Posted on 08/05/2014 6:08:23 PM PDT by SJackson
According to the IDF the posted pages of the manual focus on urban warfare, and discuss the benefits to Hamas when its own civilians' homes are destroyed.
The Tuesday meeting of Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki with the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Office is likely far less significant than it seems.
First, the Palestinians threaten over and over again to file complaints against Israelis in the ICC, but have consistently failed to pull the trigger.
Also, though “Palestine” can probably overcome the statehood obstacles that blocked the Palestinians from filing war-crimes complaints against Israelis after Operation Cast Lead (2009), there are a myriad of other obstacles that could prevent an investigation, let alone a conviction.
But in the unlikely worst-case scenario where the PA somehow manages to overcome the many substantial difficulties, has the IDF just discovered a golden defense to war-crimes allegations in a “captured” Hamas manual it posted Tuesday? According to the IDF (and confirmed independently by CNN), the posted pages of the manual focus on urban warfare, and discuss the benefits to Hamas when its own civilians’ homes are destroyed.
It has two salient points relating to war crimes: The army said the manual reveals that Hamas recognizes the IDF is committed to minimizing harm to civilians and explains how civilians can be used against it.
Based on these two points, the IDF said that Hamas’s callous and systematic use of the Gazan population as human shields was intentional and preplanned.
The IDF said that in a section called “Limiting the Use of Weapons” the manual explains that IDF “soldiers and commanders must limit their use of weapons and tactics that lead to the harm and unnecessary loss of people and civilian facilities. It is difficult for them to get the most use out of their firearms, especially of supporting fire.”
The IDF concluded that Hamas knows the IDF will limit its use of greater firepower in support of infantry weapons in order to avoid harming civilians.
The manual goes on to explain that the presence of civilians among pockets of resistance causes three major issues for army forces: problems with opening fire, problems in controlling the civilian population, and problems assuring civilian medical care.
Lastly, the manual discusses the benefits for Hamas when civilian homes are destroyed: “This increases the hatred of the citizens toward the attackers [the IDF] and increases their [support] around the city defenders [i.e. Hamas].”
The IDF concluded that this proves that Hamas desires the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, knowing it will increase hatred for the IDF and support for Hamas fighters.
Back to the worst-case scenario where Israelis find themselves defending specific targeting decisions from warcrimes allegations.
From one perspective, the manual, while a potential PR coup, is not a concrete legal defense.
Just as Israel often points out that its soldiers cannot be accused of war crimes on the basis of a general civilian casualty total, but only on the specific circumstances of the targeting incident in question, any defense should be specific to a particular incident – and the manual is not.
However, the record of international war crimes tribunals is that specific cases are not decided in a vacuum.
Often a general factual picture is established about whether war crimes were or were not systematically taking place, which, correctly or not, influences how the judges interpret borderline evidence in specific cases.
The manual does not allege a single specific incident where Hamas used human shields in a way that justified a specific IDF attack that should have been illegal.
But the manual, which the IDF said belonged to Hamas’s Shejaia Brigade, does support the IDF’s general narrative of Hamas using human shields in a way that at least could convert certain civilian areas into military targets throughout Shejaia – where the IDF has been broadly accused of a massacre.
It shows that Hamas is educating its fighters about the benefits of fighting among its own civilians and that it tells its fighters to view destructions of its own civilian homes as increasing its support.
The manual also shows that Hamas itself believes that the IDF is trying to follow the rules of armed conflict to such an extent that it inculcates in its fighters tactically and concretely how to exploit this to gain certain military advantages.
To the extent Hamas would be the complainant before the ICC, the manual could be a powerful part of a general defense supporting Israel’s overall claim to following the laws of armed conflict when a judge has to decide to believe Israel about whether Shejaia civilians were killed by mistake or deliberately.
Are there going to be war crimes trials for people who saw off the heads of prisoners and non-combatants?
ATTENTION: A new war crime has just been identified: capturing enemy manuals shall now be considered an international war crime. Any country to capture such manuals should be boycotted by all right-thinking people.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Zionist forgery
The terrorists will claim that the manual was put together by Israel as a ploy to fool the world into believe that Hamas is in the wrong.
Mark my words.
War crimes eh.
Gaza's School Attack Now Appears To Be Staged. Mounting Evidence bodies were moved inside school to blame Israel
Hamas and the UNRWA School Tragedy - video
That’s what I was thinking, but perhaps with a twist.
“War crimes eh.” War IS a crime.
The UN already allows Hamas to store munitions at their schools and everyone knows that Hamas has a bunker under Shaifa hospital. They don’t care that the terrorists use human shields.
That was my first thought.
But I do think it is proof of war crimes against HAMAS. How many Palestinians would agree?
War crimes. Is that like military intelligence, jumbo shrimp, near miss, small aircraft carrier, sawed off rifle?
Do you think the UN would be talking about war crimes if Hamas had used the tunnels like they had hoped to use them and pulled off the planned attack? The loss of life would of been off the scale.
I am celebrating the restraint Israel has shown, they had every right to do much more as they searched for more tunnels. No one came forward with maps showing the locations of them, under fire from the killers, they had to search for them all. What they found is astonishing. It wouldn’t be my idea of a good time to have to be the guy who had to crawl through them first.
Of course the UN wouldn’t be. Just like they won’t do anything about all the other things Hamas does.
Thanks SJackson.
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