The times’ a changin’. Today, the New York Times published a scathing report on Israel’s war crimes during its assault on Gaza.

Written by a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law and a Palestinian-American [the fanatical Zionists, including those on IB, will now seek to discredit him simply because he’s Palestinian] George E. Bisharat. He previously wrote a piece on Israel’s war crimes during the war itself for the Wall Street Journal. And now the Times is publishing him. A few years ago, a Palestinian could never be published writing such a strong critic of Israel in two of the nation’s national papers [the United States has three national papers]. But as I said: Times’ a changin’.

Mr. Bisharat started off by noting that Israel is engaging in collective punishment against a people for whom it is responsible for protecting under international law as the occupying power.

• Violating its duty to protect the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Despite Israel’s 2005 “disengagement” from Gaza, the territory remains occupied. Israel unleashed military firepower against a people it is legally bound to protect.

• Imposing collective punishment in the form of a blockade, in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In June 2007, after Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip, Israel imposed suffocating restrictions on trade and movement. The blockade — an act of war in customary international law — has helped plunge families into poverty, children into malnutrition, and patients denied access to medical treatment into their graves. People in Gaza thus faced Israel’s winter onslaught in particularly weakened conditions.

Further, Israel intentional kills civilians.

• Deliberately attacking civilian targets. The laws of war permit attacking a civilian object only when it is making an effective contribution to military action and a definite military advantage is gained by its destruction. Yet an Israeli general, Dan Harel, said, “We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas government and all its wings.” An Israeli military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich, avowed that “anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target.”

With nearly all exits from the densely populated Gaza Strip blocked by Israel, and chaos reigning within it, this was a particularly cruel flaunting of international law. Willful killings of civilians that are not required by military necessity are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and are considered war crimes under the Nuremberg principles.

He also notes that Israeli officials have themselves made incriminating statements.

• Deliberately employing disproportionate force. Last year, Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, head of Israel’s northern command, speaking on possible future conflicts with neighbors, stated, “We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction.” Such a frank admission of illegal intent can constitute evidence in a criminal prosecution.

And then there is the issue of white prosperous.

• Illegal use of weapons, including white phosphorus. Israel was finally forced to admit, after initial denials, that it employed white phosphorous in the Gaza Strip, though Israel defended its use as legal. White phosphorous may be legally used as an obscurant, not as a weapon, as it burns deeply and is extremely difficult to extinguish.

He ends with a call that the apartheid state of Israel should not be met with impunity for its crimes, but, rather, a charges and convictions.

Israeli political and military personnel who planned, ordered or executed these possible offenses should face criminal prosecution. The appointment of Richard Goldstone, the former war crimes prosecutor from South Africa, to head a fact-finding team into possible war crimes by both parties to the Gaza conflict is an important step in the right direction. The stature of international law is diminished when a nation violates it with impunity.

Don’t hold your breath that the United States will ever do anything to bring Israel to justice.

Here is Professor Bisharat taking about al-Nakab. To watch the whole video via Google Video.