradict media reports, the institute added. NGO Monitor further claims that organizations that employ these tactics attempt to have the IDF added to a UN blacklist of child abusers including prominent terror organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
“Palestinian NGOs that claim to promote human rights agendas deny evidence of the recruitment and use of children by Palestinian terror orgs. Our new database of child combatants exposes the terror context ignored by NGOs that demonize Israel,” NGO Monitor tweeted.
The database, which uses sources including statements from official Israeli bodies, media organizations, social media and NGO reporting, features two sections: one focuses on Palestinian minors who attacked Israelis and/or died in clashes with Israeli security personnel, while the other deals with minors who died in Gaza border riots.
Enough is enough. It is long past time that the Palestinian Authority was held accountable for their ongoing and systematic torture of the Palestinian people, as well as responsibility for the torture of four Israeli citizens, currently being held captive in Gaza. @The_ILF https://t.co/DIFLYdGywh
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 19, 2022
Will the Media Report on UN Probe Into PA and Hamas Torture of Palestinians?
The UN Committee Against Torture is holding hearings this week in Geneva to determine if the Palestinian leadership is in compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The 10-member expert panel is meant to review all 174 parties to the Torture Convention every four years. Although the Palestinian Authority does not qualify as a state under international law, Ramallah signed on to the treaty in 2014.
For years, rights groups have raised serious concerns about torture and other violations by both the PA and Hamas, the US-designated terror group that governs the Gaza Strip.
As Palestinians fight for change against their increasingly repressive rulers, the mainstream media continues to act as the communications department for the PA and Hamas. The conclusions of the UN committee, which will include recommendations for reforms, are expected to be published later this month. Will the media report on the findings…or continue its de facto black out?