Wiesenthal Center: ‘Solidarity’ Convoy To Southern Lebanon Would Abet Hezbollah War Crimes

August 8, 2006

Wiesenthal Center: ‘Solidarity’ Convoy To Southern Lebanon Would Abet Hezbollah War Crimes

Activists from International Solidarity Movement (ISM) planning a civilian convoy this Saturday to southern Lebanon, “would abet the war crimes of Hezbollah by providing human shields for Katyusha attacks against civilians in Northern Israel,” the Simon Wiesenthal said today.

“We have just returned from a humanitarian mission to frontline communities in northern Israel where we saw and experienced firsthand the suffering of hundreds of thousands of civilians terrorized by a tsunami of rockets and missiles,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Center, adding that the mission’s delegates “were especially appalled by the specific targeting of hospitals in Safed, Nahariya, Haifa, and Hadera, actions which constitute war crimes under articles 18 and 19 of the Geneva Convention.”

“We fully support Israel's legitimate right of self-defense in an unprovoked war launched against her internationally recognized territory by a terrorist organization. Israel has the obligation to destroy all missile sites of Hezbollah throughout Southern Lebanon and should not be deterred from protecting her citizens by ISM’s immoral posturing,” Rabbi Cooper continued.
“Rather than providing propaganda cover for genocidal terrorists, NGOs truly committed to peace for the people of Lebanon and Israel should do everything in their power to bring Sheik Nasrallah and his murderous associates before the bar of justice,” Cooper concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.