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What Israel Is Allowed to Do

(Times of Israel) Gerald M. Steinberg - It seems as if no matter what Israel does, no matter how justified and consistent with international legal norms, human rights groups will accuse Israel of acting illegally. Israel is in the midst of an extensive military operation in the West Bank to locate three kidnapped Israeli teenagers and to root out the terror infrastructure that facilitated this and other attacks against civilians. These goals are entirely legal under international human rights conventions and UN Security Council Resolution 1373 that requires states to "prevent and suppress terrorist acts." This week, 11 Israeli NGOs which receive massive amounts of funding from European government bodies accused Israel of "violation of basic rights and collective punishment." Unsurprisingly, many of these NGOs did not release statements condemning Hamas for kidnapping the Israeli teens, nor the blatant assault on decency and human rights inherent in such a depraved act. By the NGOs' logic, Boston police committed collective punishment when they locked down surrounding areas in their search for the Marathon bombers. The writer is professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University and president of NGO Monitor.
2014-06-24 00:00:00
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