New York Post
July 24, 2002

Traduction française

There's no ambiguity regarding the responsibility for the horrible deaths incurred by the Israeli attack on one of the world's worst terrorists. The responsibility lies with the dead terrorist himself, Salah Shehada, and with the evildoing gang called Hamas that he helped to start and run.

Don't take it from me. Take it from international law - specifically, from the text of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

The Fourth Geneva Convention goes into great and elaborate detail about how to assign fault when military activities take place in civilian areas.

Those who are actually fighting the war are not considered "protected persons." Only civilians are granted the status of "protected persons" whose rights cannot be violated with impunity.

The Fourth Geneva Convention convicts Hamas and Salah Shehada in one sentence. That sentence makes up the entirety of Part 3, Article 1, Section 28. It reads: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."

This sentence appears in the Fourth Geneva Convention precisely to deal with situations like the ones the Israelis faced. Here's how.

The Jewish state is at war with Hamas and Palestinian militant
organizations wreaking terrorist havoc. Hamas is at war with Israel.

But instead of separating themselves from the general population in military camps and wearing uniforms, as required by international law, Hamas members and other Palestinian terrorists try to use civilians - the "protected persons" mentioned in 3:1:28 - as living camouflage.

To prevent such a thing from happening, international law explicitly gives Israel the right to conduct military operations against military targets under these circumstances. Again, let's check out that 3:1:28 sentence: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."

There were plenty of "protected persons" around the home of the Hamas leader on Tuesday. He wanted it that way: Salah Shehada chose to live in an apartment house in Gaza City with his family and hundreds of others around him so that they would serve as human shields.

And because Salah Shehada did that, he's responsible for what happens to them. That's what the very next sentence of the Fourth Geneva Convention says: "The party to the conflict in whose hands protected persons may be is responsible for the treatment accorded to them by its agents."

Let's translate: The "party to the conflict" here is Hamas, or more
specifically, Salah Shehada. Because Salah Shehada chose to live in a civilian setting, the "protected persons" are deemed to be "in his hands." And since they are in his hands, Salah Shehada "is responsible for the treatment accorded to them."

We can argue about whether the killing of Salah Shehada was a prudent act. The White House clearly thinks it wasn't. We can argue about whether assassinations of key terrorist leaders stops terrorism. The Israelis clearly think they do, and the slowdown in attacks seems to be a confirmation of that.

But we can't argue about who's responsible for the 15 deaths and 100-plus injuries in the Gaza City attack on Tuesday. The responsible party is Hamas. The responsible party is Salah Shehada, who was already responsible for hundreds of deaths for which he was gleefully proud. May he rot in Hell.


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