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UN Rights Expert: IDF Hits Could be Considered War Crimes -Global Policy Forum - International Justice UN Rights Expert:
IDF Hits Could be Considered War CrimesBy Moshe Reinfeld
Haaretz
June 18, 2003The assassinations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the territories could beconsidered war crimes, according to the chairman of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for theformer Yugoslavia (ICTY), Prof. Antonio Cassese.
Cassese's opinion will be submitted Wednesday to the High Court of Justice as part of a hearing for a petition filed by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and the Palestinian Al-Qanon human rights organization. The petition, filed a year-and-a-half ago, was drafted by attorneys Avigdor Feldman and Michael Sefarad.
High Court President Justice Aharon Barak and Justices Theodor Or and Eliahu Mazza have already rejected an argument presented by the state, which tried to convince the court that the assassination issue is not adjudicative. In the next hearing to be held in three weeks, the court will consider the petitioners' request to issue a temporary injunction that would bar any assassinations (or targeted pinpoint preemption, as Israeli authorities call them) until the petition is decided.
According to the petition, from the start of the intifada in October 2000 until April 2003, the IDF has killed more than 230 Palestinians,including 80 children, women and other innocent bystanders, in this manner.
In the opinion to be submitted Wednesday,Cassese establishes that the killing of civilians suspected of terror activity when no direct belligerent operation in which they are involved is taking place, substantively infringes the most basic principle ofinternational law, which state that armed forces must distinguish between combatants and civilians.
This opinion is of major significance, since Cassese is considered a reputable and leading expert on international humanitarian law. He was the first president of the ICTY, and served as president of the European Committeefor the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. And he has been a member of the UN Human Rights Committee. He is a faculty member at several universities, including in Florence, Rotterdam and the Sorbonne.
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