Anything less amounts to a grave dereliction of duty. By contrast, Hamas has created an infrastructure of death which is impoverishing its citizens. But in any case, drawing conclusions about proportionality by simply counting up the deaths on each side is grossly simplistic. According to the Rome Statute and the principles of international humanitarian law, the rule on proportionality states that while no country is obliged to avoid killing any civilians in war, the loss of civilian life or injury to civilians must not be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. One cannot make judgments of disproportionality without taking into account whether the force used was proportionate to the anticipated military advantages to the attacking side. Given that Israels (justified) objective is to deter any further rockets attacks from the genocidal regime of Hamas, the level of casualties is proportionate to the advantages gained. Indeed one would expect there to be far more casualties given the number of airstrikes carried out thus far. The fact that Israeli fatalities are low in this conflict does not reduce the military necessity of attacking Hamas. As famed jurist Alan Dershowitz points out: “Proportion must be defined by reference to the threat posed by the enemy and not by the harm it has produced”. The accusation of targeting civilians, a violation of the rule of distinction, is equally baseless. At the moment, the Israeli Air Force is carrying out precision raids on Hamas terrorist infrastructure, including arms dumps, rocket launchers, command and control centres and the homes of terrorist figures. Where houses have been turned into military targets, the IDF has provided advance warnings to Palestinian residents (so called roof knocking) to leave their houses prior to an attack. This is designed to minimise civilian casualties, rather than maximise them. In any case, targeting civilians would be futile. It would achieve nothing in military terms and hand a massive propaganda victory to Hamas. It is true that Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israeli raids, and that is undeniably tragic. They too are victims, of the war chosen by Gazas Islamists. Hamas spokesmen have openly admitted to placing civilians on the rooftops of houses in order to thwart Israeli strikes. Extensive video evidence also shows that rockets have also been fired from heavily built up civilian areas, and command and control centres are located close to residential neighbourhoods. Using civilians as a human shield is another blatant war crime. #IDF #ProtectiveEdge #Zion
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 12:43:11 +0000
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