By Dr Cesar Chelala /New York
The large number of Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including schools, parks and a UN shelter constitute a clear violation of what today could be seen as the codification of international criminal law: the Rome Statute or the Statute of the International Criminal Court. It identifies conducts that the majority of nations consider to be as international crimes. This statute has established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
The war crimes condensed in Article 8 of the Rome Statute were already considered as such at the 1949 Geneva Conventions where both Israel and the US are State parties. These principles have been seen by the International Court of Justice in several cases
as international customary law, valid erga omnes, to the whole world.
Article 8 on War crimes of the Rome Statute states:
1) The Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes.
2) For the purpose of this Statute, “war crimes” means:
(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
(b) Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law, namely, any of the following acts: (I select those that more directly apply to the present situation)
(i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking part in hostilities;
(ii) Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not normally military objectives;
(iv) Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and overall military advantage anticipated;
(v) Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives;
(ix) Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives.
Those listed above are some of the principles that continue to be violated in the present conflict. The number of Palestinians killed in continues to soar above 1,500 during this conflict. Of those, more than 70% are civilians and, the UN estimates that 226 are youths and 117 are women. According to Unicef, about two-thirds of the children killed were 12 or younger.
Israel’s actions on Gaza are also a violation of the Nuremberg Principles, a set of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime. The document was a creation of the International Law Commission of the UN to codify the legal principles underlying the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi party members after World War II.
The US, which normally refrains from criticising Israel, called the latest killings of civilians “totally unacceptable and totally indefensible”. However, in a sad twist of fate, the US continues arming Israel and providing her with offensive weapons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed no regrets, and has stated that Israel will continue operations in Gaza until all Hamas tunnels are destroyed.
El Salvador, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Chile have all recalled their ambassadors to Israel, and Argentina severely criticised Israel for its conduct during this conflict. “Chile observes with great concern and discouragement that the military operations –which at this point appear to be a collective punishment to the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza - don’t respect fundamental norms of international humanitarian law,” stated Chile’s foreign ministry.
And Brazil’s president, Dilma Rouseff said: “Brazil was the first country to recognise Israel. Brazil is a friend of Israel…but there is a massacre ongoing in the Gaza Strip.”
When Amy Goodman, on her television programme Democracy Now! Asked Henry Siegman, former executive director of the American Jewish Congress and of the Synagogue Council of America, to describe the present situation in Gaza he responded:
“It’s disastrous, both in political terms, which is the situation cannot conceivably, certainly in the short run, lead to any positive results, to an improvement in the lives of either Israelis or Palestinians, and of course it’s disastrous in humanitarian terms, the kind of slaughter that’s taking place there.
“When one thinks that this is what is necessary for Israel to survive, that the Zionist dream is based on the slaughter of, repeated slaughter of, innocents on a scale that we are watching these days on television, that is really a profound, profound crisis – and should be a profound crisis - in the thinking of all of us who were committed to the establishment of the state and to its success. It leads one virtually to a whole rethinking of this historical phenomenon.”
- Dr Cesar Chelala is a winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.
Doctors treating a girl, who was wounded by an Israeli air strike, at a hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday.
