TITLE: Letter Decrying Israel's Publicly Acknowledged Policy of Assassination
AUTHOR:
DATE: Jan. 13, 2001
Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, head of the negotiating team to permanent status issues, submitted today a detailed letter to the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee decrying Israel's publicly acknowledged policy of assassination.
Abed Rabbo indicated that the policy is in violation of international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international human rights law, and Israeli domestic law. Abed Rabbo said that "this Israeli policy violates all international norms and must stop immediately." The letter added that universal jurisdiction applies to the crime of assassination and that those involved may be tried for their individual involvement in various national and international settings. "This remains true whether those responsible are soldiers, government officials or even if they are the head of a state or government," said Abed Rabbo.
The letter issued by the Negotiations Affairs Department [tel: 02-2959642/ fax: 02-2959648 e-mail:nadr@palnet.com], and submitted to the Fact-Finding Committee is attached along with a partial list of assassinations of Palestinians executed by the Israeli army.
Tel: 2407721 Fax: 2407730
January 12, 2001
Re: Israeli Government Policy of Assassinations of Palestinians
Dear Senator Mitchell and Esteemed Members of the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee:
As you are undoubtedly aware, Israel has been engaged in a systematic and willful policy of targeted killings of Palestinians, which has become widely implemented during the latest crisis. In the past, the Israeli government had pointedly refused to deny involvement in extra-judicial executions and willful killings of Palestinians. The lack of any international outcry against what can only be called state-sponsored terrorism, however, has now resulted in an open declaration by Israeli officials of Israel's illegal policies. The latest Palestinian to be assassinated, Dr. Thabet Thabet, was an open advocate of reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis, but was nevertheless gunned down by an Israeli death squad as he left his home on New Year's Eve. This Israeli policy violates all international norms and must stop immediately.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh and the Chief of the General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz have all confirmed that the government of Israel is carrying out a policy of extra-judicial executions. According to members of the Knesset, Barak admitted the assassination policy at a recent meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Sneh told Israel Radio last week that "[i]f anyone has committed or is planning to carry out terrorist attacks, he has to be hit..It is effective, precise and just." Mofaz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week that security forces have permission to eliminate Palestinian "hostile elements." Israel's policy, besides constituting a major escalation of the aggression against Palestinians, is also a clear breach of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Israel's openly advocated policy of murder constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva convention, a war crime that has been outlawed since the Lieber Code of 1863, as well as a violation of internationally acknowledged human rights standards. Furthermore, the policy is a manifest violation of Israel's Basic Law as interpreted by the Israeli Supreme Court.
The international community has now made it clear, particularly through the precedents of the International War Crimes Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia ("ICTY") and Rwanda ("ICTR"), that all of those involved in the planning, instigation, ordering, or commission of grave breaches or who otherwise aid and abet in the planning, preparation or execution of grave breaches must be held individually responsible for the crime. This remains true whether those responsible are soldiers, government officials or even if they are the head of a state or government. Barak has implemented this policy despite its illegality and despite opposition from members of the Israeli Knesset and Barak's own cabinet. Naomi Chazan, a member of the Knesset, was quoted by the Washington Post on January 8, 2001, as noting that Barak's assassination policy is "totally illegal according to any international criteria or law.it's immoral..[and] it's stupid." Dan Meridor, chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee told a Knesset hearing that it was illegal for the state to carry out extrajudicial killing of political activists.
Barak's policy is predicated on the continued silence of the international community and the belief that Israeli death squads, unlike those which have operated in El Salvador, Guatemala, or elsewhere, are immune from any form of legal retribution. Yet, recent events such as the indictment of Augusto Pinochet in Spain, the indictment and arrest of alleged war criminals from the former Yugoslavia including former Bosnian Serb President and Member of the Supreme Command of the Bosnian Serb Armed Forces Biljana Plavsic, and numerous civil suits successfully brought in the United States against governments and individuals (including one just last month confirming that assassinations or extrajudicial killings violate the law of nations), indicate that no one has immunity from prosecution for international crimes - even if he is the Prime Minister of Israel. On the contrary, under Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, each state party to the Convention is "under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed.. grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts."
While this Committee is not expected to take legal action, it nevertheless must recognize the impossibility of either having constructive peace talks or bringing an end to the current violence while such a gross violation of international law continues to take place and, in fact, is bragged about by Israeli leaders. Israel must be reminded that international law applies to all nations and all individuals - even Israelis. Israel's assassination policy specifically violates the following legal norms:
International Humanitarian Law
Despite Israel's traditional argument to the contrary, it has been universally recognized in numerous UN Security Council Resolutions and Conferences of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention that the Fourth Geneva Convention is applicable to Israel's occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This applicability extends to all areas occupied in 1967 including East Jerusalem and "Areas A". Under the current conditions, Israel has argued that an armed conflict exists. Its policy of assassination is planned and systematic and directed against specific Palestinian officials and local leaders, all of whom are "civilians" under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Under these conditions, Israel's policy of systematically targeting Palestinian local and national leaders for willful killing violates Articles 27, 32, and 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: Article 27: Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.
Article 32: The High Contracting Parties specifically agree that each of them is prohibited from taking any measure of such a character as to cause the physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands..
Article 33: No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. In addition, these acts are considered "grave breaches" under Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and as such are subject to universal jurisdiction in accordance with Article 146.
The Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention of 1977 provides guidance in interpreting international humanitarian law concerning assassination and arguably reflects customary law. Attacks on persons considered activists, or allegedly involved in encouraging resistance to Israel's occupation, clearly contravene the Protocol, which identifies such actions as war crimes:
Article 51 (Sec. 2): The 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.
Article 51 (Sec. 3): Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this section, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in the hostilities.
Article 51 (Sec. 6): Attacks against the civilian population or civilians by way of reprisals are prohibited.
Article 75 (Sec. 2): The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents: (a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular: (i) murder..
Article 75 (Sec. 4): No sentence may be passed and no penalty may be executed on a person found guilty of a penal offence related to the armed conflict except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by an impartial and regularly constituted court respecting the generally recognized principles of regular judicial procedure..
Article 85 (Sec. 3a): In addition to the grave breaches defined in Article 11, the following acts shall be regarded as grave breaches of this Protocol, when committed willfully, in violation of the relevant provisions of this Protocol, and causing death or serious injury to body or health: (a) making the civilian population or individual civilians the object of attack; .(e) making a person the object of attack in the knowledge that he is hors de combat..
Article 85 (Sec. 5): Without prejudice to the application of the Conventions and of this Protocol, grave breaches of these instruments shall be regarded as war crimes.
The abhorrence of international humanitarian law for assassination was first codified in Article 148 of the Lieber Code of 1863 and remains true even today:
The law of war does not allow proclaiming either an individual belonging to a hostile army, or a citizen, or a subject of the hostile government, an outlaw, who may be slain without trial by any captor, any more than the modern law of peace allows such intentional outlawry; on the contrary, it abhors such outrage. The sternest retaliation should follow the murder committed in consequence of such proclamation, made by whatever authority. Civilized nations look with horror upon offers of rewards for the assassination of enemies as relapses into barbarism.
This judgment on the immorality and illegality of assassination was re-articulated in Article 23(b) of the 1907 Hague Convention which provided that it is "especially forbidden.to kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army." This article, along with other specific military codes of conduct, has generally acknowledged the absolute prohibition on assassination no matter what the motive or military benefit. International Criminal Law
Israel's acknowledged policy of assassination is also a breach of well-established principles of international criminal law. The 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg (Article 6), considered assassinations to be both war crimes and crimes against humanity.
More recently, the same was codified and elaborated in Article 7 and 8 of the Charter for the International Criminal Court; in Articles 2, 5, and 7 of the Statute for the ICTY; and in Articles 3, 4, and 6 of the Statute for the ICTR.
Although the latter two courts do not have jurisdiction over the crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, their Statutes reflect international acceptance of what constitutes an international crime. Most relevant to those Israeli officials and soldiers involved in any capacity in the commission of these grave breaches, international law - as recognized by these courts - attaches individual criminal responsibility to each person involved:
ICTY Article 7 (1): A person who planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of a crime referred to in articles 2 to 5 of the present Statute [including willful killing and murder when committed in armed conflict, whether international or internal in character, and directed against any civilian population], shall be individually responsible for the crime.
ICTY Article 7 (2): The official position of any accused person, whether as Head of State or Government or as a responsible Government official, shall not relieve such person of criminal responsibility nor mitigate punishment.
ICTR Article 6 (1): A person who planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of a crime referred to in articles 2 to 4 of the present Statute [including willful killing and murder when committed in armed conflict, whether international or internal in character, and directed against any civilian population], shall be individually responsible for the crime.
ICTR Article 7 (2): The official position of any accused person, whether as Head of State or Government or as a responsible Government official, shall not relieve such person of criminal responsibility nor mitigate punishment.
International Human Rights Law
International human rights law also specifically prohibits extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that "[e]veryone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights codifies this right and adds that "[n]o one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life." This promotion and protection of the right to life is not just a domestic concern but has become a matter of international concern. The United Nations appointed a Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions specifically to examine situations such as the one currently taking place in the Israeli Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Special Rapporteur is charged with responding effectively to information brought before it, and issuing urgent appeals to governments such as Israel's, involved in such violations of international human rights law.
Israeli Law
Moreover, the assassinations are considered illegal under Israeli law. While Israel does not posses a written constitution, Section II of the Israeli Basic Law -- Human Dignity and Freedom, provides for a general protection of the right to life under the Israeli legal system. The Israeli High Court has relied on this Section to conclude the illegality of the death sentence under Israeli law.
Furthermore, the assassinations are particularly considered illegal under the "Black Flag" doctrine established by Israeli case law. As elaborated following the infamous massacre carried out by the IDF at Kafr-Qassem in 1956, the doctrine sets the scope for "command responsibility" to include the criminal liability of IDF soldiers carrying out manifestly unlawful orders that effectively "wave like a black flag above the order given, as a warning saying:"forbidden'".
Accordingly, the current IDF policy of assassinations constitutes a "black flag" that annuls the Israeli soldiers' duty to obey orders and renders them criminally responsible for their actions. The policy amounts to a summary execution or "killing without a trial", and therefore is a manifest violation of basic due process requirements under Israeli law. It falls squarely under the Israeli case law observation that:
[a] reasonable soldier can distinguish a manifestly illegal order on the face of it, without requiring legal counsel and without perusing the law books.
These provisions impose moral and legal responsibility on every soldier, irrespective of rank.
It is worth noting that leading Israeli human rights organizations are in agreement on the illegality of the current assassinations under Israeli law. A case at point is the Association for Civil Rights in Israel ("ACRI") which sent a letter to Prime Minister Barak, dated January 3, 2001, condemning the assassinations as a flagrant violation of Israeli law, and calling upon him to issue clear orders that prohibit the IDF from carrying out any further assassinations.
Partial List Of Successful Israeli Assassinations Of Palestinians During the Current Conflict
Fayez Mahmoud Al-Qymri - Age: 33
Date of Assassination: October 21, 2000
Address: Hebron
Political Faction: Fatah
Shot in the head with dum dum bullets by Israeli "Special Units" while washing his car.
Hussien Mohamad Abyyat - Age: 37
Date of Assassination: November 9, 2000
Address: Bethlehem
Political Faction: Fatah
Killed by a missile fired by an Israeli Apache attack helicopter on his car. Two women walking on the street were also killed.
Ibrahim Bani Odeh - Age: 34
Date of Assassination: November 11, 2000
Address: Zwata, Nablus
Political Faction: Hamas
Killed by an explosive device planted in his cousin's car. The cousin was working for Israeli intelligence. The device was activated remotely from an Israeli helicopter.
Hasid Hussien Ishtayeh - Age: 54
Date of Assassination: November 11, 2000
Address: Jordan
Shot by Israeli forces in the Akbat Jaber Refugee Camp in Jericho.
Khaled Abedallah Salameh - Age: 25
Date of Assassination: November 17, 2000
Address: Gaza
Shot by the Israeli forces in the Akbat Jaber Refugee Camp in Jericho.
Firas Qasem Saba'neh - Age: 25
Date of Assassination: November 24, 2000
Address: Jenin
Political Faction: Democratic Front
Shot by Israeli "Special Units."
Muhannad Mahmoud Abu-Shazouf - Age: 31
Date of Assassination: December 8, 2000
Address: Burqin
Political Faction: Fatah
Killed when a cannon from an Israeli tank shot the car he was in.
Ziad Mohamad Sbaih - Age: 34
Date of Assassination: December 8, 2000
Address: Kafr Ra'i
Political Faction: Fatah
Killed when the car he was in was hit by cannon fire from an Israeli tank.
Mohamad Abed-Allah Yahya - Age: 17
Date of Assassination: December 8, 2000
Address: Kafr Ra'i
Political Faction: Fatah
Killed when the car he was in was hit by cannon fire from an Israeli tank.
Ala Abed-Ellatif Abu-Jaber - Age: 17
Date of Assassination: December 8, 2000
Address: Al-Mghyer
Political Faction: Fatah
Killed when the car he was in was hit by cannon fire from an Israeli tank.
Mohamad Rateb Taleb - Age: 21
Date of Assassination: December 8, 2000
Address: Jenin
Political Faction: Fatah
Killed when the car he was in was hit by cannon fire from an Israeli tank.
Mahmoud Yousef Al-Mughrabi - Age: 24
Date of Assassination: December 10, 2000
Address: Dehisheh Refugee Camp
Political Faction: Fatah
Shot in the head by Israeli forces.
Anwar Mahmoud Jubran - Age: 28
Date of Assassination: December 11, 2000
Address: 'Arabba
Political Faction: Islamic Jihad
Shot dead by Israeli forces.
Yousef Ahmad Abu-Swai - Age: 28
Date of Assassination: December 12, 2000
Address: Artas
Political Faction: Fatah
Shot dead by more than ten bullets by Israeli forces while on his way home.
Abbas Uthman Al-Uyowi - Age: 26
Date of Assassination: December 13, 2000
Address: Hebron
Political Faction: Hamas
Shot with three bullets by Israeli forces on Wad Al-Tuffah Street, in Hebron.
Shaker Faisal Hassouneh - Age: 24
Date of Assassination: January 12, 2001
Address: Hebron
Political Faction: Fatah
Shot in the head by the IDF on Al-Shalallah Street. His body was then kidnapped by the IDF from inside Area (A).
Dr. Thabet Thabet - Age: 49
Date of Assassination: January 1, 2001
Address: Ramin, Tulkarem
Political Faction: Fatah
While leaving his home on New Year's Eve, Thabet was shot dead by Israeli soldiers hiding in a canvas-covered truck outside his home.
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