Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Second Battle of Gaza: Israel’s Undermining Of International Law


Jeff Halper, ICAHD

"....Israel’s attempt to globalize its legal, moral, political and military justifications for what it did—and continues to do—in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon should concern us all. Just as Israel used Gaza as a laboratory for tactics and weapons of "counterinsurgency" and urban warfare, so, too, is it attempting to export its "new doctrines" in a way that fundamentally compromises the well-being of people caught in conflicts worldwide. As (Kasher and Yadlin 2005:4) write explicitly,

the proposed principles are meant to be justified and practically applicable under any parallel circumstances. Moreover, those principles are intended to be universal in an additional crucial sense…. The different defense agencies of a democratic state that faces terror should follow principles that rest on universal moral grounds and on the professional and organizational ethical grounds related to each of those state agencies on its own, be it military, regular police, combat police or preventive intelligence.

In this sense, everyone resisting oppression is a Palestine. The stakes involved in losing this second battle of Gaza are high indeed. Israel’s attempt to "globalize" Gaza imperils us all."

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