Upon the occasion of Gregorian "New Year's Eve" 2021-2022, we were drawn into a lively discussion celebrating "New Year's" traditions around the world and across different cultures.
During the course of this discussion, we were not sure that we agreed with another participant's representation of the Jewish New Year, "Rosh HaShana" (literally, the "Head of the Year" in Hebrew) as a "solemn" occasion.
While it is most definitely a religious occasion which marks the beginning of the most meaningful period of prayer and repentance for Jewish people — 10 days called the "Yomim Noraim", or the "Days of Awe" (and, more literally, "Days of Enlightenment") in English, Rosh HaShana is not "solemn", a word which would more properly refer to "Yom Kippour", the last of these 10 days of repentance.
We celebrate the two days of Rosh HaShana joyfully by sharing traditional meals with family, friends, and members of the community, the first day of Rosh Hoshana being marked by two formal "seders" (ceremonial religious meals with special prayers, "ritual order", and customs). As Persian people do for Nowrouz, we eat from an abundant table showing gratitude for the sustenance with which G-d has provided us, partaking of many symbolic foods which each correspond to specific prayers, such as:
- apples and honey, a prayer for a sweet New Year ("LeShana Toba OuMetouka");
- leeks, a prayer for protection against and defeat of our enemies;
- black-eyed peas and/or carrots, a prayer that our merits may increase;
- pomegranate, a prayer for the bounty and abundance of our blessings;
- fish, a prayer for fertility and children, that our family may live on in future generations;
- the head of a fish or goat, a prayer for blessing in leadership and stewardship...
The above list is indicative, and not exhaustive.
On Rosh HaShana, we also say a special prayer called "Tashlikh" over an open body of water, which can be the sea or a river, for example, in order to spiritually "cast off" our sins, which is a very beautiful tradition.
And, finally, as mentioned during the course of the discussion in question, we are called to the importance of this time, the beginning of the Jewish New Year and the next 10 days to follow, by the blowing of the "shofar" (typically, an ancient ritual "ram's horn"), which has actually been blown, in any case, during each day of the month prior on the Jewish calendar, the month of Eloul, a time of deep spiritual preparation for Rosh HaShana and the Yomim Noraim.
Thus, for Jewish people, the days of Rosh HaShana, though of very significant and serious religious weight, are also a very festive, joyful time...not "solemn" or "muted". The solemnity follows as the Yomim Noraim progress, ending with Yom Kippour, our most significant day of religious observance, prayer, and repentence during the Jewish calendar year...which is then immediately followed by another period of joy: Soukkot!
(As edited and republished from the original text published in a commentary made by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham to the Global News video reportage "How Different Cultures Celebrate the New Year" on 27 Tebet 5782, 31 December 2021.)
Israel: The Story of the Jewish People (1965) by Julien Bryan
In his film Israel: The Story of the Jewish People (1965), Julien Bryan perceptively addresses the issue of discrimination against Musta'arabi, Misrahi, and Sefaradi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, calling "integration" of these Jewish communities "Israel's most serious internal problem".
I believe that when Mr. Bryan says "internal problem", he means not only socially, within the Jewish community, but also geographically, within the boundaries of the State of Israel, save the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, which has taken on a more dominant "external" dimension (from an Israeli perspective) by 1965.
Our Jewishness is neither solely defined by what we "look like" in strictly physical terms (facial features, form and shape of the body, or any other purely physical aspect of our being), nor our place in Diaspora (it being understood that individual physicial traits or characteristics, experiences, and traditions in Diaspora are to be respected; one who is committed to preserving their Jewish history and tradition in Diaspora has every right to be and do so according to Halakha — this has nothing to do with the fallacy of the social construct of "race").
Our Jewishness is defined by:
1) our common descendance from Abraham veSara,
2) our acceptance of the obligations of Torah by "all those who were there, and all those who were not there" (Debarim 29:13-14, Shabuot 39a)...throughout all space and time..., and,
3) according to Halakha, the manifestation of both through our maternal descendance from a Jewish mother (whatever she "looks like") or conversion (which, according to some of our Sages, truly represents a Jewish soul finding its lost half, and, according to some of our Sages, represents a spark of holiness in the soul of a lost Jew or a Gentile...).
What does a "Nefesh Yehudi" (our "spiritual DNA"...) "look like"? It is invisible to the eye.
We are a nation of people BeMisrah, MeMisrah, LeMisrah...rooted in the East — mentally, physically, spiritually...
In our humble opinion, one should therefore refrain from strictly assigning a standard, limited physical characteristic, form, or racial construct to "Jewishness", to ourselves, as Jews (as those who hate us have sought to do throughout the centuries, and seek to do even today, such as Amalek openly revealing itself on this earth during the course of the Spanish Inquisition, the Shoah, the Jewish Nakba, the attacks on Habeshim in the Sudan as they made Aliyah to Israel (on foot!)...this past Friday's terrorist attack on the Hyper Cacher in Paris (!)) — the true science of genetics easily being misunderstood or manipulated, and falling into the evils of eugenics and racist, anti-semitic morphologies (some concepts of which have sadly been internalized by some of us, as Jewish people)...'Has veShalom.
(As edited and republished from an original text published by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham in the official ISRAELrealNATION Facebook Page on 15 January 2015, 25 Tebet 5775.)
Pictured: "After Treatment: Letter from the British Military Governor’s Office in Baghdad to the Chief Rabbi Regarding the Allotment of Sheep for Rosh ha-Shanah, the Jewish New Year, 1918." ~ National [United States] Archives
18 November 2013
Via Certified Mail, Fax, and Electronic Mail
Dear Mr. Secretary:
As a fellow graduate of Harvard Law School, I am contacting you regarding the sacred and historic Torah scrolls, Megillot, books, manuscripts and documents belonging to the members of the Iraqi Jewish community discovered by U.S. Military troops in the flooded basement of the Baghdad Headquarters of Saddam Hussein’s Mukhabarat (Secret Police) in May 2003 (the “Iraqi Jewish Archive”, or the “Archive”).
Pursuant to the Agreement between the Coalition Provisional Authority (“CPA”) and The National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”), effective as of 20 August 2003 (the “Iraqi Jewish Archive Agreement”, or the “Agreement”), the U.S. Government, under the auspices of NARA, generously arranged for the salvaging, restoration, preservation (including digitization), and exhibition of the long-neglected and severely damaged Iraqi Jewish Archive in the United States, for which the Jewish community-at-large is most thankful.
However, although it is generally accepted that :
(1) the Iraqi Jewish Archive was illegally acquired by the Government of Iraq during a period
largely dating from the tragic events of the Iraqi Farhud of 1-2 June 1941 and the subsequent
expulsion of Iraqi Jewry over the decades which followed, up until the fall of Saddam Hussein
unraveling in March 2003; that
(2) the Government of Iraq systematically neglected and failed to properly care for and maintain the
Iraqi Jewish Archive; and that
(3) the members of the Iraqi Jewish community, both within Israel and within the larger Jewish
diaspora, have a valid legal claim to the contents of the Iraqi Jewish Archive under International
Law ~ namely the body of International Cultural Property Law prohibiting the theft, illegal
transfer, and destruction of Cultural Property ~ and the Common Law of
Restitution,
the U.S. Government continues to invoke the Iraqi Jewish Archive Agreement in defense of the return of the Archive to the Ministry of Culture of Iraq, rather than to the members of the Iraqi Jewish community, whether within Iraq, within Israel (home to the majority of Iraqi Jews today), or within the larger Jewish diaspora.
Given the fact that the Jewish community remaining within Iraq today consists of a very small number of people ~ less than 10, according to most recent world Jewish population estimates, it is highly unlikely that, if returned to Iraq, the contents of the Iraqi Jewish Archive would be physically returned to the members of the Iraqi Jewish community, or benefit of the Iraqi Jewish community in any manner. Moreover, given the modern history of the expulsion of Iraqi Jewry, as well as ongoing conflict within Iraq, it is highly unlikely that any claim for the restitution of the Iraqi Jewish Archive made by members of the Iraqi Jewish community currently living within Iraq before Iraqi courts would prevail, not to mention the fact that any such claim made before Iraqi courts by Iraqi Jews currently living within Iraq would very likely place the members of Iraq’s remaining Jewish community in danger.
Nevertheless, Section I (4) and Section VIII of the Iraqi Jewish Archive Agreement clearly provide the CPA with discretion in the determination of to whom the Iraqi Jewish Archive may be returned once the terms of the Agreement have been met, or once the Agreement has been terminated. Furthermore, there is no language within the Agreement which bars the CPA from determining that the Iraqi Jewish Archive should, indeed, be returned to the members of the Iraqi Jewish community remaining within Iraq, or members of the Iraqi Jewish community residing outside of Iraq, rather than the Iraqi Ministry of Culture.
In such case that the CPA were to determine under the Agreement that the Archive, should, indeed, be returned to the members of the Iraqi Jewish community remaining within Iraq, rather than the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, there is nothing in the Agreement which bars the members of the Jewish community remaining within Iraq from designating a third party, namely an organization outside of Iraq representing the members of the Iraqi Jewish community-at-large, to take possession of the Iraqi Jewish Archive for the benefit of the entire Iraqi Jewish community until such time that the rightful owners of its contents may be determined.
In light of the above, I humbly request that the U.S. Department of State reconsider its determination that the Iraqi Jewish Archive Agreement bars the U.S. Government from returning the Archive to its rightful owners, the Iraqi Jewish Community, in a manner which ensures the safety of the members of the Iraqi Jewish community, as well as the integrity and preservation of the sacred and historical contents of the Archive to the benefit of that community and the entire Jewish community-at-large.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham
Harvard Law School, J.D. 2002
Former President, Harvard International Law Society
Former Member of the Board, Harvard Law School Arts Panel
Pictured: Young boys being indoctrinated to terrorism, as suicide bombers, "shahid" (literally, "witness," in Arabic), in the Palestinian Authority.
Photo: (Photographer, Date Unknown) | (Source Unknown)
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.
Pictured: "An Emergency Population Instructor at a School in Sderot. As the school year opens, soldiers and officers from the Home Front Command escort the children of Sderot to their schools." (Israel Defense Forces)
Photo: Israel Defense Forces (Photographer Unknown), 1 September 2008 | Wikimedia Commons
Pictured: "[Nine-year-old] boy Osher Twito copes with loss of his leg. Osher and his big brother Rami were seriously hurt when a Qassam [rocket] exploded next to them in Sderot. Doctors were forced to amputate Osher's left leg and just barely saved his right leg following eight operations. [He] is still having trouble comprehending what that means." (Edi Israel)
Photo: Edi Israel, 29 December 2008 | Wikimedia Commons
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.
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:
[ The video originally shared here at the time of publication of the present article, 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:
[ The video originally shared here at the time of publication of the present article, 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:
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:
[16] Kalsoom Lakhani, "Indoctrinating Children: The Making of Pakistan's Suicide Bombers", CTC online, 3 June 2010, citing "Zahid Hussain, an expert on the Taliban who has interviewed many children trained to become suicide bombers, [who] provided this figure to CNN journalist Anderson Cooper, which was broadcast on 'Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees,' on January 5, 2010", available at: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/indoctrinating-children-the-making-of-pakistan%E2%80%99s-suicide-bombers .
Dear Ms. Carla Hadad Mardini [Spokesperson, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)],
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (http://www.habanim.org/en/index_en.html) [original site/link no longer exists] was unlawfully kidnapped on Israeli soil by the terrorist group, Hamas, on 25 June 2006, and has been held in the most inhumane conditions for over five years.
Gilad Shalit is being held by Hamas in total isolation, as the most dangerous criminal, in clear violation of international law. He is not even being afforded the most basic human rights granted to Prisoners of War by his captors (http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JMJT).
The International Committee of the Red Cross (http://www.icrc.org/), an international humanitarian organization, however, has officially afforded Gilad Shalit the status of a Prisoner of War (POW) under the Geneva Convention and its additional Protocols (http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/genevaconventions), though the fact remains that Gilad Shalit is a soldier who was kidnapped, taken into captivity illegally, in violation of the laws of just war.
The Geneva Convention, establishing international humanitarian law, requires that Gilad Shalit's basic human rights be respected while he is held in captivity. According to the Convention and international law generally, Gilad Shalit has the right to contact his family and to be visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
We now come to the ICRC in show of support for their repeated past efforts to view Gilad Shalit in accordance with their rights under the Geneva Convention, now demanding that the ICRC take more decision and effective action in their attempt to realize these rights.
Hamas is clearly violating international humanitarian law in refusing ICRC visits with Gilad Shalit, and should now be brought before the International Criminal Court as War Criminals (http://www.icc-cpi.int/menus/icc).
We encourage the ICRC to fully invoke its rights under international law, and to give an ultimatum to Hamas: either you let us visit Gilad Shalit or we will bring you before the International Criminal Court. That's it.
Gilad Shalit was unlawfully abducted by Hamas, and is now being unlawfully held by Hamas in total isolation, in violation of international humanitarian law and the laws of war, and this is simply unacceptable.
"Negotiation" with terrorists and war criminals is not the solution. Bring Hamas before the International Criminal Court.
