I take my cue from a recent sentence of the Supreme Court of Israel of last July
5; however, a premise is appropriate.
With regard to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the condemnation of the high
number of civilian victims, especially children, is rightly unanimous.
International law and in particular the IV Geneva Convention protect civilians
who should never be involved in conflicts, let alone be victims of them. Where
this happens, at least any liability should be ascertained and compensation for
damages guaranteed. In Ukraine, trials have already taken place before ordinary
courts and an investigative team of the International Criminal Court is
operational (by the way: with unusual diligence, without even waiting for the
national judicial process to be exhausted).
Israel has never condemned soldiers or settlers for the killings of Palestinians
or international activists. The International Criminal Court is threatened and
hindered in its investigation.
The decision of the Supreme Court of 5 July confirms what was already
established in the first instance by the Beer Sheba court in 2018 (the slowness
of justice is not only an Italian prerogative!) And that is that the victim, if
resident in the Gaza Strip, has not right to compensation. The case is
emblematic because it concerns a 15-year-old boy, Attiya Nabaheen, who became a
quadriplegic after being hit by Israeli bullets while he was on the ground
overlooking his house near Al-Bureji. The fact dates back to 2014 during the
massacre called "Protective margin".
Eight years later the Israeli justice establishes that the boy and his family
are not entitled to any compensation because ……Resident in Gaza.
Legal support is provided by a 1952 law, reintroduced in 2012, on State
Liability (Civil Wrong Act) which requires that residents in a territory
declared by the Israeli government "enemy territory" are not entitled to
compensation. Gaza was declared "enemy territory" in 2007 immediately after the
withdrawal of the settlers in 2006. In other words, the Gazans are in any case
responsible for what happens to them simply by being there, perhaps for
generations or because they are refugees from others areas of Palestine.
The law is unique on the international scene because it links negative
consequences not to the conduct of the person but to the neutral data of
residence. The qualification of "enemy", and as such a potential legitimate
target, derives from residing in enemy territory. That's why no Gazaw, not even
the girls and boys killed in recent days, will ever get compensation
A passage of the sentence is particularly interesting in its frankness and
unscrupulousness. The Court argues that the law is not contrary to international
law but even if it were, the Knesset has the power to overrule international
law. And again: the rationale of the law resides in the deliberate will to
damage the enemy who must not derive any profit from the conduct, (even if
criminal, ed) of the State of Israel.
The Knesset, therefore, the political body par excellence, pursues an explicit
political and legislative purpose in order to obtain the desired result even in
disregard of the most elementary rules of international law.
Attiya has been in a wheelchair since 2014, guilty only of residing in his home
in the Gaza Strip. The media have never talked about him as they have said
nothing about the 15 children killed in recent days. They reported the number,
some crediting the Israeli version that they would have been victims of
Palestinian rockets. The enslavement of almost all the media to the Zionist
propaganda reached unimaginable levels on this occasion as well. Thus Israel is
free to bomb Gaza because unilaterally declared "enemy territory", it is free to
affirm with a law that guarantees the right to self-determination only for the
Jewish population, it is free to affirm, in judgments and not only, that
international law it does not concern him. Yet the refrain that "it is the only
democracy in the Middle East" is constant.
In Gaza in recent days, under the bombs, someone has posted a poster addressed
to Europeans with the inscription: "Until when will we have to pay your sins?".
The question is legitimate, the answer difficult.
8 August 2022 Ugo Giannangeli
The latest news