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The IDF Code of Ethics and the Gaza War

(New York Jewish Week) Doug Chandler - Claiming that Israel "indiscriminately, callously, carelessly or indifferently" killed civilians in Gaza last summer is "nonsense," Moshe Halbertal, a law professor at New York University, a professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at Hebrew University, and an author of Israel's military code of ethics, told the Jewish Theological Seminary of America last month. Halbertal outlined the basic principles on which the code is based. "Necessity" means that an army or individual soldier can apply force only for the purpose of the mission. Soldiers can break into a home to conduct a search, but they can't "break the TV," which has nothing to do with the mission. "Distinction" instructs soldiers that their firepower can only be aimed at those who pose a threat, either to the soldiers themselves or to civilians. Targets can include anyone who's part of the "causal chain," including the planner, the person who recruits the terrorist and the one who builds the bomb, but they don't include civilians who cheer the action. Under the principle of "responsibility," soldiers know that the war is bound to cause "collateral harm to civilians," but they have to do whatever they can to minimize that harm - even to the point of "assuming a calculated risk" to their comrades in arms. "Proportionality" requires soldiers to ask themselves if the collateral harm that may be generated by their action is proportionate to the military achievement they hope to achieve. Overall, Halbertal said, the IDF did a great job in following its own code of ethics.
2014-12-05 00:00:00
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