Posted on by Jin

Australian war graves in Gaza shelled – DVA only just realises?

Gaza War Graves damagedIs someone telling porkies or does the Department of Veteran’s Affairs attention lapse during the Parliamentary break?

And what of the priority given to the desecration of digger war graves by @KevinRuddPM and @TurnbullMalcolm, who were informed via Twitter on January 22 of the event in a UK Telegraph story. I also noted the event on on this blog at the time.

Representatives of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission expressed their “distress” after The Daily Telegraph sent them photographs of the latest damage at Gaza War cemetery.

The damage is much worse than that caused by Israeli forces in 2006 in an incident that briefly soured British-Israeli relations and led eventually to the Jewish state paying £90,000 in compensation.

A commission spokesman said a full damage assessment would be made as soon as it was once again safe to visit the site, which is north and east of Gaza City.

The Daily Telegraph found at least 287 headstones were damaged, some shattered beyond repair, as the cemetery was hit by at least five Israeli shells and its grass singed in places by white phosphorus.

It is believed at least one unexploded shell is still under the soil at the cemetery, meaning no visitors can be allowed until it has been dealt with.

The staff who tend the cemetery, normally an oasis of calm and well-maintained order in the otherwise chaotic Gaza Strip, had to flee for their lives.

“I sent all the others away because the shelling got too heavy,” said Ibrahim Jerradeh, 71, who was made MBE after tending the grave since 1958.

“Only when it got really close and started to hit the cemetery did I leave.”

“There were no people here, just graves, so why does Israel fire on this place?” he said.

“It is just a graveyard for all people, why cannot Israel respect that?”

The Israeli spokesman dissembles, blaming a Hamas ‘weapons cache’ for the damage – this is dissonant from both the photo and eye witness account of the MBE honoured Ibrahim Jerradeh. Perhaps the ‘unexploded shell’ will provide further evidence of the culprits.

Apparently neither the Prime Minister or Opposition Leader of Australia, despite their continual public adulation of the Australian defence forces, could be bothered to check the Twitter link they were sent, or if they did, to pass it on to the relevant department. One wonders whether the Commonwealth War Graves Commission contacted the DVA soon after the event. I now read today in a Herald Sun ‘Exclusive’ that:

THE graves of at least 10 Diggers were damaged – possibly destroyed – during recent fighting in the Middle East.

The graves were among about 300 hit in the Gaza war cemetery during clashes between Israeli and Hamas militants.

Australian authorities learned of the damage only this week – more than a fortnight after the fighting ceased.

The cemetery contains 3217 Allied war graves, including those of 264 Australians killed in both world wars.

Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin said he was deeply concerned and was urgently seeking further details.

“Any damage to our war graves is distressing,” Mr Griffin said.

“At this stage we have no further information about the nature of the damage.”

The Israeli Defence Force said it had not shelled the cemetery during its 22-day assault on Gaza.

It blamed the explosion of a weapons cache during its attack on a nearby Hamas position.

The General Palestinian Delegation to Australia, which acts as a de facto embassy, said it was unaware of the incident.

RSL national president Bill Crews said he was disturbed by the damage but believed it was unintentional.

“Our Commonwealth war graves have been broadly respected by all people living nearby,” Maj-Gen Crews said.

He hoped the graves were restored to their original condition as soon as possible by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The commission said some Allied headstones were completely shattered.

“Preliminary reports suggest a significant number of headstones have been damaged, some beyond repair,” it said.

Israel causes deaths in GazaAre the Israelis trying to get out of paying for the damage this time?

Israeli embassy spokesman Dor Shapira said Israel had the greatest of respect for the integrity of Allied war graves.

“The embassy is very sensitive to the matter and is giving it the utmost care and consideration,” he said.

“The embassy is currently in contact with the relevant authorities in Jerusalem in order to get a full understanding.”

In an ABC report, Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin says

he is deeply distressed by the news and is seeking more information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Mr Griffin says there has been extensive damage to about 300 Commonwealth graves in the Gaza cemetery.

He says the Government has not yet decided whether to make any formal representations to the Israeli Government or the Palestinian authority about the damage.

“The focus at the moment is to ensure that we get the repairs done and make sure that this cemetery is returned to the dignified status that these lost soldiers deserve,” Mr Griffin said.

Let’s also make sure the villains pay for their vandalism.

For those who would like some comprehensive background information on the Israeli occupation and the suffering of those who live under it, visit Open Anthropology for the documentary series. The site also offers the documentary “The Iron Wall, which explores Israeli colonialism

and follows the timeline, size, population of the settlements, and its impact on the peace process. This film also touches on the latest project to make the settlements a permanent fact on the ground – the wall that Israel is building in the West Bank and its impact on the Palestinian’s peoples.

13 Replies to “Australian war graves in Gaza shelled – DVA only just realises?”

  1. From the UK Foreign Affairs Committee:

    GAZA COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES CEMETERY

    50. The reporting of the BBC’s Mark Urban drew our attention to the impact of the conflict in Gaza on one of the two Commonwealth war graves cemeteries in the territory.[115] We visited the cemetery during our visit in March in order to be able to see for ourselves the damage that it had sustained. Richard Kellaway, Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), told us that 363 of the 3,690 headstones in the cemetery would need to be replaced as a result of the effects of Israeli shelling, and that the total cost of the post-conflict restoration work required in the cemetery had been assessed at £83,936. Mr Kellaway told us that the CWGC was seeking to recover these costs from the Israeli government. Mr Kellaway said that he suspected that “the process may be lengthy”, although he noted that in 2008 Israel had paid compensation to the CWGC for damage which the cemetery had sustained on a previous occasion.[116]

    51. Despite the damage which the cemetery sustained in the most recent conflict, we were impressed on our visit by the condition in which the local CWGC staff were nevertheless maintaining it. We would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to their work.

    52. Mr Kellaway and Mr Paul Price, the local CWGC supervisor, confirmed that between taking up the post in January 2008 and March 2009, Mr Price had been unable to visit the two CWGC cemeteries in Gaza, on the basis of security advice. However, we were pleased to learn from Mr Kellaway that the CWGC Vice-Chairman, Admiral Sir Ian Garnett, had been able to visit the cemeteries, together with Mr Price, in April.[117]

    53. We recommend that the FCO should press the Israeli government to compensate the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) for the costs of repairing the damage to the CWGC cemetery in Gaza which was sustained during the latest conflict there, as Israel did in 2008 for the costs of repairing damage sustained on a previous occasion. We further recommend that the Government should provide an update on this issue in its response to this Report.

  2. More information on the location of Australian war graves in Gaza.

    There are 260 known Australian war graves and 3 unknown at the Gaza War Cemetery.

    Ingaza has a story with beautiful photos of the Gaza War Cemetery. Cement is prohibited by the Ziocolony as part of its illegal blockade on the people of Gaza.

    This story in Jpost claims Hamas confiscated cement bound for reconstruction of the war graves.

    Defense Minister Ehud Barak was reconsidering the delivery of the cement after, according to IDF Southern Command intelligence, cement that was transferred for the renovation of a British War Cemetery in Gaza earlier this month was partially confiscated by Hamas.

    The cemetery contains graves of British and other foreign soldiers who were killed in the region during World War I.

    “Hamas is in desperate need of cement to rebuild its bunker systems and bases,” one official explained. “This is why it is so complicated to transfer cement to Gaza even if it is intended for civilian purposes.”

    In late July, Barak decided to permit a one-time transfer of more than 300 tons of cement to rebuild a damaged flour mill, a sewage treatment facility and the British cemetery. Israeli representatives had met with representatives from different international organizations that operate in Gaza, such as UNRWA and the World Bank, to coordinate the transfer.

    ABC News reports in April 09 that the headstones still haven’t been repaired due to a lack of cement.

    Have the grave stones been restored yet?

  5. I don’t really care for the politics surrounding who is going to pay for damage, what I would like to know is, whose headstones were damaged? I’d certainly like to know if my husband’s ancestor’s headstone was damaged. Is there a list of names anywhere saying which ones were damaged?

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  9. Thanks Merc – I’ve left a comment at http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2009/03/pulling-news.html and will also add a link to your blog on my blogroll 🙂

    BTW the ABC story is cached on google:

    “Australian soldiers’ graves damaged in Gaza

    The Federal Government will consider asking either Israel or the Palestinians to pay for damage to Australian war graves.

    Ten graves of Australian soldiers in Gaza were damaged during the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas.

    The Repatriation Commissioner has told a parliamentary inquiry it is estimated it will cost $200,000 to repair the damage.”

  10. Further to your comment above, see ‘Pulling the News?’ at Middle East Reality Check

  11. Update on Australian war graves bombed by Israel:

    The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is to seek compensation from Israel for damage to the Gaza War Cemetery incurred during recent shelling.

    …

    The organisation estimates the cost of repairing or replacing the 363 headstones damaged by recent Israeli shelling at £95,000.

    Can’t find any reference to Israel’s perfidious vandalism in the Australian news or Parliament. Our representatives have proved incredibly reticent in criticising the Zionist enterprise for their criminal destruction of our soldier’s headstones.

  12. Well, gee, those diggers and pommies weren’t fighting for Israel, were they? Hmmm. Indeed given the terorists attacks on the offices of the British Mandate (which was listening to the palestinians more than the zionist infiltrators) that made the UK blink and allow the creation of the state of Israel, we could be seen as “enemies” of the Zionists.

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