arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

IS THE ISRAELI MILITARY USING DEPLETED-URANIUM WEAPONS AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS?  
International Action Center calls for an investigation  

By John Catalinotto and Sara Flounders,  
Depleted Uranium Education Project of the International Action  Center

27 Nov 2000-- The International Action Center calls upon international organizations,  NGOs, environmental and health organizations to investigate the   Israeli military’s use of prohibited weapons in the West Bank and  Gaza, and to mobilize to stop it. These weapons include dumdum  bullets and CS gas. The IAC believes it also includes depleted- uranium weapons.  

The effect of dumdum bullets and CS gas is immediate, easily shown  and obvious. Using radioactive and toxic depleted-uranium weapons is  an additional crime that has an insidious long-term effect, not only on   combatants and civilians in the vicinity, but over a broad area and to  the general environment, as has been shown by the Pentagon’s  massive use of DU weapons in Yugoslavia and especially in Iraq.   

The International Action Center’s own investigative team on Nov. 1  and 2 saw Israeli helicopter gun ships firing into densely populated  areas. According to international law these attacks on civilian areas  are war crimes--as is the long-term destruction of the environment  from DU contamination.  

Mobilizing investigations, public challenges and mass protests against  the use of DU weapons can stop this crime against humanity.  

The aim of this paper is to show with supporting data that it is credible  that the Israeli military is using DU weapons in the Occupied  Territories. We know that Israel is DU-armed and capable, and  shielding on Israeli tanks is DU-reinforced. The IAC urges scientists,  doctors and soldiers who know of the use of DU shells to come  forward with definitive proof that the Israeli military has at least  tested DU weapons in its attacks on Palestinian offices and homes. In  addition, we urge environmental and other organizations to demand an  accounting from these authorities.   

It will also show how following similar Pentagon or U.S. government  denials regarding test-firing DU weapons in Puerto Rico, Okinawa  Panama and south Korea, revelations and public pressure have forced  admissions and in some cases have won pledges to stop firing DU   weapons. In Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and in the Persian/Arabian Gulf  region this pressure has led to international investigations and legal  actions against DU use.   

DU IS PART OF ISRAELI ARSENAL  

U.S. arms make up the major part of the Israeli arsenal and Israel has  been the number one recipient of U.S. arms aid for decades. These  U.S. weapons include the M1 Abrams tank—which fires DU shells   and is armored with DU-reinforced metal. The “Apache” and the  Cobra helicopter gun ships are also equipped to fire DU shells. Since  this latest Intifada started, the U.S. has shipped Israel “the newest   and most advanced multi-mission attack helicopters in the U.S.  inventory,” as reported in the Jerusalem Post. These were Apache  helicopters.     

The IAC delegation witnessed Israeli attack helicopters, which people  described to them as “Apache” helicopters from the U.S., firing shells  and rockets at targets in and around Ramallah on Nov. 1. They then  examined a small office used by the Fatah organization that the  projectiles hit and destroyed.   

The following day they saw machine guns on tanks being fired at  Palestinian youths in Ramallah armed only with rocks and slingshots.  They also visited a Fatah office near Nablus that Israeli rockets had  hit the night before.  

The IAC delegation gathered up shell casings and metal fragments in  these areas. As they were preparing to leave from Ben Gurion  Airport in Tel Aviv, members of the IAC delegation were stopped,  searched and interrogated. The shell casings and metal fragments  were confiscated. While this prevented the IAC from arranging its  own tests, it made them even more suspicious that the Israeli forces  were using DU shells and trying to hide it.  

Because of its great density, DU is also used to stabilize or balance  airplanes and missiles, including the Tomahawk Cruise missile. When  the missile explodes, or should the plane crash, the DU burns and is  released into the air just as it is when DU shells hit steel. DU is also  used to shield tanks, including the M1 Abrams tank used by the U.S.  and Israel. After 32 continuous days, or 64 12-hour days, the amount  of radiation a tank driver receives to his head from overhead armor  will exceed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's standard for public  whole-body annual exposure to man-made sources of radiation.  

Whether from shells or from the scrapings from tanks moving around  the countryside, radioactive materials enter into the land, the water  and the whole food chain, contaminating the densely populated West  Bank and Gaza, where water is a scarce resource. Wanton  radioactive contamination of this region is a crime against all of   humanity and a threat to the entire region now and for generations to  come.  

According to the LAKA Foundation in the Netherlands, the Israeli  army first used depleted-uranium weapons in the 1973 war, under  direction from U.S. advisers.  

The same 1995 report from the U.S. Army Environmental Policy  Institute mentioned earlier asserts that Israel is one of the countries  with DU munitions in its arsenal. These included at that time at least  Bahrain, Egypt, France, Greece, Kuwait, Pakistan Russia, Saudi   Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well  as the United States. This assertion has been repeated in the Christian  Science Monitor, the Jerusalem Post, the San Francisco Chronicle  and other newspapers.   

Israel has a nuclear-weapons program more developed than that of  any country except the five major nuclear powers. For exposing this  nuclear program, Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear-weapons technician,  was kidnapped by the Mossad and held in solitary confinement 14   years.  

Given Israel’s own nuclear program and well-developed military  industry, the likelihood is that Israel is a manufacturer of DU  ammunition. The firm Rafael of Israel is named in numerous reports  as being such a manufacturer. But even if this were not the case,  Israel has been able to import DU weapons from the United States.  

IS ISRAEL USING DU IN COMBAT?  

Some may argue that because the Israelis are not firing against  tanks—the strongest military justification for using DU shells—but  against unarmed or at the most lightly armed and virtually unprotected   opponents, there is no special reason for them to be using DU shells.  

This is true. But the same could be said for U.S. forces in Vieques,  Panama, Okinawa and south Korea, yet DU weapons were tested in  all those places. Like the Pentagon brass, the Israeli general staff  would want to try out their weapons under all conditions, especially in  combat. Now that they are firing at homes and offices in an attempt  to punish the Fatah leadership, they would want to see if DU shells  penetrate concrete as they do steel and if this makes a difference in   battle.  

The Israeli military has already shown its racist contempt for the  Palestinians by firing to maim thousands and kill hundreds of young  people protesting the occupation of their country, people armed in the  great majority with stones and slingshots. As of Nov. 20, over 240  people have been killed and over 8,000 wounded.  

And the Israeli officers have a strong reason to use DU-shielded  tanks. They want the Israeli soldiers and their families to think that  they are invulnerable in their tanks and armored personal carriers  shielded with DU armor. If the troops grow ill months or years later   from their constant exposure to radiation, that is no longer a political  problem for the generals. The same is true when they handle shells  and fire rounds from tank guns.   

The Israeli peace movement and the families of the troops, should  know that the illusion of invincibility comes at a price. There has  already been the beginning of resistance among individual Israeli  troops to playing the role of oppressor. This movement should   seriously consider the dangers of DU.  

The first step to exposing and stopping this crime and its long-term  impact is to start a serious investigation of Israeli use of depleted- uranium weapons.   

Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto are editors and contributors to  the book “Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium” and organizers of  the Depleted Uranium Education Project based at the International  Action Center in New York City. Flounders returned Nov. 3, 2000,   from a five-day fact-finding trip to the West Bank and Gaza.   

IS ISRAEL USING DU SHELLS? U.S. ANTI-WAR GROUP DEMANDS  INVESTIGATION

By John Catalinotto

Nov. 12, 2000

A major anti-war organization in the United States is  calling for an international investigation of Israeli use of  depleted uranium shells in its attempt to repress the Al- Aqsa Intifada--the uprising of Palestinians against the occupation.

The IAC is calling upon  "international organizations, NGOs, environmental and health  organizations to investigate the Israeli military's use of  prohibited weapons in the West Bank and Gaza, and to  mobilize to stop it. These weapons include dumdum bullets,  CS gas and depleted uranium weapons."

Sara Flounders, Co-Director of the IAC was in occupied Palestine from Oct. 28-Nov. 2, 2000, as  part of a four-person IAC delegation. The delegation was on  a fact-finding mission and also delivered medical supplies  to Palestinian clinics and hospitals in the territories.

"Such use of DU weapons," says Flounders, "adds to the  crimes the Israeli forces are committing against the  Palestinian population. Israeli helicopter gun ships are  firing into densely populated areas. According to international law these attacks on civilian areas are war crimes, as is the long-term destruction of the environment  from depleted uranium contamination.

"The radioactive materials enter into the land, the water  and the whole food chain, contaminating the densely- populated West Bank and Gaza, where water is a scarce  resource. The wanton radioactive contamination of this  region is a crime against all of humanity and a threat to  the entire region now and for generations to come.

"We urge scientists, doctors and soldiers who have handled  these weapons to come forward with information. Information  supplied this way in Puerto Rico, Okinawa and south Korea  recently have helped mobilize against DU use and put the  Pentagon on the defensive. This crime and its long-term  impact must be fully exposed and stopped."

PENTAGON HID DU USE

The draft of a paper on DU the IAC intends to release Nov. 16 shows that in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and in Okinawa,  Panama and south Korea, the Pentagon had either kept secret  or denied using DU until popular organizations challenged  the U.S. military.

Following the protests, the Pentagon was forced to admit DU  use. In Okinawa the U.S. apologized and promised not only to  no longer use DU but also to begin to clean up spent DU  shells.

In addition, movements in France, Italy and other NATO  countries occupying Kosovo have sparked official  investigations of the dangers their troops face from  exposure to DU from shells fired by U.S. planes during the  1999 war. There are reports that the Portuguese government  will withdraw its troops because of DU dangers.

Flounders told how the IAC delegation witnessed "Israeli  attack helicopters, which people described to us as 'Apache'  helicopters from the U.S., firing shells and rockets at  targets in and around Ramallah. We then examined a small office used by the Fatah organization that the projectiles hit and destroyed."

ISRAELI AUTHORITIES SEIZED IAC'S MATERIALS

"We also saw Israeli tanks and other armored vehicles firing  machine-gun rounds and larger projectiles at youthful  demonstrators in Ramallah," Flounders added. "We collected  some of the shell casings and metal fragments from the  different target areas to bring back to the United States  for evaluation and testing."

Flounders said: "As we were preparing to leave from Ben  Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, members of our delegation were  stopped, searched and interrogated. The shell casings and  metal fragments were confiscated. While this prevented us  from doing our own tests, it made us even more suspicious  that the Israeli forces were using DU shells."

A 1995 report from the U.S. Army Environmental Policy  Institute asserts that Israel is one of the countries with  DU munitions in its arsenal. Given Israel's own nuclear  program and well-developed military industry, the IAC  believes Israel is quite likely a manufacturer of its own  DU ammunition.

The "Apache" and the Cobra helicopters--both used by the  Israeli armed forces--are equipped to fire DU shells. Also,  the Israeli Sabra tank is modeled on the Abrams M1A1 tank,  which is also capable of firing DU shells.

DU is a waste product of the process that produces enriched  uranium for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants.  Because it is extremely dense, when turned into a metal DU  can be used to make a shell that penetrates steel. It's also  pyrophoric; that is, it burns when heated by friction when  it strikes steel.

When DU burns, it spews tiny particles of poisonous and  radioactive uranium oxide into the air. The small particles  can be ingested or inhaled by humans for miles around. Even  one particle, when lodged in a vital organ, can be  dangerous.

At least 600,000 pounds of DU and uranium dust was left  around Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by U.S. and British  forces during the 1991 war against Iraq. A symposium in  Baghdad in December 1998 found higher rates of childhood  leukemia and other cancers in people living around Basra,  and attributed this to DU contamination. For some cancers  the rates were 5 to 10 times higher than normal.

A REASON TO REFUSE DUTY

DU is also considered at least a contributing cause to the  120,000 reported cases of "Gulf War Syndrome." Numerous  international studies in Britain, the United States and Iraq  have linked Gulf War Syndrome to the use of radioactive  weapons in the bombing. The chronic symptoms of this ailment  range from sharp increases in cancers to memory loss,  chronic pain, fatigue and birth defects in the veterans'  children.

While the Pentagon continues to deny any great dangers from  DU, the 1995 U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute study,  entitled "Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted  Uranium in the U.S. Army," stated: "If DU enters the body,  it has the potential to generate significant medical  consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are  both chemical and radiological.... Personnel inside or near  vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significant  internal exposures."

DU is also used to make tank armor and is used in heavily  armored Israeli vehicles. Exposure to radiation for those  remaining in the tanks for a long time or from handling wea  pons can be another source of danger.

"Like the U.S. generals who are the main supplier of Israeli  weapons," said Flounders, "the Israeli general staff are  indifferent to protecting the long-term health of their own  rank-and-file soldiers, not to speak of their racist  contempt for the Palestinians.

"For groups inside Israel who oppose the repression of  Palestinians, challenging DU use could increase the  conscientious resistance from individual Israeli troops that  has already surfaced."

International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
web: http://www.iacenter.org
CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax:   212 633-2889