B’Tselem and The Association for Civil Rights in Israel have called on Israel’s Prime Minister to involve Israel in the effort to draft an international agreement on prohibiting the production, possession, and use of cluster bombs. The request was made in advance of the diplomatic conference to be held in Ireland on 19 May, which aims to conclude the drafting of the convention by the end of this year.
Despite its extensive use of cluster bombs in the Second Lebanon War, and the fact that their lethal effects were the major impetus for expediting the preparatory work on the convention, Israel is not taking part in this process.
Cluster bombs contain numerous secondary bombs, many of which do not explode. The duds remain on the ground and turn the area into a minefield. Consequently, dropping cluster bombs close to a population center inevitably leads to casualties among civilians who return to their homes after the war. As of January 2008, duds from cluster bombs dropped by Israel during the war still dotted almost 40 square kilometers of southern Lebanon. Since the end of the war, 20 Lebanese civilians, and 13 members of international organizations who were engaged in dismantling the bombs, have been killed. Hundreds of persons have been wounded from the duds.
Following the war, ACRI demanded a criminal investigation into Israel’s use of cluster bombs. The Winograd Commission’s report also criticized Israel’s firing of cluster bombs into built-up areas, inasmuch as it was conducted with the recognition that civilians who left their homes during the war would be exposed, upon their return, to injury from the duds.
In their letter, B’Tselem and ACRI noted that, in light of Israel’s extensive use of cluster bombs in the Second Lebanon War, it is important that the State of Israel be involved in drafting the convention, and certainly not to oppose or ignore it.
