Israeli attacks designed to "terrorize" Gaza population, international law experts say ... - 0 views
electronicintifada.net/...-international-law-experts-say
war & peace Gaza Israel Palestine war crimes international law International Criminal Court
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“The civilian population in the Gaza Strip is under direct attack,” dozens of international law experts have warned in a statement laying out numerous Israeli violations of the laws of war, some amounting to war crimes.
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“Most of the recent heavy bombings in Gaza lack an acceptable military justification and, instead, appear to be designed to terrorize the civilian population,” says the statement, signed by more than 140 international and criminal law scholars, human rights defenders, legal and other experts. Among them are John Dugard and Richard Falk, both former UN special rapporteurs on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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“Gaza’s civilian population has been victimized in the name of a falsely construed right to self-defense,” the statement adds. Israel’s illegal attacks include its assault on the Gaza City neighborhood of [Shujaiya], which the statement says “was one of the bloodiest and most aggressive operations ever conducted by Israel in the Gaza Strip, a form of urban violence constituting a total disrespect of civilian innocence.”
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The statement also points to Israel’s deliberate destruction of the homes of thousands of people and Israel’s practice of giving “warnings” either in the form of smaller projectiles fired at a building, or via text message or telephone. Despite such warnings, “it remains illegal to willfully attack a civilian home without a demonstration of military necessity as it amounts to a violation of the principle of proportionality,” the experts say.
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“Not only are these ‘warnings’ generally ineffective, and can even result in further fatalities,”the statement notes, “they appear to be a pre-fabricated excuse by Israel to portray people who remain in their homes as ‘human shields.’” “Israel’s illegal policy of absolute closure imposed on the Gaza Strip has relentlessly continued, under the complicit gaze of the international community of States,” the statement says. The statement also denounces “the launch of rockets from the Gaza Strip, as every indiscriminate attack against civilians, regardless of the identity of the perpetrators, is not only illegal under international law but also morally intolerable.”
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“However,” it adds, “the two parties to the conflict cannot be considered equal, and their actions – once again – appear to be of incomparable magnitude.”
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Calling for accountability, the statement blames “several UN Member States and the UN” for pressuring de facto Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas not to seek “recourse to the International Criminal Court (ICC).” The statement calls on “the Governmental leaders of Palestine” – presumably a reference to Abbas – to ratify the ICC treaty.
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It also urges the UN Security Council to “exercise its responsibilities in relation to peace and justice by referring the situation in Palestine to the Prosecutor of the ICC” – an action that would require the support of veto-wielding countries such as the US, France and UK, all of which have defended Israel’s assault on Gaza. The full statement and list of signers follow.