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UN Human Rights Expert Would Prohibit Self-Defense

[New York Jewish Week] Harry Reicher - In his statement on March 19, characterizing Israel's recent military incursion into Gaza as a "grave war crime," the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, Professor Richard Falk, has once again permitted personal prejudices to distort what should be objective reporting. International law outlaws the deliberate targeting of civilians, or actions which, while directed at military targets, are carried out with such negligence, or reckless disregard of the consequences to civilians, that culpability is perfectly warranted. In this way, international law focuses on the guilty mind of the perpetrator, as is the case with criminal law generally. Hamas' practice of embedding terrorist personnel, as well as arms, munitions and other military equipment, among civilians, and in heavily-populated civilian areas generally, using innocent men, women and children as human shields, is an unquestionable violation of international law. It was Hamas itself that made it not possible to distinguish between military targets and surrounding civilians. Account must be taken of the extraordinary lengths to which Israel went to warn the civilian population to evacuate targeted areas - through an unprecedented inundation of leaflets, radio broadcasts and mass telephone calls and text messaging - in the process giving the terrorists themselves early warning of impending action. Where, in all this, is Israel's "guilty mind," such as would warrant condemnation? Deliberately ignoring these key elements and asserting a blanket prohibition on any military action whatsoever where military and civilian forces are even purposely enmeshed is an open invitation to terrorist action of the worst kind; terrorists need merely plant their bases in civilian areas, and military response immediately becomes prohibited. Falk's assertion is a denial of the right to self-defense. In this view, Israel, which had thousands of rockets fired onto its soil, and aimed quite deliberately at large population centers, had no right to strike back. The writer teaches international human rights at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
2009-04-10 06:00:00
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