Zionist Exceptionalism For Extrajudicial Executions

The new Mossad chief will apologise to the UK for the use of its passports in its Dubai extrajudicial assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January 2010.

David Milliband, then foreign secretary, told MPs that Israel had shown a “profound disregard” for British sovereignty, adding: “The fact that this was done by a country which is a friend, with significant diplomatic, cultural, business and personal ties to the UK, only adds insult to injury.”

Will Pardo’s magnanimity extend to Australia, Ireland, France and Germany, whose passports were also abused by Mossad?

The duplicitous use of foreign passports is not the primary crime committed by Israel. Extrajudicial executions are outlawed by the Second Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977) that states:

“No sentence shall be passed and no penalty shall be executed on a person found guilty of an offence except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by a court offering the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality.” (Second Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977) Art 6.2)

Zionist exceptionalism is enabled and paralleled by that of its indulgent sponsor, the US, with its disgraceful preemptive strike policy and legal permissiveness for extrajudicial assassinations even of its own citizens.

In December 2006, Israel’s High Court of Justice outrageously declared the legality of the extrajudicial executions of Palestinian activists suspected of being “unlawful combatants.”

The taking of life based on suspicions against a person, represents a gross violation of fundamental principles of law and morality. It is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, and further, is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court. These legal-moral principles are applicable to every country, organization and person, whether or not they are an official party to these instruments.

In this ruling, the Israeli High Court indiscriminately adopts the Israeli government’s practice that strips “unlawful combatants” of their legal and human rights. International law does not recognize a category of “unlawful combatants” who do not enjoy either the rights of combatants in the battlefield or those of protected civilians. The Court did not question the prevailing modus operandi of Israel’s security forces, which declares that all Palestinian civilians are “unlawful combatants” a posteriori, after an execution has been made, again without any legal review or oversight.

The Fourth Geneva Convention relates to the protection of civilian population in time of war. Article 146 of the Convention obligates the High Contracting Parties to enact effective penal sanctions for persons who have committed, or ordered to be committed, “grave breaches” of the Convention. Article 147 defines “grave breaches” to include “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment.”

As Israeli scholar Tanya Reinhart says: “Under military rule, Israel has become a leading force in the destruction of the very protections that humankind has established, out of World War Two, for its own preservation, protections that we too may need one day, as history has already shown us”.

For how long will the world turn a blind eye to Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity which overshadow mere passport abuse, and that include ongoing brazen slaughter of civilians, ethnic cleansing in the Occupied Territories and within Israel itself?

Palestine / Israel Links

SEATTLE, USA: King County executive prevents “Israeli War Crimes” bus ads from appearing
King Co. rejects Israeli-Gaza bus ad
GISHA REPORT: “Reconstructing the Closure” Dec10 [.pdf]
Israeli demolitions traumatic for Palestinian children, says UN official
Inflaming racist rhetoric
Israelis kill Gazan shepherd, wound three – medics
UN envoys criticise Israel home demolitions
1932 is already here
Fuel for racism
US should recognize Palestine – John Quigley
Israeli racial purity
Turkey set on improving Israel ties, but insists on apology for Gaza flotilla raid
Anger after Nazareth suburb bans Christmas tree
The Palestinian ‘legitimacy war’
Jeffrey Goldberg’s Anti-Boycott Bluster & Blunder
Israeli Foreign Ministry Plans New Hasbara Effort Against Palestinians

STL-PSC Flash Mob: Boycott Israeli Apartheid in Palestine! (YouTube Censors the Video)
The Holy Land is on a tourism high
Jerusalem & Babylon / Demons on the streets of Israel
No legitimate Palestinian leader can negotiate with Israel while it continues to colonize Palestinian land.
Lieberman’s Great Big Palestinian Land Heist Plan
Christmas and New Year’s Eve: More Homeless Palestinian children
Senior Labor minister: Without peace talks, even U.S. may soon recognize Palestinian state
World may recognise Palestine soon: Israel minister
Delegitimizing Israel: the dictionary
Israel mobilizing forces in Silwan for possible eviction of non-violent leader
French activists arrested at West Bank protest
Gaza doctor takes Israel to court
The Gaza Strip is a castle that will defend Palestinian rights and resist occupation
Deputy FM: ‘The state of Facebook’ is more real than Palestine
Israeli diplomat ambushed by NY Times staff
Max Ajl returns to Gaza and locates Palestinian freedom – ‘it’s under an Israeli-American jackboot’
‘Asylum seekers trying to reach Israel are being trapped and tortured in Sinai’
Steve Rosen’s Plaint against AIPAC
Texas Tea Party : anti-Semitic and pro-Zionist
Lieberman: Israel’s governing coalition unable to agree on peace deal with Palestinians
In Israel, parenthood is perceived of as a national mission
Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia: 26th of December 2010 : Flashmob/freeze scene
Gaza aid ship returns to Turkey
Gaza: Two years after the horror of Operation Cast Lead

Wikileaks Links

Banks and Wikileaks
Bank of America wonders about WikiLeaks’ planned ‘megaleak’
WikiLeaks given $1.3m in 2010, and Julian Assange pays himself two thirds of the salary budget
DEA reach goes global, beyond drugs: report
20 things we learned in 2010
We’re no pawns: Assange accusers
WikiLeaks: Kiwi mosque spied on by US

Other Links

Murphy: ‘The FBI raids and subpoenas . . . [are] best understood as backlash aimed at silencing our successful movement’