(The New York Post & The Jerusalem Post, 2002.07.28, p. 6)
 |
| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋ u |
There's no ambiguity regarding responsibility for the horrible deaths incurred by the Israeli attack on one of the world's worst terrorists. The responsibility lies with the dead terrorist himself, Salah Shehadeh, and with the evildoing gang called Hamas that he helped to start and run.
Don't take it from me. Take it from international law -specifically, from the text of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
The Fourth Geneva Convention [Part 3, Article 1, Section 28] goes into great and elaborate detail about how to assign fault when military activities take place in civilian areas.
Those who are actually fighting the war are not considered "protected persons." Only civilians are granted the status of "protected persons" whose rights cannot be violated with impunity.
The Fourth Geneva Convention convicts Hamas and Shehadeh in one sentence. That sentence makes up the entirety of Part 3, Article 1, Section 28. It reads: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."
This sentence appears in the Fourth Geneva Convention precisely to deal with situations like the ones the Israelis faced. Here's how.
The Jewish state is at war with Hamas and Palestinian militant organizations wreaking terrorist havoc. Hamas is at war with Israel. But instead of separating themselves from the general population in military camps and wearing uniforms, as required by international law, Hamas members and other Palestinian terrorists try to use civilians -the "protected persons" mentioned in 3: I :28- as living camouflage.
To prevent such a thing from happening, international law explicitly gives Israel the right to conduct military operations against military targets under these circumstances.
Again, let's check out that 3:1:28 sentence: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."
There were plenty of "protected persons" around the home of the Hamas leader on Tuesday. He wanted it that way: Shehadeh chose to live in an apartment house in Gaza City with his farniIy and hundreds of others around him so that they would serve as human shields.
And because Shehadeh did that, he's responsible for what happens to them. That's what the very next sentence of the Fourth Geneva Convention says: "The party to the conflict in whose hands protected persons may be is responsible for the treatment accorded to them by its agents."
Let's translate: The "party to the conflict" here is Hamas, or more specifically, Shehadeh. Because Shehadeh chose to live in a civilian setting, the "protected persons" are deemed to be "in his hands." And since they are in his hands, Shehadeh "is responsible for the treatment accorded to them."
We can argue about whether the killing of Shehadeh was a prudent act. The White House clearly thinks it wasn't.
We can argue about whether the assassinations of key terrorist leaders stop terrorism. The Israelis clearly think they do, and the slowdown in attacks seems to be a confinnation of that.
But we can't argue about who's responsible for the 14 civilian deaths and 100-plus injured in the Gaza City attack on Tuesday.
The responsible party is Hamas. The responsible party is Shehadeh, who was already responsible for hundreds of deaths, of which he was gleefully proud.
May he rot in Hell. (The New York Post)
 |
|
 |