Famous prof suggests Israeli military engaged in ‘indiscriminate’ bombing in Pillar Cloud
A prominent college professor at the University of Michigan made a number of unsubstantiated and historically dubious allegations against the state of Israel in an op-ed published on Saturday, suggesting the military had committed war crimes in its latest operation against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza strip.
Absent from Prof. Juan Cole’s analysis, however, were historical or factual citations supporting many of his controversial claims.
Professor Juan Cole accused Israel of committing war crimes in Operation Pillar of Defense.
“Indiscriminate bombing of occupied territories by the occupier is clearly illegal in international law,” he wrote in the opinion piece about the flare up in the Middle East, which was published on his blog “informed comment” on Saturday.
In fact, as of Saturday 110 individuals had been killed in Gaza from precision airstrikes. Around thirty-three percent of those were estimated by a Hamas spokesman to be enemy combatants. The civilian collateral damage is estimated to be so high because of Hamas’s espoused strategy to use its citizens as “human shields.”
Cole did not mention hundreds of missiles fired by Hamas indiscriminately at civilian populations in Israel over the last week or the deaths of five Israeli civilians.
In the comment section of his story, Prof. Cole appeared to call a diverging opinion on the conflict “laughable.”
Cole also said he believes it is the goal of Israelis to use the American peace, to separate Palestinians from land and wealth.
“There is no peace process,” wrote who often appears on television as a Middle East expert. “It is an Israeli and American sham.”
“Talking about a peace process is gaining cover to Israeli nationalists who are determined to grab everything the Palestinians have and reduce them to penniless refugees (again),” he added.
The professor further argued that Israel has committed blatant violations of international law in the past week as “Operation Pillar of Defense” attempts to eliminate Hamas strongholds from Gaza.
He stressed that “Israeli hawks” unfairly “demonize the Palestinian residents of Gaza as followers of Hamas,” but contests that most Palestinians “never voted” the terrorist group into power.
Cole frequently appears on television and in print discussing Middle Eastern affairs. He also testified before the United States Senate in 2004 on matters related to the Iraq War.
Neither a university spokesperson or the professor were immediately available for comment to Campus Reform.
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