Israel to protect its soldiers from war crimes charges

[Bo]

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel will grant legal protection for soldiers who fought in the three-week war in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday amid accusations of war crimes.
"The commanders and soldiers sent to Gaza need to know that they are completely safe from different tribunals and Israel will help and protect them," he said.
Olmert confirmed he had appointed Justice Minister Daniel Friedman to chair an inter-ministerial committee "to coordinate Israel's efforts to offer legal defence for anyone who took part in the operation.
"He will formulate questions and answers relating to the army's operations, which self-righteous people ... might use to sue officers and soldiers," the prime minister said.
Israel's military censor has already banned the publication of the identity of the unit leaders who fought against Hamas militants in Gaza for fear they may face war crimes charges.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday demanded that those responsible for bombing UN buildings in the Palestinian territory should be made accountable and accused Israel of using excessive force.
UN schools and the main aid headquarters where tonnes of food was stocked were bombed.
Eight Israeli human rights groups have called on the Israeli government to investigate the scale of the casualties, describing the number of dead women and children as "terrifying."
Israel insists troops did their best to limit civilian casualties in a heavily-populated area and blamed Hamas for hiding behind civilians to fire rockets at southern Israel.
Gaza medics put the Palestinian death toll at 1,330 with at least another 5,450 people wounded. About 65 percent of the dead were civilians, including 437 children.
Ten Israel soldiers and three civilians died during Operation Cast Lead which ended last Sunday with a ceasefire.
Amnesty International, meanwhile, has said it was "undeniable" that Israel had used white phosphorus in crowded civilian areas, contrary to international law, charging that this amounted to a war crime.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iveADtDsyoxoU17REudki0LUEMMA


If these soldiers are convicted of war crimes and Israel protects them, then what? Isn't it a crime to protect war criminals?


For those wondering what Canada's stance is regarding war criminals:

http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/pi/wc-cg/rlf-rcl.html

 

[Yrys]

Same subject, another article :

Israeli PM in war crimes pledge, BBC News

Any Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes in the Gaza Strip will be given
state protection from prosecution overseas, the country's PM has said.

 

[Yrys]

Israel to Coordinate Soldiers’ Defense, AP at NY Times

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Special legal teams will defend Israeli soldiers against
potential war crimes charges stemming from civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip,
the prime minister said Sunday, promising the country would fully back those
who fought in the three-week offensive.

The move reflected growing concerns by Israel that officers could be subject
to international prosecution, despite the army's claims that Hamas militants
caused the civilian casualties by staging attacks from residential areas.

''The state of Israel will fully back those who acted on its behalf,'' Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert said. ''The soldiers and commanders who were sent on missions
in Gaza must know that they are safe from various tribunals.'' Speaking at the
weekly Cabinet meeting, Olmert said Israel's justice minister would lead a team
of senior officials to coordinate the legal defense of anyone involved in the offensive.

''That decision is not going to prevent all these organizations and countries to pursue
their efforts through legal means,'' Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said at talks
with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels. ''So there is no immunity even if the
decision was taken by the Israeli government.''

Malki is a member of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' government,
whose authority extends only to the West Bank after rival Hamas violently took over
Gaza in 2007.

Israel launched its 22-day offensive to try to halt Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel.
The assault killed 1,285 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, the Palestinian
Center for Human Rights counted. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were
also killed.

At talks Sunday in Cairo aimed at solidifying the truce, Hamas official Ayman Taha
said the Islamic group offered a one-year truce to Israel, including the reopening
of border crossings to allow vital supplies into Gaza. He said Israel offered an
18-month truce, which Hamas rejected. Israeli officials refused to comment.
A low-level delegation from Abbas' West Bank government was also in Cairo
for talks, but was not expected to meet with Hamas.

The European Union, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey appealed to Hamas and the
Palestinian Authority to form a unity government. Israel and Hamas are bitter
enemies and do not talk to each other, relying instead on Egyptian mediation.

In addition to the civilian death toll, Israel has faced international criticism for
its use of white phosphorous, and for shelling attacks that struck United
Nations schools and installations that were serving as shelters.

Although the use of phosphorous weapons to light up the night or to create
smoke screens masking troops is permitted by international law, Amnesty
International has accused Israel of committing a war crime by firing the
munitions in densely populated areas.

Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups have said they are
seeking to build a case that Israel violated the laws of war. The groups are
focusing on suspicions that Israel used disproportionate force and failed to
protect civilians. They also have criticized Hamas for using civilians as human
shields and firing rockets at civilian targets in Israel.

Israeli officials have said they took great efforts to avoid civilian casualties,
and accused Hamas of deliberately using mosques, schools and residential
neighborhoods for cover. Olmert angrily accused the ''international legal
arena'' of ''moral acrobatics'' by ignoring years of Palestinian rocket salvos
aimed at Israeli civilians. ''The state of Israel did everything in order to
avoid hitting civilians. I do not know of any military that is more moral,
fair and sensitive to civilians' lives,'' Olmert said.

In another precaution, Israel's military censor already has barred
publication of the names or pictures of battlefield officers from the
offensive. Israeli leaders have faced similar concerns in the past. In
2001, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was sued in Belgium over his
alleged role in a 1982 massacre in Lebanon's Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps. He was never convicted.

In 2005, a London court issued an arrest warrant for a retired Israeli
general for his role in the bulldozing of houses in a Gaza refugee camp.
The general ducked arrest by staying on his plane at London's Heathrow
airport and flying back to Israel. Another top official, Cabinet Minister Avi
Dichter, turned down an invitation to Britain out of concern that he could be
arrested for his role in the 2002 assassination of a senior Hamas militant
in Gaza.

The Israeli offensive ended with a temporary cease-fire last week, and
international mediators are trying to work out a longer-term arrangement.
Israel wants guarantees that Hamas will stop firing rockets and be prevented
from smuggling weapons into Gaza from neighboring Egypt.

In Brussels, EU foreign ministers on Sunday emphasized the need to stop
arms smuggling and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. They called
on Egypt to do more to halt the flow of arms to Gaza, while offering monitors
to help run the Egypt-Gaza crossing.

Israeli officials have said they are prepared to resume the offensive if rocket
attacks start up again. Israel also has demanded the release of an Israeli soldier
held by Hamas for more than two years as part of a long-term truce. Israeli
Cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz suggested that Israel would assassinate Hamas
leaders if the soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, is not released.

''I want to tell the leaders of Hamas, don't misunderstand us,'' Mofaz said.
''Until Schalit goes free, none of you will be able to walk freely on the streets
of Gaza.'' It was not clear whether Mofaz, a former armed forces chief, was
voicing official policy or giving his personal opinion.

After the comments, Palestinians fled from a dozen government buildings. Hamas
officials called for calm, and midlevel officials were back on the job, distributing
aid to victims whose homes were destroyed or damaged. Still, top Hamas leaders
remained out of sight, as they have since Israel launched the offensive last month.

------

Associated Press writers Ibrahim Barzak and Alfred de Montesquiou in Gaza City;
Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed
to this report.

 

[Infanteer]

If these soldiers are convicted of war crimes and Israel protects them, then what? Isn't it a crime to protect war criminals?

Who will accuse and prove them to be war criminals?  Some court in a third country has no jurisdiction to try them.  The Hague, as far as I understand it, exists to prosecute those who operate within an area with no functioning/effective legal/judicial/penal system.  I think it would be a tough sell to prove that situation exists in Israel.

 

[a_majoor]

Will the Hague be prosecuting Hamas for their numerous war crimes? Doubt it.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Perhaps it may be a good thing for Israel. They will provide formal evidence of Hamas crimes in court to counter the claims. hamas actions will be public record and hard to ignore. This may be the worse thing that can happen for Hamas.

 

[a_majoor]

Lets see the Hague investigate this:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hamas-tried-to-hijack-ambulances-during-gaza-war/2009/01/25/1232818246374.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

Hamas tried to hijack ambulances during Gaza war
Jason Koutsoukis in Gaza City
January 26, 2009

PALESTINIAN civilians living in Gaza during the three-week war with Israel have spoken of the challenge of being caught between Hamas and Israeli soldiers as the radical Islamic movement that controls the Gaza strip attempted to hijack ambulances.

Mohammed Shriteh, 30, is an ambulance driver registered with and trained by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

His first day of work in the al-Quds neighbourhood was January 1, the sixth day of the war. "Mostly the war was not as fast or as chaotic as I expected," Mr Shriteh told the Herald. "We would co-ordinate with the Israelis before we pick up patients, because they have all our names, and our IDs, so they would not shoot at us."

Mr Shriteh said the more immediate threat was from Hamas, who would lure the ambulances into the heart of a battle to transport fighters to safety.

"After the first week, at night time, there was a call for a house in Jabaliya. I got to the house and there was lots of shooting and explosions all around," he said.

Because of the urgency of the call, Mr Shriteh said there was no time to arrange his movements with the IDF.

"I knew the Israelis were watching me because I could see the red laser beam in the ambulance and on me, on my body," he said.

Getting out of the ambulance and entering the house, he saw there were three Hamas fighters taking cover inside. One half of the building had already been destroyed.

"They were very scared, and very nervous … They dropped their weapons and ordered me to get them out, to put them in the ambulance and take them away. I refused, because if the IDF sees me doing this I am finished, I cannot pick up any more wounded people.

"And then one of the fighters picked up a gun and held it to my head, to force me. I still refused, and then they allowed me to leave."

Mr Shriteh says Hamas made several attempts to hijack the al-Quds Hospital's fleet of ambulances during the war.

"You hear when they are coming. People ring to tell you. So we had to get in all the ambulances and make the illusion of an emergency and only come back when they had gone."

Eyad al-Bayary, 32, lost his job as a senior nurse at the Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza City, about six months ago because he is closely identified with Fatah, the rival political movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Twice last year Mr Bayary was arrested by Hamas, and once he was jailed for six days for flying the Fatah flag above his house in Jabaliya. He now works part-time as an English teacher at al-Azhar University.

"After the first day of the war, I go to the hospital to work, to help, but I was told to go away. They tell me 'you are not needed here' and they push me away," Mr Bayary said.

Since the ceasefire was declared on January 17, Hamas has begun to systematically take revenge on anyone believed to have collaborated with Israel before the war.

Israel makes no secret of the fact that it has a network of informants inside Gaza who regularly provide information on where Hamas leaders live, where weapons are being stored and other details that formed an important part of Israel's battle plan.

According to rumour, a number of alleged collaborators have already been executed. Taher al-Nono, the Hamas government's spokesman in Gaza, told the Herald that 175 people had been arrested so far on suspicion of collaborating.

"They will be dealt with by the court and the judge and we will respect the judge's decision," Mr Nono said.

And if the sentence is death?

"We will respect the decision."

But the breakdown between Hamas and Fatah over the last 18 months did not prevent some co-operation between the two sides during the war.

The commander of one al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade unit - the brigades are a coalition of secular militia groups which operate under the loose umbrella of Fatah - said the real enemy remains Israel.

The unit commander, who used the name Abu Ibrahim, invited the Herald into his home.

On the wall of his lounge room hung the portraits of George Habash, who founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a communist paramilitary organisation, and Abu Ali Mustafa, the man who succeeded Habash as leader of the PFLP and who was killed by Israeli forces in 2001.

"Of course we fought together with Hamas because we all have the same aim: to liberate our homeland," he said.

With his two-year old daughter on his knee, Mr Ibrahim, 30, said he would never accept peace or negotiation, even if it might lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

"I believe in the existence of Israel because it exists on my land - but the war with Israel will only end when I liberate all of my land. This last war with Israel was not the first war, and it will not be the last."

Rebuilding the Strip
GAZA CITY: Hamas will begin a big reconstruction effort in the Gaza Strip today as the territory's 1.5 million people start to recover from the devastating three-week war with Israel that claimed more than 1300 lives and destroyed thousands of buildings, factories and farms.

Life was beginning to return to a relative state of normality yesterday, with schools, universities and businesses back open.

But with most government buildings destroyed during the war, and piles of concrete rubble on street corners, Gazans face a huge effort to return the Strip to the impoverished state that existed before the war began.

Thousands of Gazans who lost their homes are still living in temporary accommodation provided in United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools, and electricity is being rationed, with homes receiving power for just a few hours a day.

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Ayman Taha, said his organisation would observe a truce with Israel for 18 months on the condition all the crossing points with Israel were opened.

With Hamas's popularity apparently plummeting in as a result of the war, the movement's leadership is using financial handouts to boost morale.

Hamas leaders from Gaza and Damascus, Syria, travelled to Cairo yesterday to meet Egyptian intelligence leaders and leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation for talks aimed at resolving Hamas's dispute with the Fatah movement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In Israel the appointment of George Mitchell as special envoy of the US President, Barack Obama, to the Middle East has met with caution and suspicion.

Israeli Foreign Ministry officials were scrambling to put together a brief for Mr Mitchell, who is due to visit Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah this week, as well as Egypt and Jordan.

Israeli officials believe Mr Mitchell's first step will be to recommend the "road map for peace" plan announced by the former president George Bush in 2002 be extended.

Israelis have also begun to turn their attention to the general elections on February 10. With polls indicating the right-wing Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu is on track to return to the Prime Minister's office he occupied in 1996, the centrist Kadima Party leader, Tzipi Livni, warned yesterday that if the far-right won government it would lead to an inevitable rift with the US.

 

[geo]

Am surprised that the ambulance driver was so open about Hamas' attempts to use the ambulances as troop transports.

A brave man....

 

[Bo]

Thucydides, if members of Hamas committed war crimes, then they should be held accountable as well.

Here's a summary of what Israel is being investigated for:

A shameful war: Israel in the dock over assault on Gaza

By the time the shooting stopped, more than 100 Palestinians had been killed for every Israeli who died. Was every death lawful? And, if not, where does the fault lie? Raymond Whitaker and Donald Macintyre report
Sunday, 25 January 2009


Did Israel – or its enemy, Hamas – commit war crimes during 22 days and nights of aerial assault, rocket launches and ground fighting in Gaza? In one sense the question is academic, because Israel will not recognise the conflict as an international one, and has not signed the 1977 Geneva protocol designed to apply to the victims of internal conflicts. But international lawyers say general principles can be drawn from the laws of war, which may have been violated in several ways.

The main issues are these:

Proportionality

Up to 100 times as many Palestinians were killed as Israelis. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says 1,314 Palestinians were killed, of whom 412 were children or teenagers under 18, and 110 were women. On the Israeli side, there were 13 deaths between 27 December and 17 January, of whom three were civilians killed by rockets fired from Gaza. Of the 10 soldiers killed, four were lost to "friendly fire".

Even if the Palestinian figure is disputed, it is clear that the death toll was massively higher for Palestinians than Israelis. Proportionality is not simply a matter of numbers, however. There will also be a debate over whether the destruction wrought by Israel's huge land, sea and air arsenal was proportionate to the threat posed by Hamas militants to civilians – itself also a violation of international humanitarian law.

With foreign journalists barred from Gaza by Israel throughout the war, it is especially hard to come by hard information on the exact circumstances in which all civilian casualties were caused. But unofficial comment from senior military officers in the Israeli media have suggested that a deliberate choice was made to put the protection of its soldiers first, and that of civilians second. If true, it appears to have been successful, but even if it wasn't, the "collateral damage" inflicted on civilians appears to have significantly exceeded the norms even of previous Israeli operations in Gaza, suggesting looser rules of engagement for military operations.

The head of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, pointed out that there was an "expansive" definition of military targets, to include civilian government offices, police stations and the parliament building, on the grounds they at least indirectly helped Hamas.

Firing into urban areas

Israeli forces did not penetrate into the heart of Gaza City or Khan Yunis. But many of the areas where they deployed their forces were heavily built up. Probably the most lethal incident was the 6 January mortar attack that hit the UN school being used as a shelter for hundreds who had fled their homes in the northern Gaza town of Jabalya. It killed 30 straight away, and an estimated 13 more died from their critical injuries in subsequent days.

Israel's initial claim in this and several other incidents was that it was responding to fire from Hamas. The militants could be at fault for "locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas", in the words of the Geneva Conventions. But the conventions also forbid any attack expected to cause death or injury to civilians "which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated" – a rule Israel is accused of breaking several times.

Though it fortunately caused no deaths and only two injuries, the incident in which shells containing phosphorus hit the UN Relief and Works Agency headquarters – where many were also sheltering – was almost as high profile. Not only did they set fire to food and medical supply warehouses, they landed as the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, was holding meetings with Israeli leaders. UN chiefs vigorously denied Israeli suggestions made in the media, though apparently not to the UN itself, that Hamas gunmen had been sheltering in UN premises. In the first case Chris Gunness, UNRWA's chief spokesman, revealed that diplomats had been told by the Israeli authorities that Hamas was not operating from the school. And in the second, Mr Ban said that Israel's Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, had acknowledged a "grave mistake".

White phosphorus

White phosphorus – which can cause horrific injuries, and is heavily restricted in international law – is now widely accepted to have been used by Israel in this war at several locations. Dating originally from the First World War, white phosphorus and its distinctive plumes of white smoke can legally be used to mark objectives, spread smoke for concealment or set fire to military targets, but not in civilian areas. Israel first denied using it at all, then claimed it was being used only in uninhabited areas, and then last week announced an investigation into its use.

A high school student Mahmoud al-Jamal, 18, was lucky to have been hit by phosphorus shelling during the third week of the war. By the time he reached the care of Gaza City's Shifa hospital, unconscious and severely burned in his left arm, legs and chest, the head of the burns unit, Dr Nafez abu Shaban knew the only hope of saving him lay with surgery. Shifa had no experience of it before 27 December, but "by the last week of the war we knew that we had to get the patient to the operating room and excise all the burnt tissue".

Mahmoud was running from the heavy fighting between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces in the southern Gaza city district of Tel Al Hawa when a shell dropped in front of him. "I could feel my whole body burning," he said. "I fell and asked someone next to me to help. But he was dead. Then I fainted." Part of his body was still smouldering when he was being anaesthetised in theatre. "A piece extracted itself from his body and burned the anaesthetist on his chest," said Dr Shaban. Mahmoud will live; unconfirmed estimates are that dozens of others burned by phosphorus have not survived.

Dime bombs and other unusual weapons

While the vast majority of Palestinians were killed by conventional weapons, a Norwegian doctor, Erik Fosse, said injuries he had seen in Gaza were consistent with the use of Dime (dense inert metal explosive) bombs. "It was as if [patients] had stepped on a mine, but there was no shrapnel in the wounds," he said. A UN convention, which Israel has signed, prohibits "the use of any weapon the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays". This could apply to Dime bombs, but by their nature it is extremely difficult to prove they have been used.

Amnesty International last week called on Israel to give details of weapons beside phosphorus it had used in Gaza, so that medics could better treat the injuries they inflict. Donatella Rovera of Amnesty, currently on a munitions fact-finding mission to Gaza, said doctors were encountering "new and unexplained injuries, including charred and sharply severed limbs" after air strikes. The UK human rights agency also quoted Dr Subhi Skeik of Shifa hospital's surgery department as saying: "We have many cases of amputations and vascular reconstructions where patients would be expected to recover in the normal way. But to our surprise, many of them died an hour or two after operation. It is dramatic."

Dr Shaban of Shifa's burns unit said surgical colleagues had encountered bloodless amputations of limbs after attacks during the war, and that some Egyptian and Jordanian doctors with experience in Lebanon and Iraq had suggested that Dime bombs could be responsible. But both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch's weapons expert Mark Galasco, who is also in Gaza, are highly cautious about speculating on the possibility of Dime, not least because of the difficulty of finding provable traces of it.

Israel has always insisted that its weaponry – including controversial flechette darts, which have been used in Gaza before and have been found so far in two northern Gaza locations this time – is legal. There is no outright ban on Dime bombs, flechettes or even white phosphorus. It is the time and the manner in which they are used that can be illegal.

Targeting of civilians

Israel has continued to contrast what it says are its strenuous efforts to avoid civilian casualties with Hamas's undoubtedly deliberate targeting of civilians with Qassam rockets. There have, however, been several cases in which Palestinian civilians were hit while taking shelter. In other incidents, people in Gaza said they were fired on while seeking to flee to safety, in some cases waving white flags.

In the most widely publicised case, the UN says 80 members of the Samouni family were sheltering in a warehouse hit by missiles early on 5 January, killing 29. Several survivors said they had been ordered by the army to go there the previous day. Meanwhile, Khaled Abed Rabbo said a single soldier shot three of his young daughters from a tank, killing two, as they obeyed orders to flee their home on the outer edge of Jabalya. He suggested it was a deliberate act, The army is investigating, but reaffirms that "the IDF does not target civilians".

Yesterday Mr Rabbo's mother Suad, 54, who was shot in the arm and abdomen at the same time, corroborated his account. She said she, her daughter and her seven-year-old granddaughter were all carrying white flags when they were shot. She did not see the soldier who fired, but insisted there were no Palestinian fighters in the vicinity.

Humanitarian aid

While basic humanitarian supplies, including medicine, continued to flow into Gaza from Israel during the war, the UN and other agencies complained more than once that there were severe problems in distributing food and other aid within Gaza because of continuing security problems. These were compounded when a driver contracted by UNRWA was shot dead near the Erez crossing as he prepared to load food, ready for moving it south during a three-hour humanitarian pause.

There were also several complaints from the Red Cross and Israeli human rights agencies that medics and rescue services were prevented from reaching the wounded and dead. Four weak and terrified children from the Samouni family were finally found by the Red Cross, two days after the attack that killed 29 other family members.

After the ground attack started, one convoy, consisting of an ICRC truck and a Palestinian Ministry of Health truck, both carrying medical supplies for hospitals in southern Gaza, and 13 ambulances carrying intensive care patients to Egyptian hospitals, had to turn back after the ICRC driver was shot and injured near a military checkpoint in the centre of the strip.

Fuel shortages and power cuts continued to deprive about a million Gazans of electricity at any one time. Sewage and water supplies were badly hit, because pumps could not operate.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/a-shameful-war-israel-in-the-dock-over-assault-on-gaza-1515320.html

 

[Infanteer]

Here's a summary of what Israel is being investigated for

Again, by whom?  You never addressed my question above.

 

[abo]

International Criminal Court handles investigations and prosecution of war crimes. Isreal is a member state, as is Canada. Hamas is too small scale but Its proxies could potentially face prosecution by the ICC or a special tribunal.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Am surprised that the ambulance driver was so open about Hamas' attempts to use the ambulances as troop transports.

A brave man....

A crack in the Hamas grip on power?

 

[geo]

Ohh... I think that there are a lot of people pi$$ed at Hamas - but they are usualy careful not to speak out.

Twas in the news the other day that Hamas is presently cleaning house - disposing of naysayers & people willing to challenge their authority... this is after all a "game" of King of the hill.

 

[The Bread Guy]

.... if members of Hamas committed war crimes, then they should be held accountable as well.

And I await such charges being laid and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities based on allegations going as far back as 2007 (no, wait 2005), especially in light of a call by at least one human rights group to "announce publicly that your organization will not use lethal force to target civilians or cause indiscriminate harm to civilians".....

<<sound of crickets chirping in an empty field>>

 

[Infanteer]

International Criminal Court handles investigations and prosecution of war crimes. Isreal is a member state, as is Canada. Hamas is too small scale but Its proxies could potentially face prosecution by the ICC or a special tribunal.

Re-read my original post.  The ICC is a court of last resort (to quote directly from their webpage) and will only act if the judicial process in the specific nation is flawed.  As I said, before ICC investigation proceeded, one would have to prove that Israel's court system was dysfunctional, which I'm sure wouldn't be the easiest thing to do.

 

[a_majoor]

Re-read my original post.  The ICC is a court of last resort (to quote directly from their webpage) and will only act if the judicial process in the specific nation is flawed.  As I said, before ICC investigation proceeded, one would have to prove that Israel's court system was dysfunctional, which I'm sure wouldn't be the easiest thing to do.

However there is no functioning judicial system in Gaza (hauling out alleged collaberators and Fatah supporters and shooting them in the kneecaps or head is not a substitute), so the ICC DOES have grounds to claim jurisdiction in investigating and prosecuting HAMAS war crimes and war criminals.

We all know how that will work out......

 

[Shec]

And just how credible are the accusers?  This recent report on UNRWA, written by an insider with a legal background, makes a case that it is a puppet of Palestinian interests.  And while "I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys",  as Robert Service once wrote, it certainly casts reasonable doubt:

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC04.php?CID=306

 

[a_majoor]

From SPIEGEL ONLINE

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,603508,00.html

Did Israel Commit War Crimes in Gaza?
By Thomas Darnstädt and Christoph Schult in Jerusalem

Did Israel violate international law in Gaza? The immense number of Palestinian civilian casualties suggests that it did. But can the laws of war really be applied to asymmetrical conflicts such as Israel's war with Hamas?

The Palmachim air force base is 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of Tel Aviv, tucked away in the dunes along the Mediterranean shore. A thin, bald man wearing rectangular, rimless glasses is standing in front of half a dozen combat helicopters on the airfield at the base.

He introduces himself as "Major I." A reservist in the Israeli armed forces, he ought to be looking after the restaurant he recently opened in downtown Tel Aviv. But since the end of December, his workplace has been the cockpit of a Cobra helicopter. "It's a crazy world," he says, "you're with your family in the morning and at war in Gaza in the afternoon."

Appropriately serious and yet relaxed, the 38-year-old major was probably selected by the Israeli army press office for the meeting with SPIEGEL because he comes across as being so intelligent and urbane.

Israel makes a distinction between terrorists and civilians -- that, at least, is the message the reservist keeps repeating in various forms. He shows an Israeli Air Force video that depicts Palestinian fighters taking cover behind a tree, firing off a rocket and then quickly driving away in a jeep. Black crosshairs can be seen following them. No other people are visible. Suddenly the jeep turns into the garage of an apartment building.

Then the crosshairs move away from the house and comes to rest over an empty field. A bomb strikes the field a few seconds later. "We did everything possible in the war to protect the lives of innocent civilians," says Major I.

It is precisely statements like this that are being called into doubt, now that the Gaza campaign has come to an end. Each new image of destroyed residential buildings and every mother's complaint about the killing of her children puts Israel under growing pressure. Was the scale of the Israeli attacks justified? Did the Israelis take sufficient steps to protect the innocent? Were aid organizations prevented from evacuating civilians?

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who visited the Gaza Strip last week, called for a "full investigation," Amnesty International is accusing Israel of "war crimes," and Louis Michel, the EU's commissioner for aid to developing countries, says: "It is evident that Israel does not respect international humanitarian law."

Officially, Israeli vehemently denies such accusations, but its leadership is getting nervous. The office of the prosecutor general in Jerusalem is gearing up for a wave of lawsuits from around the world. The military is currently compiling a set of documentation for each complaint. Internal investigations have begun, and soldiers have been instructed not to comment on specific allegations.

It is a continuation of the war with legal means. The principal charge against Israel is that it reacted to shelling by Hamas fighters with disproportionate firepower, killing hundreds of civilians in the process. Some of the facilities the Israelis fired upon include a hospital, schools run by the United Nations and the UN headquarters building in Gaza City.

Palestinians across the board insist that Hamas would never have used these buildings as hiding places. But this argument crumbled last week, when it was revealed that Hamas had fired one of its rockets from the shelter of the Al-Shuruk tower in Gaza City, where many international television broadcasters had rented offices.

A recording that a correspondent for the Al-Arabiya Arab television network showed shortly before a live broadcast provides proof. In the tape, which was sent to the Israeli media, the sound of a rocket being fired can be heard, and the correspondent confirmed that "it was fired from below our office."

But even if Hamas fighters did fire rockets from the safety of mosques and schools, Israel's critics argue, bombing these buildings was excessive. The numbers speak more clearly than any accusation: 13 dead Israelis and 1,300 Palestinian casualties, including large numbers of civilians. Even if one takes the Israeli figure for Palestinian casualties -- about 700 dead -- the high death toll still raises a fundamental question: Can the laws of war even be applied to a conflict that has ended with such an overwhelmingly one-sided death toll?

Israel's huge military superiority, it seems, ran roughshod over not only the people of the Gaza Strip, but also the conventional laws of war. But is International Humanitarian Law (IHL), as it was essentially stipulated under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, even suited to protect the population in Gaza?

IHL, the benchmark for the treatment of war crimes, as well as the obligations of a country at war and its military, was developed for classic warfare between nations -- symmetrical shows of strength between two national armies that are essentially well-matched and clearly recognizable. But the conflict in the Gaza Strip was obviously asymmetrical. Israel's enemy is a group of terrorists that fights while in hiding and uses the civilian population as human shields. This alone is impermissible under the rules of the Geneva Conventions.

The asymmetrical wars of recent years, in the Middle East, in Africa or in Afghanistan, have led to the practice of the IHL rules being applied to such cases, albeit in modified form. If it is not possible -- be it from the air or the ground -- to identify exactly where the enemy is located and who is protected as a civilian under IHL, how can it be possible to strictly limit hostilities to combatants fighting for that enemy?

As brutal as it may sound, it would be unreasonable to expect a country to accept any legal restrictions that puts it at a serious military disadvantage. A law of war that, within the framework of acceptable practices, requires the Israelis to exercise restraint on the level of force they use would not be enforceable. After all, an international law that is not accepted by individual countries is a law in name only.

In war, say most legal experts, each side must have the right to seek victory. Is Israel, for example, required to spare the bakery of a good citizen of Gaza who pulls out his bazooka from behind his oven at night to secretly take part in the fighting? It is not, because international law defines this citizen as an enemy. But how can this be verified? And who should make that decision before an attack?

Thus, the so-called "principle of proportionality" in war, even asymmetrical warfare, has only limited applicability. It does not cover the lives of enemies. In war, anyone can be killed who is considered part of the enemy, even if he bakes bread during the day. Although civilians who cannot be considered part of an enemy's forces cannot be targeted directly, many experts believe that that party's enemies can accept their deaths as "collateral damage" -- but only if the number of deaths is not blatantly disproportionate to the military value of the operation.

 

[old medic]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/30/spain.israel.gaza.lawsuit/index.html

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A top Israeli official named as a suspect in a war crimes investigation by Spain's high court has lambasted the move, claiming Spanish law is siding with terrorist organizations.

Israel's Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer is one of seven Israelis under investigation by Spain's National Court over a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed 15 people and injured more than 150 others. He was then the defense minister.

"This is a ridiculous decision and, even more than ridiculous, it is outrageous," Ben-Eliezer said. "Terror organizations are using the courts in the free world, the methods of democratic countries, to file suit against a country that is operating against terror."

The case, brought by the Palestinian relatives of some of the deceased, names Ben-Eliezer and six other Israeli top military commanders and security officials at the time.

The National Court said it has jurisdiction to investigate the case, and that initial evidence suggests the bombing "should be considered a crime against humanity," according to a court order.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the action.

"The Spanish magistrate's decision is unacceptable, and Israel will use all the means at its disposal to cancel it," the statement said. " One way or another, Israel will guarantee, and provide full legal counsel, to all members of the armed forces who worked in the name of the state of Israel."

The court has previously taken on other high-profile human-rights cases outside of Spain, such as charges against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and more recently against the former military leaders of El Salvador.

The court says that if a potential human-rights crime is not being investigated by the country in question, Spain can proceed, under international law.

The Israeli case involves the July 22, 2002, bombing in Gaza of the home of a suspected Hamas commander, Salah Shehadeh. The blast killed him and members of a Palestinian family named Mattar. They lived next door. Some of their relatives brought the suit to the court in August.

The court said it had asked Israel for information as it considered whether to accept the case, but "as of today, Israeli authorities have not complied with the request for international judicial cooperation." So the court took on the case.

Ben-Eliezer said he does not regret his decision to bomb Gaza.

"Salah Shehadeh was a Hamas activist, an arch-murderer whose hands were stained with the blood of about 100 Israelis," he said.

Shehadeh was the leader in Gaza of the Izzedine al Qassam, the military wing of the Islamic group Hamas, which the U.S. State Department has called a terrorist organization.

Israeli sources said Shehadeh was responsible for hundreds of attacks by the military wing of Hamas since the beginning of the current intifada in September 2000.

The Washington-based Crimes of War project studied the case in detail. According to its report, the Israeli bombing of Gaza in 2002 was a "disproportionate punishment" that resulted in the loss of civilian lives.

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a statement, saying: "Those that call the assassination of a terrorist a 'crime against humanity' live in an upside-down world. All the senior officials in the security establishment, past and present, acted appropriately on behalf of the state of Israel from their commitment to defend the security of its citizens."

 

[Brad Sallows]

The first thing that must happen before this can go beyond the usual political posturing is to separate "Israel's" war crimes from specific allegations against people.  One major theme is "proportionality", and many people do not understand its different meanings in the context of jus ad bellum and jus in bello.  What is beyond dispute is that a disproportionate body count is not, in itself, a crime.