War crime is defined by Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention as "wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including... wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial, ...taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly" (Kafala, BBC News, 2008). War crimes are difficult to prove, but it’s provable if the extent of collateral damage to civilians and civilian interests resulting from the assault would be excessive compared to the military advantage gained from the attack.
In January 2009, Israel attacked the edge of Gaza with white phosphorus, wounding 2,300 Palestinians. White phosphorus burn on contact with air and create severe and persistence burn on skin. White phosphorus burns on less than ten percent of the body can be fatal because of the damage to organs. It can also penetrate the body and poison internal organs and cause death. The use of white phosphorus is a war crime except when using it as a smokescreen. Protocol III of the Geneva Treaty of 1980 declared in article 2 that
1. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects the object of attack by incendiary weapons.
2. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons.
3. It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air-delivered incendiary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects (International Committee of the Red Cross, Protocol III, 2005).
“The Fourth Convention forbids the destruction of civilian hospitals and their property or damage to ambulances or medical aircraft” (International Committee of the Red Cross. Article 147 - Grave Breaches, 2005). A seventy-one page report by Human Rights Watch “concludes that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repeatedly exploded it unlawfully over populated neighborhoods, killing and wounding civilians and damaging civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse, and a hospital”.
According to the Geneva Convention, Israel had committed war crimes by illegal use of white phosphorus. I agree that Israel have committed war crimes. The Geneva Treaty of 1980 clearly declared that civilians or civilian objects are prohibited from incendiary weapons attack. The exception is when the military target is separated from the concentration of civilians. It is clear that the wounded 2,300 Palestinians are evidences that the IDF did not take all or any feasible precautions to limit injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.
Reference:
Human Rights Watch. (2009, March 25). Israel: White Phosphorus Use Evidence of War Crimes. Commonsdream.org. [On-line]. Available: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/03/25-9
International Committee of the Red Cross. (2005). Article 147-Grave Breaches. International Humanitarian Law – Treaties & Documents. [On-line]. Available: http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/COM/380-600169?OpenDocument
International Committee of the Red Cross. (2005). Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons (Protocol III). International Humanitarian Law. [On-line]. Available: http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/515?OpenDocument
Kafala , T., (2008, July 22). What is War Crime? BBC News. [On-line]. Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1420133.stm
BBC. (2005, November 16) US used white phosphorus in Iraq. BBC News. [On-line]. Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm
Taking the side of the bad guys and crucifying the good guys. That seems to be popular when the bad guys are Muslims. I think Israel should Nuke their enemy Islamic neighbors. How's that for war crimes? I hope they bomb the shit out of Iran because Osama bin Laden -- I mean Obama -- sure as hell isn't going to perform that righteous action. Seriously, if Israel is guilty of war crimes, then what are the Muslim terrorists guilty of? For God's (or Allah's) sake its disgusting that the terrorists don't have to answer for their war crimes (to put it very freaking mildly) but Israel is evil no matter what. I think we should back the good guys but obviously you see fit to whine about how the terrorist are the victims and all of that bullshit and Israel is evil. Maybe when the Palestinian terrorists kill your child in a school bus on the way to school with a savage bulldozer attack you will be enlightened to who is responsible for the real war crimes. Maybe when that's your bloodied baby being pulled from the wreckage of a bulldozer assault on innocent civilian traffic you will see who is responsible for the real war crimes. Or it could be your spouse, sibling, or parent killed by the savage Palestinian terrorists. Would that change your misguided attitude. What if it was you?
This is an issue about human rights and an inhumane method of fighting a war. Nuking Iran is a righteous action? Get a grip. Just because you disagree with a country doesn't give you free reign to slaughter their civilians in cold blood. And yes, Muslim terrorists are guilty of war crimes, but that doesn't mean we can't apply the same standard to Israel, who has committed many more war crimes than Hamas. I also think it is ironic that you give an example involving a bulldozer because that is one of Israel's favorite tactics. Read a book, study some history, and then talk if you want to look like an intelligent person. Right now you look like a facist war-monger.
I think that technically, since terrorists are non-state actors, they cannot commit a war crime as defined by the Geneva Conventions. Technicalities don't matter much though when you're talking about conflict with death and destruction, which is why the Geneva Conventions are a joke- made even more laughable by the way they are ignored at will by the most powerful and liberal countries, including the US.
I don't support Israel's foreign policy, nor am I a fan of Netanyahoo- I mean, Netanyahu. I do agree that Hamas is a violent terrorist organization not deserving of sympathy- but there is a difference between the majority of Gazan civilians and Hamas. All Muslims/Palestinians are not terrorists.
I think that the only way to end the violence- from Hamas militants and the IDF- is to create a sovereign Palestinian state. And Israel's going to have to give up East Jerusalem too (which was never supposed to be occupied by Israel in the first place) for that to work. This could work because it removes the single most important rallying point that Hamas- and nearly all worldwide terror organizations- use to legitimize their agendas: the oppression and marginalization of Palestinians.
Taking the side of the bad guys and crucifying the good guys. That seems to be popular when the bad guys are Muslims. I think Israel should Nuke their enemy Islamic neighbors. How's that for war crimes?
But I know that this is the kind of cold-blooded hysterical rant that makes it difficult to distinguish the difference between our "good-guys" and their terrorists.
TTFN,
Blackout
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A question of love.
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Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.
what makes you any different when you are wishing death upon innocent women and children....the sad part is that I know there are many more people who share your views.
You are the same as people who called me a bitch in a bookstore because I was wearing a check scarf that is very much a Palestinian cultural thing.
Thank you for showing me how sick and inhuman humans can be. I thought the idea was to be different and win people with love and kindness, obviously...I did not get your memo.
I am DEEPLY offended reading your thoughts.
The only other time this has happened with me is when jackbenimble wished that the President of US would bomb Pakistan....I have relatives, friends and loved ones living there who have nothing to do with AL Qaeda and or Taliban.
You cannot wean away an addict from the drug. It is not possible for me to walk away from Ranjha. If it is our destiny to be together then who, other than God, can change it?”
she's a spaceman, no walker, dreamer...maybe
what makes you any different when you are wishing death upon innocent women and children....the sad part is that I know there are many more people who share your views.
I never said anything of the sort. That's a lie and an immature smear tactic. The reasons I hold the anti-terrorist views I do (and you don't know my complete point of view by the way) is because I want to protect innocent people from being slaughtered by the Muslim terrorists. Because I believe that girls should be able to go to school without getting acid tossed on their faces by the dirtball terrorists and schools for girls should not constantly get destroyed. Because teenage girls should not be whipped for resisting sodomy by perverted low-life fascists. Because I think families in Iraq should be able to live normal lives (go out to eat, attend school and work, etc.) without watching their family members mutilated and killed by suicide bombers. Because children and babies in Israel should not be injured and killed by a vicious terrorist attack on traffic by a fascist dirtball in a bulldozer. Because I don't think Americans or anyone else should have to watch the low-life savage fascist pigs behead their loved ones alive. Because children and spouses shouldn't lose their loved ones because of 9/11 style attacks. Because good men and women shouldn't have to talk on the phone to their young children knowing its the last time they'll ever speak to them. Because good people shouldn't have to choose between getting burned in an inferno or jumping hundreds of feet to their demise. How sad that other people agree with me.
You are the same as people who called me a bitch in a bookstore because I was wearing a check scarf that is very much a Palestinian cultural thing.
What a preposterous and absolutely false accusation. Anybody who would call you a bitch for wearing a certain scarf is nothing like me. I'm tempted to call you that now but it sure as hell isn't for your scarf but rather your unfounded defamation of my person through false and outrageous statements.
Thank you for showing me how sick and inhuman humans can be. I thought the idea was to be different and win people with love and kindness, obviously...I did not get your memo.
Oh yes I am quite the example of a sick and inhumane person aren't I? Since I don't want to coddle terrorists I'm obviously just a rotten worthless person aren't I? I myself am the example of the sickest and most inhuman person surely not Muslim terrorists who, among a plethora of other evil deeds, behead innocent fully conscious people. There's simply no worse and inhuman offense than saying something that YOU don't agree with. Well I'll tell you what. Why don't you go over to Afghanistan and Pakistan and give Osama bin Laden a big hug? Why don't you teach the Islamic fascists love and kindness? Maybe because you want to keep your head on your shoulders or avoid the other twisted, savage things that Muslim terrorists do to people, especially women. Winning Islamic fascists with "love and kindness" just simply isn't going to happen. Those dirtballs are not going to change and you need listen to nobody but the terrorists themselves to learn the horrific hatred, evil, oppression and violence they wish to plague the world with. I am a very ethical, loving, caring, and compassionate person and if "love and kindness" toward terrorists would work at all, I would be the one of the first people to push for it.
I am DEEPLY offended reading your thoughts.
Well I'll start planning the pity party. That's tough that people who don't coddle terrorists offend you. Get over it.
the only other time this has happened with me is when jackbenimble wished that the President of US would bomb Pakistan....I have relatives, friends and loved ones living there who have nothing to do with AL Qaeda and or Taliban.
Oh the horrors of it all. You are a victim, by choice, of words and nothing more. I would hope, and naturally expect that your friends and family have nothing to do with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. However surgical bombings in Taliban controlled areas of Pakistan could help your family avoid something no good people should have to suffer and that is a fascist Taliban regime. Unless, of course, you'd like to go over there and give all the Taliban militants kindness and love so they'd suddenly be all nice and good. Yeah I think you should go spread love and kindness to the terrorists overseas because that is all they really need right? Meanwhile I'll continue to support the mass killing of Islamic fascists. If I were president I'd order the military to kill as many as they can of those low-life, perverted, fascists. If you were president you might send an army of people to spread "love and kindness" what a ridiculous, pathetic, and horrifying scene that would be.
what makes you any different when you are wishing death upon innocent women and children....the sad part is that I know there are many more people who share your views.
I never said anything of the sort. That's a lie and an immature smear tactic.
Ahem...
I think Israel should Nuke their enemy Islamic neighbors. How's that for war crimes? I hope they bomb the shit out of Iran...
Perhaps you aren't thinking your opinions through to their logical conclusion, but something as indiscriminate as a nuclear weapon will not target JUST the terrorists. That's why they're called "weapons of MASS destruction." The tactic you suggest would invariably result in huge numbers of civilian casualties, likely FAR greater than all of the victims of terrorist attacks inflicted on the other side. Your flippant suggestion that Israel resort to the nuclear options demonstrates that either A) you have NO CONCEPT of the sheer SCALE of these weapons, or B) you have no more regard for human life than the terrorists you criticize.
TTFN,
Blackout
---
A question of love.
---
Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.