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The Israeli poison gas attacks
:: A preliminary
investigation ::
by James Brooks
• I. 'New' Israeli gas
causes mass convulsions in the Gaza Strip
• II. Gas attacks continue
despite protests
• III. Doctors ask, 'What am I
treating?' - Nerve Gas?
• IV. Israel's chemical weapons
capability
• V. Documenting the suffering
of the Palestinian gas victims
• VI. Victims' symptoms point to
a troubling diagnosis
• VII. Consistent with the
diagnosis: Nerve gas
• VIII. Were the gas canisters
designed to attract?
• IX. The decision to use
banned gas weapons against civilians
• X. A grave breach
of international law
• References
I. 'New' Israeli gas causes mass convulsions in the Gaza
Strip
Just
six days after the landslide election of Ariel Sharon, February 12, 2001
was a violent day in occupied Palestine. In the war-ravaged neighborhoods
of Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
launched a barrage of collective punishment after soldiers were shot at by
Palestinian gunmen. Machinegun fire and tank shells rained down on the
refugee camps, a fusillade that lasted long into the night. The next
morning would find an estimated 300 Palestinians newly homeless.(1)
In
occupied Palestine, where neighborhoods can become high-tech,
made-in-America shooting galleries in the blink of an eye, it might have
been just another day of occupation. But the Israeli army chose that
afternoon to introduce a new and mysterious gas weapon to a defenseless
population. To ensure its delivery, the soldiers fired the gas canisters
into the streets, courtyards, and houses of the Khan Younis and Gharbi
refugee camps.(2)
The
people of Khan Younis are utterly familiar with teargas; their
neighborhood has long been known as one of the most heavily teargassed
areas in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). But no-one in Khan
Younis had seen these strange canisters before, or their seemingly
harmless multicolored smoke.
The
smoking gas had no immediate effect. There was none of the instant
irritation to the eyes and breathing passages caused by all forms of
teargas. And, at first, the gas had no odor. "It's harmless - this gas is
nothing!", yelled a few teenagers, taunting Israeli soldiers. "Throw
more!" The soldiers complied.(3)
After a
few minutes, the gas started to smell. "Like mint," several people said.
One resident later recalled that, "the smell was good. You want to breathe
more. You feel good when you inhale it." A girl reported that "its taste
was like sugar. The smell was sweet."(4)
"First..the
smoke was white, then yellow, then black," a teenage victim recalled
later. Another victim said that the smoke changed colors "like a rainbow."
But mostly the smoke was black, and very sooty. When the gas canisters
landed on homes, black smoke billowed so thickly that neighbors rushed to
the scene, believing the houses had caught fire.(5)
Soon,
however, people began to realize that the gas wasn't harmless after all.
One man recalled: "..ten - fifteen minutes later I got severe stomach
cramps. I felt that my stomach was being torn apart. And a burning
sensation in my chest. I couldn't breathe." People began to vomit, and go
into seizures and spasms, then collapse and lose consciousness.(6)
Forty
people were admitted to Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis "in an odd state
of hysteria and nervous breakdown", suffering from "fainting and spasms."
Sixteen of them had to be transferred to the intensive care unit. Doctors
"reported the Israeli use of gas that appeared to cause convulsions."(7)
At the
Gharbi refugee camp, also in Khan Younis, thirty-two people "were treated
for serious injuries" following exposure to the gas. Dr. Salakh Shami at
Al-Amal Hospital reported that the hospital received "about 130 patients
suffering from gas inhalation from February 12."(8)
Bewildered medical personnel had "never seen anything..like the gas at
Tufa." Victims were "jumping up and down, left and right..thrashing limbs
around", suffering "with convulsions..a kind of hysteria. They were all
shaking." Others were already unconscious. An hour or two later, they
would come to. And the convulsions and the vomiting and disorientation and
pain would return. And so it would go, for days or, for some, weeks to
come.(9)
The
following day, February 13, Israeli forces again lobbed the poison gas
canisters into the neighborhoods of Khan Younis. Over forty new gas
victims, "including a number of children..from 1 to 5 years-old", arrived
at Al-Nasser Hospital and the hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent
Society.(10)
The
news began to trickle out that Israel might be using something new and
dreadful. AFX News Limited reported that "Palestinian security services
have accused the Israeli army of using nerve gas during a gunbattle
yesterday..", and noted "the army has strongly denied the charges." The
BBC wire picked up the Voice of Palestine's report that "specialists
believe that this is an internationally banned nerve gas." Those who
inhaled the gas, the report said, "suffered a nervous breakdown and
vomited blood."(11)
The
next day, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur news service reported that "Israel
has been using a powerful type of tear gas against the Palestinians that
causes convulsions and spasms," a quote attributed to Dr. Yasser Sheikh
Ali at Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. "More than 80 Palestinians
arriving at Nasser Hospital..reported that Israeli soldiers had used the
white smoky gas, but Israel denied doing so."(12)
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), on February
15, three more canisters of the poison gas were fired at houses in the
Khan Younis camp, and "another 11 Palestinian civilians, mostly children,
suffered from suffocation and spasms due to gas inhalation."(13) In the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram, British journalist
Graham Usher wrote that Khan Younis civilians were "incapacitated" by "a
'new' form of toxic gas."(14)
The
same day, PA President Yasser Arafat publicly "accused Israel of using
poison gas", reported CNN. The IDF issued another denial. Israeli
Communications Minister Ben-Eliezer called the reports of gas casualties
in Khan Younis "incorrect and false." Senior Palestinian Authority
minister Nabil Shaath reportedly said that a sample of the gas would be
sent to "an international center for analysis."(15)
During
the following six weeks, the Israeli Defense Forces would continue to
deploy this novel weapon against civilians. In all, at least eight
separate attacks with the "new gas" are recorded in the Gaza Strip and
West Bank. According to the Israeli government, the victims of these
attacks were suffering from "anxiety."
II. Gas attacks continue despite protests
In
November, 1999, Suha Arafat, the president's wife, caused an international
sensation and embarrassed Hillary Clinton with public charges of Israeli
use of "poison gas", apparently referring to the chronic and sometimes
fatal overuse of teargas by Israeli soldiers. Poison gas is an
understandably sensitive subject for Israeli Jews. Her comments so
incensed Israeli authorities that they were called a violation of the
peace process.(16,17)
Yet
when President Arafat publicly alleged the use of "poison gas" fifteen
months later, following the initial attacks in the Gaza Strip (see Part
I), the Israeli response was strangely muted and terse;
reports of a new poison gas were merely "incorrect and false." There were
none of the indignant comments or demands for retraction that dogged Ms.
Arafat's similar comment for months. Could it be that Israeli authorities
wished to avoid drawing attention to the new "poison gas" charges?
Just
three days after Mr. Arafat's public allegations, Israeli soldiers
reportedly used the "new" poison gas again in Khan Younis. According to
the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), on the morning of February
18 Israeli forces positioned near the Neve Dekalim settlement fired
artillery shells, bullets, and four poison gas canisters at Palestinian
houses. Later that afternoon, more poison gas was fired at houses in the
Khan Younis refugee camp, forcing Palestinians to flee their homes. PCHR
reported that "41 Palestinian civilians, mostly children and women,
suffered from suffocation and spasms."(18)
The
PCHR stated that 238 Palestinians were affected by poison gas attacks
between February 12 and February 20. Twenty-seven of the victims were
still hospitalized as of the 22nd.(19)
On
March 2, poison gas was used against civilians living in the West Bank
town of Al-Bireh. Israeli soldiers reportedly fired "live and
rubber-coated metal bullets at Palestinian civilians", as well as
"canisters of a highly effective black gas similar to the one used in Khan
Yunis three weeks ago."(20)
March
26, Israeli forces east of Gaza City used a gas that "left symptoms
different from those of the..gas used first against Palestinian civilians
in Khan Yunis starting from February 12, 2001..", reported PCHR. However,
the symptoms and gas characteristics described were essentially similar to
those reported from previous attacks, with the exception that the onset of
abdominal pain was apparently delayed in the latest attack.(21)
Four
days later, on March 30, five Palestinians were killed in bloody clashes
in the West Bank city of Nablus. Medical professionals on the scene
reported that Israeli soldiers also used the new poison gas against
Palestinian demonstrators.(22)
The
April 5 - 11 issue of Al-Ahram Weekly featured the story, Vale of
Tears: Tear or Poison Gas?, by British journalist Jonathan Cook. It
tells the story of an Israeli poison gas attack in the schoolyard of Al-Khader
village, near Bethlehem.
A gas
canister landed in the schoolyard next to thirteen year-old Sliman Salah,
"enveloping him in a cloud of gas described by witnesses as an unfamiliar,
yellow colour." The boy required large doses of anti-convulsants to
control his seizures and regain consciousness. Transferred to a second
hospital to be treated by a neurologist, Sliman was later released, only
to be re-admitted the following day with the same symptoms, which "were
finally brought under control five days after his exposure to the gas. But
Salah's father says the boy is still suffering from stomach pains,
vomiting, dizziness and breathing problems."(23)
"Salah
is just one of a spate of such cases in the Bethlehem area in the past
month", Cook wrote, noting that "Hussein Hospital has reported a rapid
increase in untreatable patients since the first such case was admitted in
late February." An attending pediatrician, who has practiced in the West
Bank for fifteen years and treated "dozens of teargas cases", said, "I
have seen nothing like this before."(24)
Cook
related the Israeli Defense Forces' claim that it uses only standard CS
teargas, and occasionally deploys inert smoke screens to protect its
soldiers. The Israelis suggested that the gas victims were simply
suffering from "anxiety."(25)
III. Doctors ask, 'What am I treating?' - Nerve Gas?
If the
new Israeli weapon was a form of nerve gas, as a number of observers
asserted or suggested at the time,(26,27)
the Israeli claim might have been marginally true; anxiety is one of the
many symptoms of nerve gas poisoning.(28) However, as
far as we know, no identifying chemical assay of the gas exists. It
appears that the last official comment by the Palestinian Authority about
the gas was Nabil Shaath's February 15 announcement that it would be
independently analyzed.
Now,
almost two years later, much work remains to be done. It may be that a few
of the gas canisters can be found and tested. It is possible that test
results exist, yet lie unpublished. The victims, and their doctors, need
and deserve to know what poisoned them, and governments seem unwilling to
help. But we do not need to know the poison's chemical identity to study
its effects, or to consider the standing of these attacks under
international law.
In some
situations it has been possible to determine the use of nerve gas, even
without definitive chemical analysis. For example, an investigative team
dispatched by the United Nations Security Council encountered forty
Iranian victims of an Iraqi chemical attack in 1984. The UN investigators
"had time to examine" only six of the afflicted soldiers. They found that
"the signs and symptoms..were quite different from those associated with
the mustard-gas sample. The UN team concluded from them that the patients
had been exposed to an anticholinesterase agent" - nerve gas.(29)
At the
time, the UN researchers did not have a chemical assay, apparently made
little or no use of biological analysis, and worked with only six victims.
Despite these handicaps, the UN team was able to reach a strong conclusion
about the type of poison used. Why? Largely because the anticholinesterase
nerve agents produce a unique and striking pattern of symptoms. In the
situation, any other diagnosis would very likely have been implausible.
Another team of experts may reach similar conclusions after thoroughly
reviewing the documented cases of the Palestinian gas victims.
Initially, there was some conjecture that the "new gas" used by the
Israelis might be a highly concentrated mixture of different teargases.(30) The overall record offers scant support for this idea.
The smoking gas canisters emitted no odor when first opened, and the gas
was non-irritating on contact. Unlike teargas, this gas took time to rob
its victims of their breath, from one or two minutes to forty-five
minutes, apparently depending upon the rate of inhalation. The gas does
not appear to have been physically repellent in an open space. When a mint
fragrance emerged, usually a few minutes after a canister opened, the gas
was described by several victims as "pleasant" to breathe. Victims did not
respond to the proven treatments for teargas inhalation.(31)
Those who suffered and those who witnessed or treated the victims agreed:
"This is like nothing we've ever seen before."(32)
IV. Israel's chemical weapons capability
Regardless of official pronouncements, the Israeli government has had a
deep and abiding interest in the full range of chemical and biological
warfare agents. It is well known that Israel has been developing chemical
and biological weapons for decades at its Institute of Biological Research
(IIBR) complex in Nes Ziona, near Tel Aviv. This facility has been
involved in, among many other things, "an extensive effort to identify
practical methods of synthesis for nerve gases (such as tabun, sarin, and
VX) and other organophosphorus and fluorine compounds."(33)(34)
One of
the IIBR's specialties is inventing novel delivery systems for chemical
weapons. One example is a revolver with a range of 150 feet. On impact, a
bullet from this weapon injects a needle impregnated with a deadly toxin.
The whole affair is designed to penetrate just enough to deliver a fatal
dose, and leave little or no trace of the needle.(35)
IIBR's
expertise is also highly scalable. In the aftermath of a tragic 1992 air
crash in Amsterdam, the large scale production of nerve gases at IIBR
became very difficult to deny. An El Al 747 jumbo cargo jet, flying from
New York to Tel Aviv, plowed into a 12-story Amsterdam apartment building,
killing the four people on the plane and at least 43 people on the ground
in an instant inferno. Teams in white hazmat suits, never identified or
acknowledged by officials, descended on the scene and hauled away certain
debris. The Dutch and Israeli governments assured the public that the
plane had been carrying "perfume and gift articles", and "no dangerous
material" was onboard.(36)
In
time, a syndrome of debilitating and chronic health disorders beset at
least 850 local survivors. They and their doctors suspected a connection
to the El Al crash. In 1998, a Dutch newspaper partially leaked the flight
manifest; 20,000 pounds of chemicals had been on the plane, including
large amounts of three of the four ingredients needed to make sarin, a
deadly nerve gas - enough, when properly mixed, to annihilate a major
world city.(37)
Finally, El Al admitted the presence of the three chemicals. But the
identity of one-third of the chemicals on the plane remains a secret to
this day. A Dutch citizens group, OVB, literally dug deeper to learn more.
They found that soil at the crash site was tainted with uranium, zirconium
and lanthanum. Tests also found depleted uranium in the stool samples of
local survivors, which, doctors said, corresponded well with the symptoms
suffered in the post-crash health syndrome.(38)
Reviewing Israel's weapons of mass destruction capabilities, the Center
for Nonproliferation Studies describes its chemical warfare component as
an "active weapons program" with "production capability for mustard and
nerve agents."(39)
Israel
is a world leader in acetylcholine research, and hosts international
symposia in the field. Nerves use acetylcholine to interact with muscles,
and it is this vital function that nerve gases attack. Scientists at IIBR
continue to research the effects of nerve gas agents. Some of their
results are published.(40)(41)
It
appears that Israel has had the ability to produce and weaponize a variety
of banned chemical agents, including the full array of nerve gases, for
many years, in much larger quantities than would have been required for
last year's sporadic attacks on Palestinian civilians. Noted for its
innovations in weaponry, Israel could certainly have produced the
dispensing canisters used in these attacks. It is also clear that Israel
had access to the raw materials needed to make nerve gases - they have
been shipped directly to the IIBR from the United States.
V. Documenting the suffering of the Palestinian gas victims
Whether
the new Hebrew-lettered canisters were the brainchild of Israel's own IIBR,
or purchased from another source, the enormous suffering they caused
remains the same. Reading about the days and weeks of suffering endured by
the gas victims is a very disturbing experience. Yet, we can read it,
because these crimes, though so far ignored by the world, are
well-documented.
In
addition to the numerous press and human rights reports cited in Parts
I and II above, convulsing poison gas
victims in Khan Younis were filmed by American filmmaker James Longley, in
footage that appears in Gaza Strip, a documentary that "pushes the viewer
headlong into the tumult of the Israeli-occupied Gaza, examining the lives
and views of ordinary Palestinians." (42) (see also the
FreeSpeech Web video:
Gaza Strip Interview with James Longley)
Longley
was awarded the Student Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences, for a short documentary set in Russia, "Portrait of Boy
with Dog." During the beginning months of the second Intifada, he decided
to go to the Gaza Strip to find out what was really going on there, and
document it on film. Journalist Alison Wier encountered Longley in Gaza in
January, 2001, a few days after he'd been shot at by Israeli soldiers.
Undaunted, he had kept the camera rolling, and was able to show Wier his
footage of the event.(43)(44)
Longley
arrived in Khan Younis on February 13, the day after the initial attack,
and immediately encountered children running past him, shirts over their
mouths, saying, "The gas! The gas! They're shooting the gas!" This was
puzzling; it is not the way battle-savvy Gaza kids usually respond to
teargas.(45)
Later
that day, he visited the wards of the Al-Nasser and Al-Amal Hospitals in
Khan Younis. He recalls:
"..passing room after room, women, children, men. Some were vomiting.
Some alternated between a coma-like state and violent convulsions, their
entire bodies twisting and arching, members of their families struggling
to hold them down on the beds. On and on, for days. One boy, who had
inhaled a large amount of the gas in question, suffered in the hospital
for an entire month with recurrent convulsions. It is difficult to
describe the sensation of sitting in a room for hours and days with
people suffering so terribly, and knowing that this was done by human
beings."(46)
Source Document (Acrobat format)
In
addition to the shocking evidence he captured on film, Longley compiled a
43-page document of translated interviews with nineteen gas victims, and
interviews with victims' relatives, ambulance drivers, and doctors on the
scene in Khan Younis.
Next we
will turn to the grim but necessary task of reading the victims' personal
accounts. We will see a striking and highly unusual pattern of many
gruesome symptoms--a pattern that points to a very disturbing conclusion
about the poison 'deployed' by Israel's novel weapon.
VI. Victims' symptoms point to a troubling diagnosis
Most
victims of the "new" Israeli gas began feeling ill roughly five to ten
minutes after their initial exposure, though shorter and longer periods
were reported. Their suffering rapidly mushroomed, until they went into
convulsions and lost consciousness. Many victims were incapacitated with
multiple, agonizing symptoms for several days. Some victims, including
children, were afflicted for at least several weeks.
Taken
altogether, the reported symptoms present a bewildering array of serious
bodily malfunctions. For a clearer perspective, the eyewitness reports of
the victims' suffering were arranged in three sections: 1) Early onset
symptoms, 2) Main acute stage symptoms, and 3) Persistent,
post-hospitalization symptoms. To review these accounts, and a table in
which reported poison gas symptoms are compared to known nerve gas
symptoms, see Symptoms.
For a
more direct understanding of what the Palestinian gas victims went
through, see the Web video,
Gaza Strip: Interview with James Longley,
which includes clips from the documentary,
Gaza
Strip.
What
the gas victims recalled about the onset of their symptoms does not agree
with the reports of witnesses and caregivers who were with them at the
time. Typically, victims remembered starting to feel weak and sick, with
bad headaches and/or severe stomach pains and vomiting, proceeding
directly to loss of consciousness, or, "after that, I knew nothing until I
woke up in the hospital." Some victims recall collapsing or being unable
to stand before they passed out.
Hardly
any of the victims appear to remember their extreme hyperactivity, which
was graphically reported by ambulance drivers and other witnesses who were
on the scene. Drivers spoke of people on the street jumping around,
thrashing their limbs, out of control and uncontrollable, exhibiting
violent spasms. They also noted that the victims seemed to be unaware of
their actions and their surroundings, which may explain their failure to
recall these early symptoms. One ambulance driver said, "If they had
anything in their hand - a woman carrying her child might throw him down
without realizing it. She'd just drop him and start clawing at herself
from the gas." Many adults were required to restrain each victim, so
violent were the spasmodic convulsions induced by the gas.(47)
These
are exceedingly unusual symptoms, especially when occurring simultaneously
in groups of people. They are generally considered to be the cardinal
early warning sign that a nerve gas attack is in progress: "In case of a
terrorist attack, suspect the [nerve gas] diagnosis when multiple patients
present with symptoms of cholinergic excess."(48)
"Cholinergic excess" is excessive nervous system activity, manifested as
tics, fasciculations, spasms, and convulsions.
Most
victims reported regaining consciousness in the hospital, after hours or
days in a "coma-like state", during which some also had periods of spasms
and convulsions. Following their first awakening, the accounts of victims
are in general agreement with those of the doctors and relatives who cared
for them.
Unfortunately, at this point most of the victims were only beginning their
trials. Some went on to suffer in the hospitals for several days, or
several weeks, depending on their exposure to the gas. The symptoms would
cycle relentlessly between periods of convulsions and spasms, when
patients had to be restrained by teams of people, and periods of burning
pain and itching throughout the body, with difficulty breathing, vomiting
upon eating, weakness, cramps, tics, insomnia, fever, shaking, and worse.
Then the seizures would return. The frequency of this nightmarish cycle
may have varied with the severity of poisoning. An 18 year-old victim in
his second week following the attack was still convulsing every five
minutes, according to a relative helping to care for him at Al-Nasser
Hospital in Khan Younis.(49)
Some
victims--it's not clear how many--also suffered from dark brown or reddish
splotches on the skin, on the face and other areas. These seem to have
appeared on most victims around two or three days after they were
attacked. The skin patches were still apparent in some victims more than a
month later. An eleven-year old girl who breathed the gas inside her home
said, "where it used to hurt, now I have spots."(50)
Gradually the severity of the symptoms subsided. But the damage done by
the gas was remarkably persistent, which was especially troubling to the
doctors who had to treat these victims without any information about the
poison(s) involved. Patients would be discharged, only to return the next
day with the same symptoms at nearly the same severity, requiring several
more days' hospitalization before being released again. Six weeks later,
some victims of the initial attacks in Khan Younis were still so ill that
their doctors wanted to send them abroad for more specialized care. (51)
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The
Nerve Gases
The nerve gases that have been developed for warfare are known
as "anticholinesterase agents." They belong to the
organophosphate family of chemicals, which includes a number
of common pesticides. Traditional pesticides are essentially
insect nerve gases, and kill by disrupting enzymatic pathways
in the insect nervous system.
In
humans, nerve gases work by inhibiting the acetylcholinesterase
enzyme (AChE), which enables the binding and breakdown of acetylcholine.
Acetylcholine is vital for brain function, and is used by nerve
cells to stimulate the muscles.
When AChE
is absent, acetylcholine accumulates, causing muscles throughout
the body to "cramp up" in continual contraction. The constricting,
suffocating sensation experienced by nerve gas victims (which
can progress to actual suffocation and death) stems largely
from the immobilization of the diaphragm, which makes it difficult
or impossible for the victim to inflate the lungs. This is typically
how nerve gas kills. (52)(53)
Severe
nerve gas intoxication can destroy the body's reserves of AChE,
which take a long time to restore to normal levels. The more severe
the exposure, the longer it takes to replete the enzyme. Research
suggests that some victims may never return to normal levels.
Follow-up studies of the survivors of the 1995 sarin attack in
Tokyo revealed subnormal AChE even a year later in some individuals.(54)
This "irreversible binding" of acetylcholinesterase
is the most likely explanation for the recurrent and persistent
symptoms experienced by the Palestinian victims.(55)(56)
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VII. Consistent with the diagnosis: Nerve gas
What can the
suffering of the Palestinian gas victims tell us about the
contents of the Israeli gas canisters? As described in Part
III above, investigators can sometimes identify
the class of a chemical weapon by studying the symptoms of its
victims.
As we can
see in a direct comparison (see
Symptoms), the symptoms reported by and about
the victims of the Israeli gas attacks are virtually identical to
the symptoms of nerve gas poisoning. In fact, the only symptom not
found in reports of nerve gas exposure is the peculiar skin
"blotching" that afflicted some of the Palestinian victims.
The order in
which the Palestinians' symptoms appeared was also strikingly
similar to the progression of nerve gas poisoning. And the
persistent symptoms suffered by some of the Palestinian victims
are characteristic of severe nerve gas exposure.
To our
knowledge, there are no reports of fatalities resulting from the
Israeli poison gas attacks of February and March, 2001. Although
the public usually associates nerve gas with mass death, the
fatality rates in wartime nerve gas attacks have generally been 5%
or less, largely due to difficulties involved in delivering lethal
levels of gas.(57) The tragedy of nerve gas is
largely found in its survivors.
This "lack
of lethality" drove the German war effort to develop more potent
nerve agents, culminating in VX and VX gas (V-gas). The first
organophosphate nerve gas, tabun, was acquired by the Nazis when a
German chemist discovered it in 1936. It is the least potent of
the known nerve gases. When inhaled, tabun is approximately 1/4 as
lethal as sarin (GB), 1/8 as lethal as soman (GD), and 1/40 as
lethal as VX.(58)
Iraq used
tabun, usually accompanied by other nerve gases and/or mustard
gas, in many battles of the Iraq-Iran War (targeting and
intelligence services provided by the USA), and possibly against
its Kurdish civilians.
Could one of
these cursed chemicals have been involved in the Israeli gas
attacks? Certainly not the super-potent VX type. Unlike the other
nerve gases, VX is environmentally persistent, continuing to
contaminate the attack area for weeks afterward. This does not
seem to have been a factor in the attacks in occupied Palestine.
Although the
less potent soman and sarin gases break down quickly in the
environment, they may be too powerful to deliver in reliably
sub-lethal doses, which may have been the intent in the Israeli
attacks. On the other hand, perhaps researchers at IIBR have
overcome this theoretical obstacle to maximum chemical efficiency.
Perhaps it is possible to aerosolize minute amounts of sarin for
broad dispersion of sub-lethal levels using a controlled-release
design.
Yet, of the
known nerve gases, the most likely candidate is probably tabun.
Tabun degrades quickly in the environment, and the symptoms
reported for for tabun poisoning are very similar to those
reported for the Palestinian victims of Israel's gas.(59) Of the known nerve gases, tabun is the most
likely to be useful as a "sub-lethal incapacitating agent." Of
course, it is also possible that a truly novel gas agent was used.
If so, it probably belongs to the same family of organophosphate
nerve poisons that we call "nerve gas."
Whether or
not the toxin used in the IDF attacks was a known nerve gas, the
evidence strongly suggests that it was a potent anticholinesterase
poison--a nerve gas by any other name. (see sidebar,
The Nerve Gases, for more
information) Pending further evidence, nerve gas appears to be the
most likely cause of the symptoms suffered during and after the
IDF poison gas attacks of February and March, 2001. Eyewitness
testimony and news reports indicate that this gas was released
into the homes, schoolyards, and streets of occupied Palestine,
where the presence of civilian men, women, and children was a
certainty to those deploying it.
VIII. Were the gas canisters designed to attract?
The
hand-sized gas canisters lobbed the Israeli troops were unusual in
several respects. In addition to their poisonous and mysterious
active ingredient, the canisters also produced a show, featuring a
staged release of colored smoke and a strangely attractive
fragrance. A good deal of effort must have been expended in the
design and construction of these unique weapons.
Witnesses
commonly reported that the gas canisters would 'explode' on
impact, to release a billowing cloud of what initially was white
smoke - similar to teargas, except that it seemed to have no odor
at all.
After a
short period, perhaps two or three minutes, the smoke began to
change colors, turning yellow, orange, "a rainbow", according to
one man. And a mint fragrance emerged, with a sweet "taste", so
good that several of the interviewed witnesses commented on its
"pleasant smell." One man recalled, "..the smell was good. You
want to breathe more. You feel good when you inhale it."
Teenagers
who spent some time playing with the canisters seem to have been
among the most severely afflicted victims. Witnesses commented
that the canisters were very difficult to extinguish, "impossible"
according to some.(60)
Nerve gases
are typically odorless, or nearly so.(61) It is
possible that a nerve agent began dispersing as soon as the
canisters blew open, when teenagers were shouting, "This gas in
nothing! Throw more!" Mint fragrance is not mentioned in the
literature for known nerve gases. Unless the IIBR, or someone
else, has discovered a new type of sweet-tasting mint-flavored
nerve gas, it seems likely that mint fragrance and possibly other
flavors or attractants were added to the Israeli gas canisters.
What was the
purpose of this design? Why go to the trouble of producing smoke
in a succession of colors? Why add (as we assume) an exceptionally
attractive fragrance and taste to the poison gas? Was it all
intended to give the canisters a less threatening aspect? Could
there have been an effort to produce a "crowd-pleasing
effect"--and so increase the toxic exposure?
IX. The decision to use banned gas weapons against
civilians
Why would
someone decide to attack civilians with a nerve poison? What would
be the purpose of using a universally banned weapon against
innocents in their homes? These questions are unfathomable, yet
the events they ask us to explain are staring us in the face. It
happened. Someone crossed the line from the despicable practice of
making such weapons to the criminally inhuman decision to use
them.
Who was
ultimately responsible? The first attacks, in Khan Younis,
occurred while the newly-elected Sharon government was still being
formed. But the attacks continued in Gaza and the West Bank until
the end of March, 2001, well after Ariel Sharon had officially
assumed the helm.
How many
years had some souls inside the IIBR been yearning to test their
life's work in the real world? Perhaps selected neighborhoods in
Palestine could become laboratories for live experiments in
advanced chemical weaponry. Areas like Khan Younis might be ideal.
At the time of the attacks, Khan Younis was under strict Israeli
blockade and had been teargassed so heavily and so often that its
gas stories no longer elicited any interest.
There must
have been some concern to avoid detection. Taken as a whole, the
reports of the attacks present an apparent pattern. Very heavy and
sustained barrages of conventional weaponry (two or more hours)
typically preceded the launch of the gas attacks. This could have
been an attempt to scare off witnesses, including newspeople, as
well as an effort to create the deniability of chaos. Although
these preceding barrages drove people into their homes, closed
windows and doors offered very little protection from the gas.
Although
this article and its supporting documentation are only an initial
survey of the open-source information about this incident, two
very troubling facts seem to be established: Hundreds of
Palestinian civilians were poisoned by an unknown agent released
from canisters launched by the Israeli Defense Forces, and the
devastating effects of these attacks were identical in almost
every way to the effects produced by common nerve gases.
The
international community has a moral and statutory obligation to
fully investigate this despicable series of attacks, to determine,
to the best of current ability, what poison or poisons were used,
to investigate the condition of the survivors and assist in
providing the care they need, and to bring to justice under
international law those who ordered the unconscionable use of
universally banned weapons against innocent Palestinian civilians.
X. A grave breach of international law
According to
Article 147, to "willfully caus[e civilians] great suffering or
serious injury to body or health" is a "grave breach" of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, the most serious type of war crime.
There appears to be prima facie evidence that "great
suffering" and "serious injury to body and health" were
"willfully" inflicted on Palestinian civilians during the gas
attacks conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces.(62)
This serious
offense is compounded by the use of toxic gases as weapons, a
blatant violation of several international conventions intended to
protect both civilians and soldiers from the scourge of chemical
warfare, including the Geneva Protocol of 1925 for the Prohibition
of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of
Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, the 1972 Convention on the
Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of
Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their
Destruction (BWC), and the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of
the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical
Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC).
Therefore,
there is strong and compelling support for regarding each of the
February and March, 2001, Israeli poison gas attacks as a grave
breach of international law.
Article 146
of the Convention states that all High Contracting Parties to the
Convention are required to “search for persons alleged to have
committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave
breaches", and must "bring such persons, regardless of their
nationality, before their own courts.”(63)(64)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Distinct from their ability to cause physical injury and illness,
biological or chemical agents are amenable to the waging of
psychological warfare because of the horror and dread that they
can inspire." - World Health Organization (65)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
References:
(1)
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report on
Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories, February 8 - 14, 2001,
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/15-02-2001.htm
-
Return to text
(2) Ibid.
-
Return to text
(3) Selected
Interviews recorded for the documentary film Gaza Strip by
James Longley, transcripts: Regarding the use of an unidentified
gas by the Israeli Defense Forces During the week of February 12,
2001, In the Khan Younis Refugee Camp
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(4) Ibid.
-
Return to text
(5) Ibid.
-
Return to text
(6) Ibid.
-
Return to text
(7) Israelis
Kill 14-year-old, Assassinate Arafat Bodyguard February 13, 2001
Palestine, IANA Radionet, Islamic Assembly of North America
http://www.ianaradionet.com/E_newstext/2001/Feb/2-13ME.htm -
Return to text
(9) Selected
Interviews Gaza Strip by James Longley
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(10) PCHR
Weekly Report, Feb. 8 - 14, 2001,
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/15-02-2001.htm
-
Return to text
(11)
Selected Interviews Gaza Strip by James Longley
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(12)
Ibid. - Return to text
(13)
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report on
Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories, February 15 - 21, 2001,
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/22-02-2001.htm -
Return to text
(14)
Unprepared for the worst, by Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly Online,
Feb. 15 - 21, 2001, Issue No. 521
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/521/re1.htm
-
Return to text
(15) CNN
Asia: Arafat accuses Israel of using poison gas, February 16, 2001
http://asia.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/02/15/arafat.gas -
Return to text
(16) Hillary
Clinton criticises Mrs Arafat, November 12, 1999, BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/517983.stm -
Return to text
(17) Still
no apology from Suha Arafat, Jerusalem Post, November 17, 1999
http://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/17.Nov.1999/LatestNews/lnews-2.html
- Return to text
(18) PCHR
Weekly Report, Feb. 15 - 21, 2001,
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/22-02-2001.htm -
Return to text
(19)
Ibid. - Return to text
(20)
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report on
Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories, March 1 - 7, 2001 (report contains typographical
error incorrectly listing incident as occurring "Friday, February
22")
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/07-03-2001.htm
- Return to text
(21)
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report on
Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories, March 22 - 29, 2001,
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/29-03-2001.htm
- Return to text
(22)
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report on
Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories, March 29 - April 4, 2001,
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/05-04-2001.htm
- Return to text
(23) Vale of
tears: Tear or poison gas? By Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly
On-line, 5 - 11 April 2001, Issue No.528
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/528/re3.htm
- Return to text
(24)
Ibid. - Return to text
(25)
Ibid. - Return to text
(26)
Selected Interviews Gaza Strip by James Longley
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(27)
Israelis Kill 14-year-old, Assassinate Arafat Bodyguard February
13, 2001 Palestine, IANA Radionet, Islamic Assembly of North
America
http://www.ianaradionet.com/E_newstext/2001/Feb/2-13ME.htm -
Return to text
(28) Health
Aspects of Chemical and Biological Weapons: Annex 3: Chemical
Agents, World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/emc/pdfs/DraftAnnex3WS.pdf -
Return to text
(29)
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Fact Sheet,
Chemical Weapons I, May 1984, Julian Perry Robinson and Jozef
Goldblat
http://projects.sipri.se/cbw/research/factsheet-1984.html -
Return to text
(30) Vale of
tears: Tear or poison gas?, Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly
On-line, 5 - 11 April 2001, Issue No.528
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/528/re3.htm
- Return to text
(31)
Selected Interviews Gaza Strip by James Longley
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(32)
Ibid. - Return to text
(33) Avner
Cohen, "Israel and Chemical/Biological Weapons: History,
Deterrence, and Arms Control," The Nonproliferation Review, Vol.
8, No. 3 (Fall-Winter), pp. 27-53.
http://www.puaf.umd.edu/CISSM/Scholars/Cohen.pdf
- Return to text
(34) The
Link, Vol. 34, Issue 1, American Middle East Update
http://www.ameu.org/uploads/vol34_issue1_2001.pdf
- Return to text
(35)
Ibid. - Return to text
(36) Israel
fails to calm Dutch anger over 'nerve gas' crash, The Independent,
4 October, 1998
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~time/articles/nurveIsreal.htm -
Return to text
(37) The
Link, Vol. 34, Issue 1, American Middle East Update
http://www.ameu.org/uploads/vol34_issue1_2001.pdf
- Return to text
(38)
Ibid. - Return to text
(39) Weapons
of Mass Destruction in the Middle East: Weapons of Mass
Destruction Capabilities and Programs, Center for Nonproliferation
Studies http://cns.miis.edu/research/wmdme/israel.htm
-
Return to text
(40)
Comparative Structural Studies on Conjugates of Torpedo
Californica and Human Acetylcholinesterases with Organophosphate
Nerve Agents, J.L. Sussman1, C.B. Millard, G. Koellner, G. Kryger,
M. Harel, H. Greenblatt, H. Dvir1, P. Bar-On, V. Neduva, K. Giles,
A Ordentlich, Y Segall, N Ariel, D Barak, B Velan, A Shafferman, L
Toker, I Silman Depts of Structural Biology1 and Neurobiology,
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot Israel Institute for
Biological Research, Ness Ziona, Israel, 2002 International
Symposium on Cholinergic Mechanisms - Functions and Dysfunction &
2nd Misrahi Symposium on Neurobiology
http://www.kenes.com/cholinergic/abstracts/150.doc
- Return to text
(41)
Scavenger Protection Against Organophosphates by Cholinesterases,
B.P. Doctor1, A. Saxena1, M.T. Clark, Y. Rosenburg, D.M. Maxwell,
D.E. Lenz, Y. Ashani Walter Reed Army Institute of Research,
Silver Spring, MD, USA, Procell, Rockville, MD, USA, Department of
Biochemistry and Pharmacology, USAMRICD, Edgewood, MD, USA, IIBR,
Ness-Ziona, Israel 2002 International Symposium on Cholinergic
Mechanisms - Functions and Dysfunction & 2nd Misrahi Symposium on
Neurobiology
http://www.kenes.com/cholinergic/abstracts/235.doc
- Return to text
(42) Press
kit for documentary Gaza Strip
http://www.littleredbutton.com/presskit/gaza_strip.doc-
Return to text
(43) Gaza
Calling, by Alison Wier, Media Monitors Network, February 19, 2001
http://www.mediamonitors.net/weir1.html -
Return to text
(44) Free
Speech Video: Interview: Filmaker James Longley and Gaza Strip,
Web video
http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/ramfiles/eyes_palestine_longly.ram
- Return to text
(45)
Selected Interviews Gaza Strip by James Longley
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(46)
Ibid. - Return to text
(47)
Selected Interviews Gaza Strip by James Longley
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(48)
eMedicine Journal, January 11 2002, Volume 3, Number 1
http://emedicine.com/emerg/topic899.htm -
Return to text
(49)
Selected Interviews Gaza Strip by James Longley
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(50)
Ibid. - Return to text
(51)
Ibid. - Return to text
(52)
Testimony of Dr. Christine M. Gosden Before the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government and the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Chemical and Biological
Weapons Threats to America: Are We Prepared?, Wednesday, April 22,
1998
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1998_hr/s980422-cg.htm
-
Return to text
(53)
Chemical and Biological Warfare, ThinkQuest, Inc.
http://library.thinkquest.org/27393/dreamwvr/agents/tabun.htm
- Return to text
(55)
Testimony of Dr. Christine M. Gosden Before the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government and the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Chemical and Biological
Weapons Threats to America: Are We Prepared?, Wednesday, April 22,
1998
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1998_hr/s980422-cg.htm
-
Return to text
(56)
eMedicine Journal, January 11 2002, Volume 3, Number 1
http://emedicine.com/emerg/topic899.htm -
Return to text
(58)
Ibid. - Return to text
(59)
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Fact Sheet,
Chemical Weapons I, May 1984, Julian Perry Robinson and Jozef
Goldblat
http://projects.sipri.se/cbw/research/factsheet-1984.html -
Return to text
(60)
Selected Interviews Gaza Strip by James Longley
http://www.littleredbutton.com/gas_interviews/interviews.pdf -
Return to text
(61)
Hazardous Substances Databank (HSDB), National Library of
Medicine, TOXNET
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov - Return to text
(62) War
Crimes Report to the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, Grave
Breaches and Other Serious Violations of International
Humanitarian Law 23 February 2001, LAW Society
http://www.lawsociety.org/Reports/reports/2001/warcrimes.html - Return to text
(63)
Ibid. - Return to text
(65) Health
Aspects of Biological and Chemical Weapons, World Health
Organization
http://www.who.int/emc/pdfs/BIOWEAPONS_FULL_TEXT2.pdf -
Return to text
Additional references:
Report:
Bloody Sunday - The Events of April 9, 1989, and Their Aftermath,
Physicians for Human Rights, 1990,
http://www.phrusa.org/research/chemical_weapons/chemgeorgia.html
A War of
Words: The Israeli and Palestinian Media Coverage of the al-Aqsa
Intifada, Chapter 3: PALESTINIAN MEDIA,
http://www.phrmg.org/monitor2001/nov2001-3.htm
The Use of
Chemical Weapons: Conducting an Investigation Using Survey
Epidemiology, Howard Hu, MD, MPH, et al, Journal of the American
Medical Association, August 4, 1989 - Vol. 262, No. 5
http://www.phrusa.org/research/chemical_weapons/chemjourn.html
Geneva
Protocol Reservations: List of notes and reservations submitted by
States Parties to the Geneva Protocol, Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute
http://projects.sipri.se/cbw/docs/cbw-hist-geneva-res.html
First Lady
criticizes Mrs. Arafat's blood libels against Israel, Associated
Press, November 12 1999
http://www.likud.nl/press03.html
Israel
parties approach unlikely coalition, February 16, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/02/16/mideast.02/
UN confirms
nerve gas reports, BBC online, June 24, 1998
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/119520.stm
"Nerve gas
factory" claim exposed as hoax, World Socialist Web site, 26
August 1998
http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/aug1998/bomb-a26.shtml
Israel
airline admits crashed plane carried sarin gas chemicals, October
2, 1998, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/news/98/10/02/981002_24.htm
Crashed El
Al Cargo Jet Carried Nerve Gas, By Arnoud Vrolijk, Assistant
Curator, Oriental Collections, Leiden University Library, The
Netherlands, Islamic Resistance Support Association
http://www.moqawama.org/feauters/crash.htm
Chemical
plane crash inquiry, BBC Online, January 27, 1999
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/263813.stm
Israel Has
Nerve Gas, The Nationalist Times, American Nationalist Union, 1998
http://www.anu.org/news_israelhasnervegas.html
Israel Wire:
Marijuana Substitute Combats Nerve Gas, Media Awareness Project,
June 5, 1998, Julian Borger, Scripps Howard News Service
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n417/a14.html
Temperature
rises with death toll, by Charmaine Seitz, Jerusalem Media and
Communication Center, February 14, 2001 - Vol 7 No 34
http://www.jmcc.org/media/report/01/Feb/3.htm
Bleeding The
Gulf: The United Nations Sanctions on Iraq, by Nafeez Mosaddeq
Ahmed, Media Monitors Network, October 30, 2001
http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq17.html
Israeli
Human Rights Violations in the Yellow Areas, Palestinian Centre
for Human Rights
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/S&r/English/study16/israeli.htm
Fort Bragg
Web site, April 25, 2000, Protests of U.S. and U.K. Air Strikes,
Feb 19
http://www.bragg.army.mil/sid/wwwthreat/CountriesGHI/iraq.htm
Palestine
National Information Center, Alquds Intefada UPDATE February 13,
2001
http://www.pnic.gov.ps/arabic/quds/quds_eng_update137.html
Special
Reports from Palestine, The Intifada: An Overview: The First Two
Years, Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, 52 pages,
December 1989
http://www.jmcc.org/research/special/intifada.html
State of
Palestine, Ministry of Health, Health Information Center, June 23,
2001: Ministry Of Health Calls Upon The International Community To
Save International Protection For The Palestinian People
http://www.moh3.com/update%5Cjune2002%5Cfile023.html
James Brooks of Worcester,
Vermont is former marketing director of Vita-Flex Nutrition and
was founding vice-president of the National Association of Equine
Supplement Manufacturers. Currently Mr.
Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just Peace in
Palestine/Israel (www.vtjp.org)
and publishes News Links, a daily e-mail digest of Middle East
news and commentary. Brooks is also a member of the national Al-Awda
coordinating Committee.
by the same author:
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