I am, admittedly, no expert on Israel or the Palestinians, but isn’t collective punishment of an entire people the wrong solution to the terrorism perpetrated by a few? Indeed, isn’t this why so many in the Islamic world “hate us for our freedoms” to quote Mr. Bush? Please read this excerpt from Patrick Cockburn’s article in today’s online version of The Independent and then explain to me if I’m misreading the situation, because this sure looks like a policy of collective punishment to me:
Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the world’s attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq.
A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets.
To me this is the wrong approach at the wrong time. It is also against the conventions of the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Article 50:
No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible.
Now, my purpose for citing that convention was not to start a legalistic discussion on whether Israel’s actions in response to terrorism by Hamas or other Palestinian groups is bound by this particular article under international law. I’m not enough of a legal scholar in that area to divine for you whether these “quaint” ideas should or shouldn’t apply to Hamas and/or Israel. Israel is a signatory to this convention, but I am reasonably certain that the Israeli government would insist that either their actions in Gaza does not constitute “collective punishment,” or that this particular convention doesn’t apply to the “unique” situation in the Palestinian Territories. Who knows, they may be right, from a strictly legal standpoint.
(cont.)
However, I do know that what is happening in Gaza offends me, and I would hope offends you, regardless of your sympathies toward Israel, or your political views on the issue of the “Palestinian Question.” Allow me to quote a little more of Patrick Cockburn’s report on the current situation of the people of Gaza to you:
Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. […]
It was on 25 June that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was taken captive and two other soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants who used a tunnel to get out of the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of this, writes Gideon Levy in the daily Haaretz, the Israeli army “has been rampaging through Gaza – there’s no other word to describe it – killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately”.
Just as insidious, as Cockburn reports, are the effects on Gaza’s economy from Israel’s actions. Two thirds of adults are unemployed. Many of those who still have jobs (primarily with the government) are not being paid. Crime is rampant. In the face of starvation (literal, not figurative starvation) people are doing anything they can to feed their families. The economic situation has also spurred political strife among the populace between the Hamas government and the Al Fatah, the party of the recently deceased Palestinian leader, Yassir Arafat, which Hamas deposed in last year’s democratic elections. Marches, protest strikes by unpaid soldiers and other demonstrations have pushed Gaza to the edge of civil war between these two competing factions.
All this is the direct result of the virtual siege Israel has imposed on the people of Gaza, and the indifference and deliberate neglect of this situation by Europe and the United States. We may not see reports about what is happening there on our television screens, but you can be sure that broadcasts from Gaza by Arab news organizations are being shown daily throughout the Arab world. And they will blame the united States for this situation as much as, if not more than, they do Israel.
Now perhaps some of you will say that the Palestinians brought this on themselves. They elected Hamas. Let them suffer the consequences of that choice. Certainly that is the position of the Bush administration. But I believe it to be a deeply cynical and inhumane attitude. The political situation in Gaza is far more complex, and yes, nuanced, than such a simplistic and shallow analysis would suggest.
Furthermore, it is in our own national interest to see that the people in Gaza are treated humanely. Americans will suffer the consequences of these Israeli policies, because we are rightly seen as Israel’s primary sponsor and ally. What happens there to a child orphaned by Israeli bombs, or to a family whose home has been bulldozed, or to a father whose son is killed, will be laid to rest at our feet. To the Islamic world, their blood is on our hands, and they will hold us responsible. That is why all Presidential administrations since President Carter have made peace between Israel and the Palestinians a top priority of our Foreign Policy. Every administration until now that is.
Let me close with one final point regarding the issue of whether the actions of the Israelis, and our government’s tacit agreement to them, constitutes a war crime. Some may believe that the Palestinian people in Gaza are not being targeted collectively for the actions of Hamas terrorists. Others may accept the argument by the IDF and the Israeli government that their actions are necessary as a matter of national security. And many may even tell themselves that this is just another front in the War on Terror which, of course, the Arabs started.
Be that as it may, when faced with similar injustices by an occupying power in the last decade of the 20th Century, it was America’s policy that the leaders responsible for the actions taken by the military forces at their disposal should be held accountable for the death and destruction those force wrought on civilians. I am speaking, of course, of the war crimes tribunal with respect to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and specifically with respect to the actions by Serbian forces against civilians in Kosovo.
Please take a look at the indictment of the Serbian leaders by the International tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. I think you will find its charges illuminating:
THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Case No. IT-99-37-I
THE PROSECUTOR OF THE TRIBUNAL
AGAINST
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
MILAN MILUTINOVIC
NIKOLA SAINOVIC
DRAGOLJUB OJDANIC
VLAJKO STOJILJKOVIC[…]
17. The campaign of terror and violence directed at the Kosovo Albanian population was executed by the VJ, the police forces of the FRY, police forces of Serbia, and paramilitary units (all hereinafter forces of the FRY and Serbia) acting at the direction, with the encouragement, or with the support of Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Milan MILUTINOVIC, Nikola SAINOVIC, Dragoljub OJDANIC, and Vlajko STOJILJKOVIC. The operations targeting the Kosovo Albanians were undertaken with the objective of removing a substantial portion of the Kosovo Albanian population from Kosovo in an effort to ensure continued Serbian control over the province. To achieve this objective, the forces of the FRY and Serbia, acting in concert, engaged in well-planned and co-ordinated operations as described in paragraphs 18 through 24 below.
18. The forces of the FRY and Serbia, in a systematic manner, forcibly expelled and internally displaced hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians from their homes across the entire province of Kosovo. To facilitate these expulsions and displacements, the forces of the FRY and Serbia intentionally created an atmosphere of fear and oppression through the use of force, threats of force, and acts of violence.
19. Throughout Kosovo, the forces of the FRY and Serbia looted and pillaged the personal and commercial property belonging to Kosovo Albanians forced from their homes. Policemen, soldiers, and military officers used wholesale searches, threats of force, and acts of violence to rob Kosovo Albanians of money and valuables, and in a systematic manner, authorities at FRY border posts stole personal vehicles and other property from Kosovo Albanians being deported from the province.
20. Throughout Kosovo, the forces of the FRY and Serbia engaged in a systematic campaign of destruction of property owned by Kosovo Albanian civilians. This was accomplished through the widespread shelling of towns and villages; the burning of homes, farms, and businesses; and the destruction of personal property. As a result of these orchestrated actions, villages, towns, and entire regions were made uninhabitable for Kosovo Albanians.
21. Throughout Kosovo, the forces of the FRY and Serbia harassed, humiliated, and degraded Kosovo Albanian civilians through physical and verbal abuse. Policemen, soldiers, and military officers persistently subjected Kosovo Albanians to insults, racial slurs, degrading acts, beatings, and other forms of physical mistreatment based on their racial, religious, and political identification. […]
24. Beginning on or about 1 January 1999 and continuing until 20 June 1999, forces of the FRY and Serbia, acting at the direction, with the encouragement, or with the support of Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Milan MILUTINOVIC, Nikola SAINOVIC, Dragoljub OJDANIC, and Vlajko STOJILJKOVIC, murdered hundreds of Kosovo Albanian civilians. These killings occurred in a widespread or systematic manner throughout the province of Kosovo and resulted in the deaths of numerous men, women, and children.
Are the two situations directly comparable? No, they are not. Nonetheless, the actions taken by Serbian forces and the IDF share many striking similarities, do they not? Forced evictions. The indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians. Destruction of real and personal property. The physical and psychological degradation and humiliation of local populations. The deaths of numerous civilians, deaths which both forces knew were predictable consequences of their actions. We may find a distinction between the actions of the Serbs in Kosovo, and the Israelis in Gaza, but the Palestinians and the Arab world does not.
And I remind you, the Serbian population and its leaders also contended that their actions were justified by terrorist attacks upon Serbs by Kosovan terrorist organizations. Yet, in the case of Kosovo, we thought otherwise, and we subsequently held the Serbian leadership accountable by bringing a war crimes indictment against them. Across the Middle East, Arabs saw what we did with respect to the atrocities committed by Serbs against Kosovo’s civilians. And today, they see what we fail to do with respect to Israel’s treatment of the civilian population in Gaza. In their minds the two cases are much the same, and can you really blame them for thinking that?
I am not suggesting that we insist upon trying Israeli leaders as war criminals. That would only be counterproductive to any long term solution for the region, as well as being impossible from a domestic political standpoint. But at a minimum, we should be actively engaged with the Palestinians and the Israelis seeking an end to violence in the short term, and a peace accord which will allow both groups to coexist as independent and secure states in the long term. Instead the US government sits by passively and does nothing. Our media rarely report on the violence there.
And the Arabs see our apparent indifference to Palestinian suffering and draw their own conclusions.
International Tribunal for the Former yugoslavia
