(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Israel’s War Crimes Will Not Stop Hamas’s Terrorism [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-12-26

Terrorism is a violation of the Geneva Convention. On Oct. 7, Hamas brutally murdered 1,139 people, 695 of whom were Israeli citizens, in an undeniably abhorrent terrorist attack. They also abducted 247 people. The hostages must be brought home, and Hamas must be held accountable. Accountability, though, will not come from the commission of war crimes and the mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians.

Since Oct. 7, the IDF has slaughtered 20,000 Palestinians. An estimated 70% are women and children. 1.9 million, 85% of the population of Gaza, has been displaced. And despite calls for a ceasefire coming from nations, religious leaders, and organizations across the globe, Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his calls for violence and demanded more.

Since Oct. 7, only 154 members of the IDF have been killed. While the violence on both sides is condemnable, it is not proportional.

Israel has always had the upper hand when it comes to lethal force. Israel has the backing of the world’s most powerful nations and militaries. Palestine does not and Hamas does not. Israel enjoys the status and protection of an UN member state. Palestine does not. They are recognized as an observer state, but not a member state. And while Hamas may claim that its goal is to destroy the state of Israel, there is no chance they can success. Hamas is outnumbered, overpowered, under supported, and strategically ineffective.

The creation of Israel was dependent of the violent and forced displacement of 700,000 Palestinians. Millions more have been displaced since. Between 2008 and 2020, Israel killed 5,590 Palestinians, more than 22 times the number of Israelis killed during the same timeframe. This asymmetrical use of violence is now a hallmark of the current war between Israel and Palestine. Close to 150 times more Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war against Palestine that members of the IDF. If we include the number of people murdered on Oct.7, 15 times more Palestinians have been killed by Israelis. And currently Israel is cleansing Palestinians from Gaza with the stated intent of holding military control over the region.

Palestine is in a struggle for statehood. Israel is not.

And while there is violence on both sides, it is unquestionable that Israel has applied far more violence against Palestinian civilians that Hamas has exacted against Jewish people or the IDF. This is where the law of proportionality comes in.

Article 51 of the 1977 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 outlines the legal need for warring parties to protect civilian populations. It reads, in part:

The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances…. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited….Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:

(a) an attack by bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects; and

(b) an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

While Israel is arguing that Hamas is using Palestinians as human shields, Israel is not providing evidence that Hamas is actually present at the sites they are attacking, nor have they proven that members of Hamas have been neutralized in these attacks. The assault on al-Shifa Hospital is just one example of this inability to prove compliance with international law.

What is evident, though, is that Palestinian civilians are being targeted and that their deaths vastly outnumber the deaths of members of the IDF and the number of lives lost on Oct. 7.

For those that argue that Palestinians are justifiably angry with the violence that was inflicted upon them in the creation of Israel, the ongoing creation of illegal settlements and the treatment of Palestinians in places like Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank – you are correct. Does that anger justify the use of terrorism against Israel? No, it does not. The terrorist violence that was inflicted on the people of Israel on Oct. 7 is unjustifiable.

For those that argue that Jewish people deserve the ability to safely return to their homeland without fear of terrorism and violence, do those demands justify war crimes against and ethnic cleansing of other indigenous populations living on that land? No. War crimes and ethnic cleansing are also unjustifiable.

Many nation states have to contend with hostile nations in order to maintain sovereignty. No nation has the right to inflict war crimes or commit ethnic cleansing in the name of self-defense. Israel, as part of the international community, has agreed to the boundaries constructed by the Geneva Convention. Now it needs to abide by them.

Neither terrorism nor war crimes are defensible, but priority must be placed on stopping Israel from continuing its mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians. Hamas must be contained and dismantled, but war crimes cannot be allowed to continue in the name of dismantling Hamas.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/26/2213947/-Israel-s-War-Crimes-Will-Not-Stop-Hamas-s-Terrorism?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.