"A hell of a pin-point operation"
Read "Why Israel’s bombardment of Gaza neighborhood left US officers ‘stunned’" and the subsequent comment of Jon Heller.
"A hell of a pin-point operation" An investigative article from Al Jazeera reveals the extent of Israel's destructive operation in Shujaiya on July 20, which has sparked public outcry and was met with heavy criticism. During this massacre a huge number of civilians have been slaughtered. Kerry called this military action "a hell of a pinpoint operation" on a live microphone on Fox News.
Read "Why Israel’s bombardment of Gaza neighborhood left US officers ‘stunned’" and the subsequent comment of Jon Heller.
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Different Notions of this international law Concept - or simply Double Standards? We have seen various examples in recent times of people claiming their right to self determination: The Scottish want to seperate from the UK, the Catalonians want independence from Spain, Venetians held an independence referendum recently and the Crimean population seperated from Ukraine. A few years ago South Sudan seperated from the North and in 2008 Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Some peoples have been struggling for independence for half a century: Kashmiris want independence from India and Palestinians want an independent Palestine. And the Kurds have been fighting for an autonomous state for very long.
We have also seen the different reactions from western governments (who outweigh the international community when it comes to international law): While actively supporting the struggle of e.g. South Sudan, Kosovo, Kurdistan or the Tibetian's call for self-determination, they fiercly oppose the struggle of Eastern Ukrainians to seperate from Ukraine or of Palestinian self-determination. Other examples of "bad" self-determination are Indian occupied Kashmir or the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Currently, western governments are keen to create a new state of Kurdistan, and to split Iraq into smaller entities. Independent Kurdistan is now going to be pushed for by Europe and the US who are eager to deploy arms, give logistic and economic support and on a diplomatic level already recognize Kurdish representatives. In utter disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity, the US and the EU make every effort to help this independent Kurdistan to gain territory from Iraq (and probably even Turkey and Iran) with bombs, arms, weapons and money. Western governments tidily differentiate between "good" and "bad" occupation, between "good" and "bad" self-determination. However, the law ought to be blind. Under international law, self-determination is an absolute right, considered to be ius cogens, irrespective of the respective peoples' convictions and creed. And occupation remains illegal, no matter, what the (geo)political interests are. Let us recall the European Union's reaction to the independence referendum of Crimeans in March this year: "The solution to the crisis in Ukraine must be based on the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, in the framework of the Ukrainian Constitution as well as the strict adherence to international standards. [...] We reiterate the strong condemnation of the unprovoked violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and call on Russia to withdraw its armed forces" [1] Why not adopt this same stance on the current situation in Iraq? --- [1] Council of Europe, Joint Statement on Crimea, Brussels, 16 March 2014 EUCO 58/14 PRESSE 140 PR PCE 53 "The rockets fired by Palestinian factions from Gaza must be construed as acts of resistance of an occupied people and an assertion of its recognized right to self-determination."
UK Professors and Practitioners of international law urge ICC to initiate Preliminary investigatons - ICC denies Jurisdiction
Why the Israeli Apologetics are Wrong It is grotesque how some international lawyers still hesitate to acknowledge the fact that war crimes are being committed in Gaza by Israel in front of their eyes given the fact that Israelis themselves have made their real long-term intentions in the Gaza strip abundantly clear. Commenting the joint declaration of international law scholars, Julian Ku recently concluded in the opiniojuris blog that “I am not convinced (as the Joint Declaration seems to allege) that killing civilians is actually the basic intention and goal of the Israeli government.” Really??! Recent attempts to whitewash Israeli war crimes are appaling and arise from a false understanding of friendship. Some people seem to deliberately ignore the sad reality that Israel does in fact intend to clear the Gaza strip once and for ever. Israeli officials have repeatedly explained they were following policy known as the "Dahiye doctrine"[1] . This doctrine has been described by the Commanding Officer of the Israeli Army’s Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Gadi Eisenkott as follows: “What happened in the Dahiye Quarter of Beirut in 2006, will happen in every village from which shots are fired on Israel. We will use disproportionate force against it and we will cause immense damage and destruction. From our point of view these are not civilian villages but military bases. This is not a recommendation, this is the plan, and it has already been authorized.” Dr. Gabriel Siboni, Colonel in the Israeli Army reserves further stated that “[p]unishment must be aimed at decision makers and the power elite…attacks should both aim at Hezbollah’s military capabilities and should target economic interests and the centers of civilian power that support the organization [...] This approach is applicable to the Gaza Strip as well.” Many international law experts have agreed on the fact that Israel has committed war crimes against the Palestinian civilian population in its previous operations in the Gaza strip. Jean-Philippe Kot in his legal analysis of the Goldstone report resumed that “civilians in Gaza were deliberately put at risk by a specific interpretation breaking down the flat rule of civilian immunity into a more complex construction opposing the Israeli soldiers’ right to life to the rights of an ‘enemy population’.” Contrary to some western apologetics, Israeli officials themselves makes no secret of the fact they target the civilian population as a whole. There are numerous recent calls for genocidal-scale violence against Palestinians made by leading Israeli politicians and even Rabbis. The views expressed by these individuals are not to be neglected for they mirror Israeli policy and public opinion. In an article presenting the Endlösung for Gaza, Moshe Feiglin, member of Netanyahu’s ruling party, called for the expulsion of the Gazan population and the repopulation of the Gaza strip with Jews. He said the IDF should “[a]ttack the entire ‘target bank’ throughout Gaza with the IDF’s maximum force (and not a tiny fraction of it) with all the conventional means at its disposal. All the military and infrastructural targets will be attacked with no consideration for ‘human shields’ or ‘environmental damage’”. David Rubin, former mayor of Shiloh, called for the merciless bombing of the cities of Gaza, including “UNRWA-sponsored schools, hospitals, and mosques” regardless of the resulting civilian deaths. Then there has been this despicable call for genocide made by Knesset member Ayelet Shaked who openly admitted that this was “not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority” but instead a war against “the entire Palestinian people” stating that “[t]hey are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.” And, on top of that, news-editor Seth Lipsky in an article in the New York Post deplored the fact that “in the entire Gaza campaign less than half a percent of the civilians” were killed compared those that were killed with the atomic bombs that were unleashed on Japan. If that still doesn’t suffice to underline Israel’s disregard for Palestinian civilian lives and to proof its intent to commit genocide, consider these two recent columns by Yochanan Gordon and Martin Sherman in two leading Israeli newspapers, instigating genocide against Palestinians in Gaza: Just a reminder in case some are afraid that the word "genocide" is being used inflationary or too hastily affirmed. Article 2 of The Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines Genocide as
"..any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." Israel ratified the Convention in 1950. And on top of that the crime of Genocide is considered to be ius cogens. --- [1] See Kearney, Michael; Lawfare, Legitimacy and Resistance: The weak and the law, XVI Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2010) 79-130, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2153837. |
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The origins of public international law
Europe: Free speech and Islam New Year - Old resentments Tragedies and Tests - Thoughts on Paris Egalité pour tous? Palestine & Israel: Netanyahu forms new government with far-right hardliners and settler party War Crimes in Gaza entail Responsiblity of supporting states In war, Truth is the First Casualty International Law Scholars demand justice for Palestine Still in doubt about Israel’s real intentions? Request to ICC Prosecutor To Investigate into war Crimes in Gaza Speaking up... Gaza: The massacre of Shujaiya Israel: Economic Sanctions, Now! HRW: Home Demolitions by IDF A "potential War crime" Iraq: Iraq-War III: Obama's "War on Terror" #notinmyname ... Libya: Libya: Responsibility to protect or opportunity to destroy? Ukraine: Ukraine: Right To self-Determination? Syria: Syria Air Strikes: Power vs International law Responsibility to protect or opportunity to destroy? Other: Speaking with a forked tongue - What it takes to win a nobel peace prize Christmas: What Muslims think of it The onerous task of a Qadi Words of Peace |