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CounterPunch
November
15, 2002
The Political
Theology of Tom Delay
Advocating Crimes Against Humanity?
by Tarif Abboushi
The most recent definition of crimes against humanity
under customary international law is contained in Article 7(1)
of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It includes
the following acts, among others, when committed as part of a
widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian
population, with knowledge of the perpetrators or supporters
of the attack: murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population,
and apartheid.
On November 1st the New York-based international
human rights organization Human Rights Watch released a report
titled Erased in a Moment: Suicide bombing Attacks Against Israeli
Civilians. The report finds that Palestinians who plan and execute
suicide bombings against Israeli civilians are guilty of crimes
against humanity. Last May the same organization released another
report, Jenin: IDF Military Operations, in which it charged that
the Israeli military committed serious violations of international
humanitarian law, some amounting prima facie to war crimes, during
its incursion into the Jenin refugee camp. Amnesty International
presented Israeli authorities with a report containing similar
charges on November 2nd.
Of the many impressions made by the Human
Rights Watch reports, one of the most salient is that while Palestinian
crimes against humanity are committed by individuals and groups
that are outside the national chain of command, Israeli war crimes
are committed by the most prominent institution of the state,
the IDF, a military establishment largely equipped and funded
by the United States of America.
While the HRW report on the suicide bombings
singles out four Palestinian groups--Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the al-Aqsa
Martyr's Brigade--as criminally culpable for planning and executing
suicide bombings against Israeli civilian targets, it notably
exonerates the Palestinian Authority and its president, Yaser
Arafat, of the same charge. According to the report the PA bears
political, but not criminal, responsibility for suicide bombings,
for failing to do all it could to stop the bombings and bring
the perpetrators to justice when it had the means to do so. HRW
studied documents presented by Israel and found no evidence that
Arafat or the PA planned or ordered suicide bombings against
Israeli civilians.
The Jenin report saddles Israel with
the primary obligation to carry out criminal investigations to
ascertain and prosecute those responsible for Israeli war crimes.
Israel has predictably ignored that obligation. Indeed, Shaul
Mofaz, who was IDF Chief of Staff at the time of the Jenin incursion
and who is widely regarded an extremist among Israel's hawks,
is now Israel's Defense Minister.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu--who a few days ago became Israel's new foreign minister--sponsored
a resolution rejecting the creation of a Palestinian state in
the West Bank and Gaza at a meeting of the Likud party's central
committee last May. It passed overwhelmingly. Mr. Netanyahu and
his Likud colleagues did not comment on what was to become of
the 3.5 million Muslims and Christians who make up the Palestinian
population of the West Bank and Gaza, but the options are clear.
The first is to perpetuate their status as non-citizen residents
in a form of apartheid. The second is to transfer them to Jordan,
an option widely discussed in Israel and strongly advocated by
some members of Israel's parliament. The third is to grant them
Israeli citizenship.
Israel dismisses the third option out
of hand, as demographic projections indicate it would take less
than two decades for Jews to become a minority between the Jordan
River and the Mediterranean Sea, at which point Israel would
have to choose between being a Jewish state or a democratic one.
That leaves the first and second options, both of which, according
to international law, are crimes against humanity.
A large number of Americans would do
well to recognize that fact. They include the tens of millions
of evangelicals, fundamentalists and Pentecostals that form the
rank and file of the Christian Coalition, as well as prominent
elected representatives like House Majority Leader Richard Armey
(R-TX) and House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX). By maintaining
that biblical Judea and Samaria are an inextricable part of Israel
and supporting Israel's rejection of the third option regarding
the future of the indigenous population, they in effect invoke
the name of God to advocate a crime against humanity.
Tarif Abboushi lives
in Houston, Texas. He can be reached at: tabboushi@aol.com
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November 10,
2002
Ali Abunimah
Sharon's
Appendix
M. Shahid
Alam
Political Geography
Zionist Theses and Anti-Theses
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Rosemary &
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Personal Possession:
War and Iraq, a Recollection
Ralph Nader
The Mid-term Elections
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Bring Back the Grizzly
Robert Fisk
Bush's "Clean Shot"
Dave Marsh
And the Beat(ing) Goes On
Adam Engel
No Blood for Marijuana in Iraq
Josh Frank
Sleater-Kinney
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Zeynep Toufe
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Philip Farruggio
In Name Only
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Mountain Party Rising!
Bernard, Krieger, Alam
Poets'Basement
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