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Israel Obeyed International Law

(New York Daily News) Alan Dershowitz - In stopping the Gaza flotilla, what Israel did was entirely consistent with both international and domestic law. When Israel ended its occupation of Gaza, it did not impose a blockade. Indeed, it left behind agricultural facilities in the hope that Gaza would become a peaceful and productive area. Instead, Hamas seized control and engaged in acts of warfare against Israel, featuring nearly 10,000 anti-personnel rockets directed at Israeli civilians. This was not only an act of warfare, it was a war crime. Israel responded to the rockets by declaring a blockade to assure that no rockets or other material that could be used for making war against Israeli civilians were permitted into Gaza. Egypt as well participated in the blockade. There was never a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, merely a shortage of certain goods that would end if the rocket attacks ended. The legality of blockades as a response to acts of war is not subject to serious doubt. When the U.S. blockaded Cuba during the missile crisis, the State Department issued an opinion declaring the blockade to be lawful. Other nations have similarly enforced naval blockades to assure their own security. Is it lawful to enforce a legal blockade in international waters? If there is no doubt that the offending ships have made a firm determination to break the blockade, then the blockade may be enforced before the offending ships cross the line into domestic waters. Again the U.S. and other Western countries have frequently boarded ships at high sea in order to assure their security. Finally, we come to the issue of the right of self-defense engaged in by Israeli soldiers who were attacked by activists on the boat. There can be little doubt that the moment any person on the boat picked up a weapon and began to attack Israeli soldiers, they lost their status as innocent civilians. Even under ordinary civilian rules of self-defense, every Israeli soldier had the right to protect himself and his colleagues from attack by knife- and pipe-wielding assailants. The writer is a professor at Harvard Law School.
2010-06-04 09:56:56
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