The entire thing is one horrible situation that would be avoidable if politics in the Middle East had been operating on a different logic. They dont. But that has nothing to do with the facts in this particular case. The pattern of Hamas using civilian religious and academic institutions, including UN schools (repeatedly as mentioned by UNRWA) is known. It is also known that most tunnels have entries under civilian infrastructure and private homes as are most bunkers situated under hospitals etc. That does not diminish the responsibility of protecting civilians. Collateral damage is a term that, in my opinion, is implicitly violating human rights from a universal moral perspective. But not necessarily legally. If we accept war at all (and we do, both legally and also, if many reluctantly, from an ethical perspective as a necessary evil in some cases) then we do accept casualties including potentially civilian. That civilian losses should be avoided at all cost is something we all agree upon in principle. Even when human shields are used - illegally and in direct breach of humanitarian law. That should be true in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Serbia, Iraq, Gaza etc.. Still the ratios of combatants vs civilians are appalling ion all these conflicts. They get even worse in civilian conflicts like Syria, Libya, Yugoslavia hopefully not Ukraine. Those using human shields and targeting indiscriminately civilians via rockets lobed at civilian targets are in breach of both universal moral and legal principles, regardless if they adhere to those universal rules or not. So are those targeting disproportionately or on purpose civilians and civilian infrastructure. However, the only thing that under UN law does change that is if there is direct fire coming from or near a civilian facility or those civilians. Proportional measures can be used in that case to stop the firing. As horrendous that sounds it means you can actually blow away a school if you are shot from it. Now again, all this is highly irrelevant if we just look at the victims. My point is that these people are not just killed by rockets and shells, they are killed by the dirty politics of power in the ME. A lot of that has nothing to do with Israelis and Palestinians. But it does have to do with failed politics in both Israel and Gaza - with a lot of help from abroad.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 21:24:38 +0000
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