The Case Against Israel

With the Qana bombings described as war crimes by Human Rights Watch and some activists already trying to get Israel referred to the International Court, I thought I'd use the Rome Statute to see how much of Israel's actions could be referred to the International Court as war crimes.

1)"Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are
not military objectives".

Israel's initial air strikes which destroyed bridges, roads (including the main road to Damascus) and airports could fall under this as there seemed to be no military reason for their destruction, this supported by Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who uttered the famous soundbite "we will turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years."

2)"Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause
incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or
widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which
would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military
advantage anticipated."

While Israel claims it has tried to minimise civilian 'collatoral damage', the Guardian yesterday quoted the number of Lebanese civilian deaths at 515, Lebanese military deaths at 21 and Hizbullah deaths at 38. If Israel are targetting Hizbullah they don't seem to be very accurate.

Even if Israel's air strikes in general do not fall foul, there is growing consensus that yesterday's attack on the village of Qana does. As the BBC reported "The Israeli air strike on the southern Lebanese village of Qana in the early hours of Sunday killed at least 54 Lebanese civilians, mostly children." and "The UN's emergency relief co-ordinator was highly critical of Israel's strike in Qana, calling it "indiscriminate and excessive"."

3)"Employing weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare which
are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or which
are inherently indiscriminate in violation of the international law of armed
conflict"

There have been reports of Israel using white phosphorous bombs in Lebanon, violating international law.

4)"Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or
vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled
to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international
law of armed conflict"

The bombing of a UN outpost caused much outcry, Kofi Annan innitially calling the attack seemingly deliberate.