Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Elder of ZiyonThe prosecutor claims that there is evidence that the prime minister and the minister of defense committed the crimes of intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, extermination and/or murder, including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, and willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health, all of which are crimes under the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court.Let's talk about "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare."
In 2009, the Obama administration started limiting humanitarian aid to Somalia, a country it engaged in regular airstrikes on, fearing that the aid will end up helping Islamist militants. A massive famine in that country that started shortly thereafter killed 260,000 by starvation - half of them children - and the US knew very well about this while it was happening. As the LA Times reported, there were many factors in the famine - but US withholding aid was one of them:
According to analysts, the deaths were caused by people and politics: the Islamist militia the Shabab, which denied humanitarian access to the hardest-hit areas and prevented starving people from leaving; local clan warlords, who stole food aid; and the transitional government in Mogadishu, the capital, whose officials diverted aid.But American policy also played a considerable role, according to analysts, with the Shabab designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 2008. U.S. counter-terrorism law imposes sanctions on any group found to be offering even indirect assistance to a terrorist group. Some U.S. and international agencies halted aid deliveries to Shabab-controlled areas, fearing they could be charged with helping a designated terrorist group. In January 2010, the World Food Program suspended aid to southern Somalia, after reports that the Shabab was diverting supplies.
Isn't it interesting that while everyone knows Hamas diverts aid, no one seems concerned that this violates sanctions against Hamas. But with Al Shabab, it caused the US and even the World Food Programme to stop sending aid - and this decision helped doom thousands, or tens of thousands.
Isn't it interesting that the 28 who the Gaza health ministry has documented of dying from starvation over seven months have received hundreds of times more media coverage than the 260,000 who starved to death in Somalia in two years.
The difficulty of providing aid to war zones was documented in the New York Times in 2003:
Many Iraqis were in need of decent food and clean water long before the first cruise missile was fired at Baghdad. But there were many more of them once the war began. Cities and villages have been cut off from fresh supplies, electricity and water pumps.Civilians are suffering, and a debate has begun about who should control relief efforts. The Pentagon has said it wants to keep control over all humanitarian aid. But relief agencies, like Catholic Relief Services and Oxfam-America, have said they don't want to be part of a military effort, because they must be independent to do their jobs.But staying independent is a challenge. In war zones, especially, the distribution of aid is an intensely political act, no matter how neutral a group tries to be. In 1994, humanitarian agencies in eastern Zaire found themselves helping not only women and children, but many Hutu men and boys who had participated in the genocide of more than 500,000 Rwandan Tutsis. In 1993 in Somalia, the warlords were able to convince their militias that the American military operation there was not a humanitarian intervention to combat famine but a military invasion; 18 American marines and at least 12 humanitarian workers were killed.In the early 1990's in Bosnia, I first learned the rub-the-stomach language of want. Food is a military necessity; armies need it, and always get a slice of it, no matter the intentions of the donors. And if civilians can be fed by international aid agencies, well, that's one task a besieged government does not have to handle, and one more reason for it not to be concerned about hungry or thirsty people.The angels of charity are only human, too. The invasion of Iraq had little support, and outright opposition, from some relief groups. They might not wish to engage in activities that strengthen the American occupation of Iraq; if providing food to areas no longer under Mr. Hussein's control is seen as part of that effort, or helps it by encouraging defections, the angels of mercy might be less aggressive in providing their mercy. But far more important for relief groups is the political bind they are in if they operate under, or are thought to operate under, military control: they may not be allowed to deliver aid to the people they wish to deliver it to, and they may become fair military targets for the other side. Last month, for example, a Red Cross worker in Kandahar, Afghanistan, was shot dead by a suspected group of Taliban.Violence was a constant hazard for relief workers in Bosnia. Though officials of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees tried to retain their independence, traveling only with escorts from the United Nations peacekeeping force, their convoys were frequently shot at or looted, mostly by Serbs trying to starve Muslims (and occasionally Croats) into submission; drivers and other relief personnel were killed and injured.In Iraq, Pentagon officials and Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, a retired army officer who is designated to take charge of the postwar reconstruction, do not wish, as the war still rages, to relinquish control of humanitarian operations. But the military, despite what officials in Washington might say, is not configured for or adept at distributing aid.
Even accepted international law says that there are exceptions to the rule of providing aid for the population - if that aid will strengthen the enemy. From the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 23:
Each High Contracting Party shall allow the free passage of all consignments of medical and hospital stores and objects necessary for religious worship intended only for civilians of another High Contracting Party, even if the latter is its adversary. It shall likewise permit the free passage of all consignments of essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers and maternity cases.The obligation of a High Contracting Party to allow the free passage of the consignments indicated in the preceding paragraph is subject to the condition that this Party is satisfied that there are no serious reasons for fearing:(a) that the consignments may be diverted from their destination,(b) that the control may not be effective, or(c) that a definite advantage may accrue to the military efforts or economy of the enemy through the substitution of the above-mentioned consignments for goods which would otherwise be provided or produced by the enemy or through the release of such material, services or facilities as would otherwise be required for the production of such goods.The Power which allows the passage of the consignments indicated in the first paragraph of this Article may make permission conditional on the distribution to the persons benefited thereby being made under the local supervision of the Protecting Powers.Such consignments shall be forwarded as rapidly as possible, and the Power which permits their free passage shall have the right to prescribe the technical arrangements under which such passage is allowed.
The ICC is supposed to be objective - but it is hard to escape the conclusion that the intense media and NGO coverage of this war, overwhelmingly negative towards Israel, does not politicize it decisions.
When it isn't Israel at war, the media bends over backwards to understand the difficulty of distributing aid in a war zone. Israel faces many of the same challenges that other countries have during war - yet they are assumed to be using starvation as a method of war, despite spending so much time and money to facilitate aid beyond what is required by international law.
The bias and antisemitism are the only way to explain this. And I don't only mean the ICC - I mean the cumulative effect of the media, of NGOs, of gullible Westerners, or professional propagandists, of world governments who are eager to blame Israel for not solving problems that no one else has ever solved adequately in a war zone.
In fact Israel is doing more to feed Gaza than most Western democracies ever did to their enemies.
The double standards, driven by subconscious or conscious antisemitism, have got to stop.
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