Israel's Collective Punishment
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday June 25, 2002
The Israeli Defence Minister, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, demonstrated a fleeting insight into the futility of meeting Palestinian terror with violence when he acknowledged last week that Israel's military operations have, themselves, become ``an incubator of terror". Yet, at the weekend Israeli forces re-occupied much of the West Bank, backed by new plans for yet more punitive measures against the Palestinians, including the deportation of the families of suicide bombers and the razing of their homes. Unfortunately, Mr Ben Eliezer was unable to move beyond his lament that such ``necessary", massive security operations in turn produce ``more and more suicide bombers". Neither the Defence Minister, nor the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, appear to have taken this tragic truth into account in ordering a further military escalation, in retaliation to last week's terrible suicide bombings.
What the Israeli forces began at the weekend was effectively an open-ended occupation of most of the Palestinian-administered West Bank cities and towns which it forcefully entered earlier this year to ``smash" the terrorists' infrastructure. That massive incursion into heavily populated civilian areas was interrupted by international outrage. Washington finally forced an Israeli withdrawal, but not before considerable damage had been done. The question less than three months later is who is Israel going to hit this time who has not already been hit? Hardline Israeli military responses to terror have failed. The assassinations of militant Palestinians, the round-ups of young Palestinian men, the curfews, the isolation of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and the tanks on the streets have not achieved their goal of safety and security within Israel's borders.
The most desperate of the new measures are plans to expel the families of suicide bombers from the West Bank. Such a move would breach Article 33 of the Geneva Convention which bans ``collective punishment" of a people or group for the actions of individuals. This is precisely what is so repugnant about terrorism, and chillingly recalls past war crimes against members of particular ethnic and religious groups. The US President, George Bush, last week delayed outlining plans for an interim Palestinian state because of the escalating violence. However, the Israeli military re-occupation of the West Bank will only make such a legitimate goal seem ever more remote, and reinforce within the ranks of potential Palestinian suicide bombers the belief that they have nothing to lose.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald
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