בס"ד
(literally, "witness," in Arabic), in the Palestinian Authority.
The secular laws of just war ("laws of the land" which Bnei Israel are bound to respect while living in Galut, unless they are in conflict with Torah) are defined, at the core, by generally accepted international secular legal norms and customs (almost all of which are derived from principles lain out in the Torah, though this is not the explicit focus of our discussion in the present article; we carry this knowledge with us into the further discussion of the secular legal norms which are derived from the Torah, in seeking to lift up Klal Israel and Eretz Israel on this 7 Adar 5772, the Hilloula/Yartzheit of Moshe Rabbeinu, who was not permitted to enter the Land of Eretz Israel), the Hague Convention, and the Geneva Convention. They dictate the conduct of states in periods of armed conflict, and are founded upon the following principles of humanitarian law:
~ "Fighting a Well and Limited War": Wars should seek to avoid, to the greatest extent possible, unnecessary destruction, and particularly loss of life, and should be limited strictly to the resolution of the matter which sparked the war (i.e., the defense of sovereign borders);
According to this principle, those fighting a war should seek to end it as soon as possible;
~ "Non-Combatant Immunity" and "Discrimination": Individuals have different standing within the context of war, defined by that to which they have agreed. Civilians, who have not explicitly agreed to contribute to the war effort, as well as civilian property, should be protected against unnecessary destruction and hardship to the greatest extent possible. On the other hand, soldiers agree to subject themselves to the risk of harm in the completion of their duties during wartime.
In light of the above, the laws of just war seek to mitigate the iniquities, ills, and injustices of war via:
~ "Proportionality": During the course of war, combatants have an obligation to refrain from inflicting unnecessary or undue suffering upon other combatants and non-combatants;
~ "Recognition of the Rights of Soldiers and Civilians": Individuals who fall enemy into hands ~ civilians, the wounded, the sick, prisoners of war ~ have incontestable positive rights (i.e. the right to adequate medical treatment);
~ Expedition of the renewal of peace." [1]
I. THE 2006 LEBANON WAR
AND TERROR AGAINST SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS
During the summer of 2006, the State of Israel and the State of Lebanon (a Member State of the Arab League bordering Israel to the North), and arguably the Palestinian Authority (according to how one views the participation of Hamas in this chain of events, whether officially or unofficially), were in a legitimate state of armed conflict relative to the recognition of the sovereignty of the State of Israel and respect for its borders, a conflict most often referred to as the 2006 Lebanon War in Israel or the July War in Lebanon, and as the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah (or Israel-Hezbollah/Hamas) War by those who desire to make a clear distinction between the people of Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority, and the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas controlling the land in which they live (a distinction at the very core of the nature of the terrorist entity).
This conflict was sparked when, on 12 July 2006, Hezbollah, and, arguably, Hamas, which many people in Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority support as "legitimate political parties", 1) sent rockets into Israeli territory from Lebanon, killing five Israeli civilians, 2) infiltrated the Israeli border, and 3) attacked an Israeli patrol with explosive and anti-tank missiles, killing three IDF soldiers, and kidnapping two IDF soldiers from within Israeli territory. This all occurred in the aftermath of the kidnapping of another IDF soldier in the South of Israel just weeks prior, during a time of relative peace.
As the result of a negotiated "prisoner swap" in July 2008, Hezbollah returned two of the three kidnapped soldiers ~ Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, kidnapped in the North of Israel on 12 July 2006 and taken into Lebanon ~ to the State of Israel in body bags, after they had been tortured and murdered.
The third soldier, Gilad Shalit, kidnapped in the South of Israel on 25 June 2006 and taken into Gaza via underground tunnels, remained captive for five years, during which he was tortured both psychologically and physically, before being returned home to Israel as the result of a negotiated "prisoner swap" on 18 October 2011. We pray that Hashem protect and keep Gilad Shalit, and bring him back to full health and recovery, IYH, Inshallah, G-dwilling.
These kidnappings and murders by Hezbollah and Hamas, and the ceaseless launching of missiles by Hezbollah and Hamas into Israeli territory, are legitimate acts of war against a State, and Israel has every right under international law to protect its civilians and soliders from imminent danger and all harm by destroying the terrorist infrastructure used by these groups in order to conduct illegal attacks against the State of Israel and Israeli citizens, especially Israeli civilians.
This terrorist infrastructure includes the tunnels which Hezbollah and Hamas used in order to carry out the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit in a time of relative peace, and which they use in order to carry out terrorist activity against Israeli civilians, generally, in times of relative peace, as well as the launching pads from which Hezbollah and Hamas launch their missiles into civilian Israeli populations, often specifically targeting populations of young Israeli children (for example, by targeting schools, such as in Sderot), also in times of relative peace, unprovoked.
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Likewise, the United States has every right under international law to protect its citizens from imminent danger and all harm posed by the threat of terrorism, and particularly terrorism specifically targeting the commitment of the United States to support the undeniable right of the State of Israel to exist as a sovereign nation, homeland of the Jewish people with a Jewish character and a Jewish majority, in the Middle East. Indeed, the response of the United States to Al Qaeda's attack on the World Trade Center and the U.S. Pentagon on 11 September 2001, one of the most destructive terror attacks in contemporary history, sought to protect not only U.S. citizens, and especially U.S. civilians, from further harm, but also the citizens, and especially the civilians, of the world-at-large.
II. THE LAWS OF JUST WAR, THE GENEVA CONVENTION
AND TERROR AGAINST CIVILIANS, GENERALLY
In times of relative peace, in times of armed conflict, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda's ruthless campaigns of terror are not only against Israeli and American civilians, but ALSO AGAINST THEIR OWN PALESTINIAN AND LEBANESE AND SAUDI ARABIAN AND WORLD CIVILIANS in the territories and countries which are home to sponsorship for their activity financially or otherwise, whether officially via government organs of the state, or unofficially via powerful individuals living within the state concerned, such as Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan (though the list certainly does not end here, nor in the regions of the Middle East and Central Asia; origins of support for terrorist entities exist in every part of the world, including in the West...including within the United States...), in complete violation of the principles of just war.
Hamas and its supporters not only take the lives of Israeli civilians via targeted terrorist attacks in public places and spaces which are frequented by civilians, but also cause the loss of life of Palestinian people, by purposefully surrounding Hamas command targets with vulnerable civilian populations ~ mostly the elderly, women, and children ~ using the very people they claim to defend as human shields.
Hezbollah regularly persecutes Lebanese civilians who oppose its terrorist regime, and terrorizes democratic opposition within Lebanese borders, as evidenced by the assassination of Rafik Hariri.
Al Qaeda regularly persecutes civilians across the Middle East and Central Asia who oppose its international terrorist regime, as evidenced by its numerous bombings across the Middle East and Central Asia.
Hamas and Hezbollah and Al Qaeda use terror against EVERYONE, Israelis and Palestinians and Lebanese people, Middle Eastern and Central Asian people, people around the world, to their own benefit, and Palestinian, Lebanese, Middle Eastern and Central Asian people, people around the world, must stand against the death tolls and loss of life among their civilian populations resulting from terrorist violence, both in the state of armed conflict during the war on terrorism, and also in times of relative peace during the war on terrorism. HOME POPULATIONS MUST STAND AGAINST HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH AND AL QAEDA...the groups purposefully terrorizing and using their own people as they seek to establish and maintain oppressive control over the whole, all people and civilians within their home territories and countries around the world.
The Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (the Third Geneva Convention)[2] and The Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War (the Fourth Geneva Convention)[3] are the post-WWII bodies of international law which govern how prisoners of war and civilian populations ~ especially women and children ~ are to be treated by states and their military actors in times of war. The Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions must be considered in light of the normative laws of just war, summarized at the head of this article, and the larger Geneva Convention, which also includes:
1) the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (the First Geneva Convention)[4],
2) the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea (the Second Geneva Convention)[5], and
3) the Protocols to the Fourth Geneva Convention, relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (the First Protocol to the Fourth Geneva Convention)[6] and the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (the Second Protocol to the Fourth Geneva Convention)[7].
Article 51, para. 2 of the First Protocol to the Fourth Geneva Convention specifically prohibits the infliction of violence and terror, terrorism, upon civilian populations in stating that "[t]he civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited."[8]
Although terrorist entities such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda do not legitimately represent "States" (a topic which merits discussion in its own right), we apply these laws to them as international actors impacting both military and civilian populations around the world by their actions.
In times of armed conflict, States must take the precautions necessary to protect their civilian populations from undue hardship, and minimize risk of loss of life among civilian populations to the greatest extent possible. Preventing undue hardship or risk of harm and suffering, and minimizing risk of loss of life, means placing command or military targets away from civilian populations in order to protect them, as is the policy of Israel and of the countries of the world who respect the laws of just war, and the bodies international law treating the protection of civilians, generally.
This means closing schools in times of armed conflict, particularly at times during which the intensity of the conflict poses grave danger to civilians, especially children, as is the policy of Israel and of most countries.
This means that combatants would not hide ammunition or people in places where civilians would be placed at high risk of harm or death, as is the policy of Israel and most countries.
This means that children would neither be recruited as any type of combatant or for any type of military service, nor taught about or trained in any type of terrorist tactics, especially tactics such as suicide bombings or anything of the sort. The recruitment of children for participation in armed conflicts as combatants and the incitement of children to violence are generally considered as immoral by humane society, and are violations of the international norms and laws protecting civilians in armed conflict and children, in any case. The indoctrination of children, or adults, for that matter, to terrorism is a most egregious crime against children and civilians, also clearly in violation of international norms and laws, in the case of both children and adults. The indoctrination of children, or adults, for that matter, to terrorist tactics such as suicide bombing even moreso, as such is intended to incite children or adults to intentionally take their own lives, given to them by G-d, in order to take the lives of others, particularly those of civilian children and adults.[9]
Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda do not take any of these measures in order to protect any civilian populations, whether their own civilian populations or other civilian populations. In fact, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda, do precisely the opposite.
They purposefully hide command targets, ammunition and people in civilian quarters, placing civilians at a significantly higher risk of harm or death in the case of armed conflict. They purposefully leave schools open and operating during times of armed conflict, and intentionally target Israeli school populations with rockets, placing civilians and particularly children at a significantly higher risk of harm or death. They purposefully indoctrinate children to terrorism, and intentionally encourage children even to seek death by pushing them to become "shahid", for example, and inciting them to violence against Jewish people and the State of Israel. All these things are in clear violation of the international laws of just war, the Geneva Convention, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, discussed in greater detail below.
III. TERROR AGAINST CHILDREN
Children are not to be considered as combatants or parties to war in any manner, in any case, a principle grounded in the norms generally expressed by the laws of just war and the Geneva Convention, and specifically provided for in the body of international law stating and protecting the human rights of children.
Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, requires that states "undertake to respect and to ensure respect for rules of international humanitarian law applicable to them in armed conflicts which are relevant to the child" (Article 38, para. 1), and, "in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population in armed conflicts[,]...take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict" (Article 38, para. 4).[10]
Article 38, para. 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child further proscribes that states "shall refrain from recruiting any person who has not attained the age of fifteen years into their armed forces." [11] This same article further portends that "[i]n recruiting among those persons who have attained the age of fifteen years but who have not attained the age of eighteen years, States Parties shall endeavour to give priority to those who are oldest." [12]
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, raises the minimum age for the engagement of children in armed conflict by a State Party from 15 (as set forth in Article 38, para. 3 of the Convention) to 18. [13] Given that the engagement of children in terrorist activity, violence sponsored by terrorist organizations, may be characterized as being outside of the official authority of the "State", we look to these principles lain out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child as an expression of the humanitarian principles of the laws of just war generally defined by international law, ethics and morality, and apply them to armed and violent conflict, generally, in the case in which the actor is not a State actor.
To engage children in war or armed conflict is to abuse the child. To indoctrinate the child terrorism is to terrorize the child. People around the world, and particularly women and children, must stand up against the recruitment of child soldiers and the indoctrination of children to terrorism, practiced not only by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda, but also by certain rogue governments and other terrorist regimes around the world.
Al-Aqsa television, the primary Hamas-run broadcast media of the Palestinian Authority, and other television channels across the Middle East and Central Asia, regularly feature children who have been indoctrinated to the hatred of Jewish people and the State of Israel, some of whom are presented in media programs as religious teachers to other children who should be respected as authority figures, and whose ideas should be followed and emulated.[14] Media coming out of the Palestinian Authority regularly features childrens' television characters and mascots inciting young boys and girls to hatred, children dressed as "shahid" and "shahida", children dressed as suicide bombers and real child brides for the future "martyrs" waiting in line to be married...[15]
In Pakistan, it is estimated that 90 percent of all suicide bombers are between the ages of 12 and 18 years of age.[16] It is the terrorism of the very children, the very young people, that Hamas and Hezbollah and Al Qaeda, and all other groups like them, are claiming to defend.
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Israel cannot take the responsibility for the crimes against humanity which Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda are inflicting upon the very people which they are claiming to "protect".
Israel has every right to defend its sovereignty and its citizens, every right to defend its soldiers, and its civilians, from terrorist violence and torture, as prohibited by the laws of just war and the Geneva Convention, and must defend itself in an extremely difficult climate, as Palestinian and Lebanese and other civilians around the world, including women and children, are being directly used as illegal combatants and human defense shields due to the crimes against humanity being committed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda are terrorist groups ~ terrorizing Israeli and American civilians, and Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, civilians in Iran and Syria and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, wherever their terrorist violence furthers their goals of suppression of democracy and freedom ~ for their own ends, and it is time to call the international community together and say, "ENOUGH"!!!
We must encourage people of all religions across the Middle East to break their silence, imposed by oppression and fear, and stand up against Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups like them. More and more Muslim [men and] women across the Middle East are standing up, and speaking out, in hopes of a better future for their children, and a better future for all the people of the Middle East:
in which Muslim mothers speak out against terrorism, is no longer available online.
We have now included a similar video treating the same theme. ]
Support Israel, the United States, and the countries and peoples of the world in the fight against terrorism. STOP HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH, AL QAEDA and their TERRORIST CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!!!
~ Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham, ISRAELrealNATION,
1 March 2012, 7 Adar 5772
[1] See generally Maiese, Michelle. "Jus in Bello." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: June 2003, available at: http://www.beyondintractability.org/bi-essay/jus-in-bello/ .
[2] International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (Third Geneva Convention), 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 135, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b36c8.html [accessed 1 March 2012] .
[3] International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention), 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 287, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b36d2.html [accessed 1 March 2012] .
[4] International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (First Geneva Convention), 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 31, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b3694.html [accessed 1 March 2012] .
[5] International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea (Second Geneva Convention), 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 85, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b37927.html [accessed 1 March 2012] .
[6] International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977, 1125 UNTS 3, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b36b4.html [accessed 1 March 2012] .
[7] International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977, 1125 UNTS 609, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b37f40.html [accessed 1 March 2012] .
[8] International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977, 1125 UNTS 3, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b36b4.html [accessed 1 March 2012] ,
Article 51, para. 2 .
[9] Some Imam ~ among them, Sheik Adel Al-Kalbani, Former Imam of the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca ~ have begun to speak out against "martyrdom operations" within the Islamic world, affirming that they constitute suicide, and are in violation of the laws of the Qur'an:
in which Sheik Adel Al-Kalbani, Former Imam of the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca, argues that "martyrdom operations" and suicide bombings constitute suicide, in violation of Qur'anic law, is now only available online to subscribers of the Middle East Research Institute's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). If you are a paid subscriber to this service, the above-mentioned video should be visible to you below.
Persons who are not subscribers to this service may find out more information about this video by consulting the following links:
https://www.memri.org/tv/sheik-adel-al-kalbani-former-imam-al-haram-mosque-mecca-martyrdom-operations-constitute-suicide
http://www.memritv.org/embedded_player/index.php?clip_id=3179 . ]
This is an important theological development within Islamic thought which condemns suicide bombing, and provides a foundation for condemning the use of terrorist tactics, generally, by extension, within Islam.
[10] UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, p. 3, available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm [accessed 2 March 2012] .
[11] Idem, Article 38, para. 3.
[12] Idem.
[13] UN General Assembly, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, 25 May 2005, available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-conflict.htm [accessed 2 March 2012] .
[14] An example of a media broadcast presenting a child professing hatred of Jewish people and the State of Israel to the public, and particularly to other children, as a religious teacher who should be respected as authority figure, and whose ideas should be followed and emulated, follows:
[15] An example of children's media broadcast from the Palestinian Authority which uses mascots and cartoon characters in order to help indoctrinate young children to the hatred of Jewish people and the State of Israel follows:
© 2009-2012
ISRAELrealNATION / Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham
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