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Targeted Killings and Double Standards

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Justus Reid Weiner, J.D. - According to Human Rights Watch's test of legality of targeted killings, there are significant differences between Israel's policy, which has been conducted in almost full compliance with this test, and the policies of Western armies, which have resulted in far more civilian fatalities. On the one hand, there is an IDF policy executed with remarkable transparency, and put under intense local and international public scrutiny (including judicial review). Furthermore, this policy was implemented with precision targeting and virtually no mistakes regarding the location of the terrorist - and with less than one civilian fatality average per targeted killing. On the other hand, there is a Western policy which in many cases did not comply with HRW's stated test, and was conducted behind a cloak of systemic and deliberate opacity, with virtually no public scrutiny. Due to faulty or compromised intelligence, this policy resulted in many incidents which ought to have raised red flags regarding the core principles of distinction and proportionality - and had a ratio of more than ten civilian fatalities per targeted killing. The writer, an international human rights lawyer, is a Scholar in Residence at the Jerusalem Center.
2012-06-06 00:00:00
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