CKUT's Off the Hour: Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza, and why the National Lawyer's Guild condemns it

by Carla Green

This interview originally aired on CKUT's Off the Hour on Tuesday, November 20th, 17h-18h.

Last Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) launched Operation Pillar of Defense with the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, the chief of the Gaza military wing in Hamas.

The Operation consists of an intense bombing campaign in Gaza, which the IDF has described as necessary self-defense to protect its citizens against unabetting rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

Since Wednesday, Israel has carried out more than 1,350 strikes against Gaza, killing 113 Palestinians and wounding 840.

So far, rocket attacks by Hamas have killed 5 Israelis (including 4 civilians and one soldier) and wounded 79. In a bizarre twist, the battle has expanded from Gaza onto social media sites including Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.

Both groups, but especially the IDF, have been very active on social media websites, and in encouraging their supporters to share their posts and spread their propaganda with their friends.

Mainstream media around the world has been mostly split on the issue, although the New York Times, conventionally pro-Israel, published an editorial on Wednesday that was a lukewarm assessment  of the IDF’s Pillar of Defense campaign

Yesterday, the National Lawyers' Guild (NLG) of America sent out a press release that called for “an immediate halt to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza”.

The audio is an interview with their president, Azadeh Shahshahani, about the conflict in Gaza and the NLG’s position on it.

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