Yearbook 2012
Israel. The country’s largest opposition party Kadima, also the largest party in the Knesset parliament, joined the Conservative government coalition under Benjamin Netanyahu in May. With 94 of Knesset’s 120 mandates, the government became the most powerful the country has ever had. But already in July, the Kadima government left after disagreements over whether students at Orthodox Jewish schools would be covered by the general military duty.
Another question for the government was the settlers. Military and police on several occasions evicted settlers from houses in Palestinian territory on the grounds that they were erected without permission. The issue created tension in the government, where a couple of parties on the far right were represented, with the result that at the same time the evictions, other settlements were legally declared.
Netanyahu announced a new election to the Knesset in October 2013 after he failed to gather support in Parliament for the tight budget. The protests against the government’s austerity policy that started in 2011 continued on a smaller scale.
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Provides most commonly used acronyms and abbreviations for Israel. Also includes location map, major cities, and country overview.
The area on the southern border of Israel was troubled. Disputes broke out in November with Islamist Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip. Israeli air defense The Iron Dome was mobilized but three civilian Israelis were killed and at least one missile from Gaza landed as far north as just outside Tel Aviv. In Gaza, a large number of civilians, including children, were killed by Israeli shelling.
Since the fall of the Egyptian regime under Hosni Mubarak, militant groups had also been given greater leeway in Sinai on the Egyptian side of the border. Several people, both civilians and soldiers as well as militiamen, were killed during the year. On August 5, 16 Egyptian border guards were killed in an attack.
In October, Israel shot down an unmanned and unmanned reconnaissance plan, a so-called drone, near a nuclear reactor in the southern part of the country. The Shiite Muslim Hizbullah movement in Lebanon is said to have sent up the plane, which was manufactured in Iran.
In January, Knesset legislated that undocumented immigrants could be detained indefinitely without trial. Israelis who help the paperless could also be punished much harder than before. The human rights organization Amnesty International criticized the law. In the Negev Desert at the border with Egypt, Israel built a refugee refuge with room for 8,000 people. It happened that refugees from Eritrea, Sudan and other countries in Africa got stuck at the border and the UN Refugee Commission criticized Israel in September for not allowing them to enter and seek asylum. At least 50,000 paperless immigrants were estimated to be in Israel.
Israeli targets abroad were subjected to several acts of terrorism, the worst against a tourist bus in the city of Burgas, Bulgaria, July 18, when five Israeli tourists were killed and about 30 injured. Israel suspected that Iran or its allies in Hizbullah were behind the attacks.
The conflict with Iran escalated and several Israeli government officials threatened in the spring with an attack on Iranian nuclear fission facilities.
Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman resigned in December after he was indicted for trespassing against the chief. He gave up his parliamentary immunity to stand trial.
War crimes
Israel’s war on Lebanon was first and foremost a war on the civilian population and thus a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention, which deals with the protection of the civilian population under warlike conditions. Israel thus blames war crimes that did not differ from Hezbollah’s attacks on civilians in Israel – apart from the scope. Israel killed 40-50 times more civilians, and the systematic destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure also made Israel responsible for state terrorism.
Already on July 20, UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbor criticized the war and talked about possible war crimes in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza. She further stated:
Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians… Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable
The Human Rights Council adopted an opinion on August 11 that sharply criticized Israel for its war crimes in Lebanon. Israel, however, is notorious for facing all kinds of international criticism, whether it comes from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the UN or human rights organizations.
The United Nations and the International Red Cross were already rapidly developing the situation in southern Lebanon after a week of war, on a large-scale humanitarian disaster, when Israel bombed the infrastructure and damaged all its vehicles. This included refugees, emergency convoys and ambulances. International Red Cross reports of such Israeli attacks on ambulances, one of which was hit by an Israeli precision missile in the middle of the cross. A practice Israel has already used for several years in Gaza and the West Bank.
In desperation that its land offensive in the south had stalled due to fierce Lebanese resistance and continued massive Lebanese rocket attacks on Israel, Israeli fighter planes attacked the Christian Quarter of Beirut on August 4, destroying the last 5 bridges of Beirut, bringing relief efforts for stopping. At the same time, the last bridges over the Litani River were bombed so that relief organizations could no longer transport emergency aid into southern Lebanon. In protest, relief organizations began to transport the relief aid across the Litani River by hand. In the Bekaa Valley, Israeli bombers killed 23 country workers, and from southern Lebanon there were reports of 53 killed civilians in two houses bombed by Israel. In revenge for Israeli terror, Hezbollah sent over 200 rockets into northern and central Israel, 2 of which reached as far south as Hadera, only 40 km from Tel Aviv. 3 civilians were killed as a result of Hezbollah’s terror.
Britain’s President of the Lower House and former Foreign Minister Jack Straw declared July 26: Israel’s military actions “may further destabilize the already fragile Lebanese nation”. And further: “I mourn the many innocent Israelis who were killed during the conflict. And I mourn the 10 times more Lebanese, men, women and children who have been killed by the Israeli military. ” He also endorsed the British Foreign Minister’s criticism of Israel for its fierce war against the Lebanese civilian population.
The International Red Cross criticized after the ceasefire on August 14 that the parties had failed to comply with the Geneva Conventions and had sufficient regard for the civilian population. At the same time, Israel’s attack on the Lebanese Red Cross in particular was condemned. (ICRC: Lebanon / Israel: civilians pay the price of conflict, Geneva August 14).
Human Rights Watch closely followed the war, criticizing both parties’ war crimes. On August 3, the human rights organization published the report Fatal Strikes. Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon. On August 8, it called on the UN to launch an investigation into the killing of civilians in Lebanon and northern Israel UN: Open Independent Inquiry into Civilian Deaths.
Human Rights Watch reports and documents on war crimes in Lebanon and Israel.
Human Rights Watch’s multimedia on war crimes.
At its extraordinary session on August 11, the United Nations Human Rights Council condemned Israel’s war crimes in Lebanon. (Council Strongly Condemns Grave Israeli Violations of Human Rights in Lebanon).
Population 2012
According to countryaah, the population of Israel in 2012 was 7,978,379, ranking number 101 in the world. The population growth rate was 1.660% yearly, and the population density was 368.6918 people per km2.
