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Did Israel Use "Disproportionate Force" to Protect the Gaza Fence?

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Amb. Alan Baker - The Gaza border clash was not a situation of armed conflict, nor had it anything to do with the laws of armed conflict and occupation of territory. It was routine border protection by a sovereign state, from within its sovereign territory, facing a blatant threat of border violation by violent elements on the other side of the line. Accusing Israel of committing war crimes, massacres, and violations of international humanitarian law, as well as invoking criteria and norms - including the customary international law rule of proportionality - characteristic of situations of armed conflict, has no relevance vis-a-vis the situation along the delimiting fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The highly publicized visit by the Palestinian Foreign Minister to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), armed with a new set of complaints of war crimes and violations of the Geneva Conventions along the fence, cannot be considered to be anything other than a flawed and cynical manipulation of the Court.
2018-05-28 00:00:00
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