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Analysis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Evidence of Israeli contempt for Geneva convention =================================== Suzanne Goldenberg in Jerusalem Wednesday April 17, 2002 The Guardian The accusation from British and Palestinian politicians that Israel has been involved in war crimes raises questions about the extent to which its military incursion into the occupied territories may have broken the terms of the Geneva convention. Human rights workers say the definition of a war crime hinges on a cardinal principle of a body of international humanitarian law, including the Geneva convention. "The spirit and soul is to limit the effect of armed violence on those not taking part in the fighting," said Antonella Notari, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. "It is primarily the responsibility of those fighting the war to look after the wellbeing of civilians." On that count, Israel has failed on a massive scale - and not just in Jenin. Nineteen days of curfew and siege on West Bank towns have deprived one million Palestinians of access to medical care, food and drinking water. Israeli tanks trundled over water mains, and ploughed through electricity and phone wires, depriving most neighbourhoods of basic services. In Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Nablus, as well as Jenin, there is indisputable proof that the Israeli army denied Palestinian civilians the basic protection of medical care. Bodies rotted in homes and streets for days; the wounded bled to death because the Israeli army banned ambulances from entering the battle zones. In Jenin, junior surgeons performed brain surgery from phone instructions given by leading practitioners in Jordan. Likewise in Ramallah several mothers were talked through the delivery of their children over mobile phones. There are also widespread accounts from Palestinians in Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin that the Israeli army regularly seized male civilians from their homes and used them as human shields. They forced the men to walk ahead of soldiers as they searched homes in camps and towns, putting them first in the line of fire from Palestinian fighters. As well, there are scattered accounts of Palestinian civilians killed inside their homes by machine-gun fire from Israeli helicopter gunships and from tank shells in Jenin, Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem, generally at the start of each invasion. Although the laws that govern war focus on the protection of civilians, they also require armies to afford some protection to combatants. "Combatants must be treated humanely and must be given a fair trial," Ms Notari said. In Ramallah, however, captured Palestinian policemen were forced to strip to their underwear and were held in appalling conditions at a nearby Israeli army base, denied food, water and shelter for hours. A few were also shot as they were on the verge of surrender. The Israeli roundups also made no distinction between fighter and ordinary Palestinians. In Nablus, Jenin, Ramallah and other cities, 5,000 males from their teens to their 40s were detained. But the destruction visited on the Jenin refugee camp - and in the old city, or casbah, of Nablus where dozens of stone houses were demolished - is a far murkier affair. Although much of the devastation in Jenin and Nablus appears wanton, international law remains unclear on destruction of homes in combat zones. The nature of the fighting in Jenin and other cities further complicates the matter. The Israeli army says it was forced to demolish civilian homes because they were occupied by Palestinian gunmen. That argument may become much hardier to sustain, though, when the full scale of the damage inflicted on Palestinian towns becomes clearer in the coming days. However, yesterday's calls for Israel's military campaign to be classed a war crime are unlikely to be translated into any legal action. The international war crimes tribunals now in existence were established specifically to investigate atrocities that occurred in the Balkans and in Rwanda. The UN international criminal court, which has just been ratified, does not come into force until July 1 and cannot act retrospectively. The most likely legal avenue at the moment to investigate Israel's offensive remains the Israeli supreme court - which is not politically practical. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
