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Uri Avnery / 22.12.01
If I Were Mofaz
If I were Shaul Mofaz, I would by now be very worried indeed. In Belgium,
Ariel Sharon is standing trial for his part in the Sabra and Shatila
events of 19 years ago. At first, he treated this as a joke. No more.
Now he is spending a fortune (of our money) on this trial.
The prosecution argues that Sharon, then Israel's Minister of Defense, being
responsible for occupied Beirut, allowed a bunch of notorious murderers into
the camps of defenseless refugees, where they indiscriminately killed men
and women, old people and children. The Israeli Commission of Inquiry
ordered his dismissal and charged him with "indirect responsibility". The
Belgian prosecutors are trying to charge him with direct responsibility.
Perhaps the trial will be abandoned, perhaps Sharon will be found not guilty.
But if he is found guilty, an international warrant may be issued for his arrest
and he will be liable to be arrested the moment he sets foot in Europe.
This is only a beginning. The international campaign against war crimes is
progressing rapidly. A permanent International Court for war crimes is going
to be set up. After Belgium, other countries will enact laws for the trial
of foreign war criminals in their courts. The definition of war crimes will
be widened, and so will the cooperation between states, especially in
Europe.
The trial of an acting head of government for alleged war crimes committed 19
years ago is an important precedent. No less important is the decision handed
down this week by the Israeli Supreme Court, denying Ehud Yatom the right to
hold any important security position. Yatom murdered two bound prisoners in cold
blood, with his own hands. This happened 17 years ago, when he was a
high-ranking officer of the Shin-Beth security service. He maintained in his
defense that he had only followed orders and acted according to existing "norms"
(terrible words for a Jewish ear).
At the time he had requested and received a pardon, thus practically admitting
to the despicable deed. (This was part of the infamous 1984 "bus line 300
affair", the kidnapping of a bus by four unarmed Palestinian youngsters. Two
were killed when the bus was stormed, the other two murdered after capture.
Haolam Hazeh magazine, whose editor I was at the time, played a leading role in
uncovering the crime.)
This coming summer, Shaul Mofaz is about to be relieved. That will be the
end of his military career. Or will it?
In one, five or twenty years, somebody may get up and sue Mofaz in The Hague,
Brussels or anywhere else for acts committed under his command. For example: the
"liquidations".
If this happens, Mofaz will have to explain to foreign judges why he
initiated and ordered the murder of Palestinian personalities, including
political figures. The prosecutors will probably argue that these were
executions without trial, in which Mofaz and his officers served
simultaneously as prosecutors, judges and hangmen.
The same goes for the so-called "ascertaining killing" (viduh harigah in
Hebrew), meaning the killing of helpless wounded enemies. Over this
contemptible act there flies the "black flag", even under Israeli law.
During the Mofaz's term of command (and even before) this has become the
norm.
Anyone who obeys such instructions (see Ehud Yatom) fulfils a "manifestly
illegal order", meaning an order which any sane person, as primitive as
he may be, knows is illegal. (So defined by Judge Benjamin Halevy,
presiding over the Court Martial, in his famous "black flag" judgment
condemning the perpetuators of the 1956 Kufr Kassem massacre). It
follows that the risk of prosecution hovers over many officers and
soldiers, from general to simple private, who gave or executed such an
order.
If anybody believes that this is an abstract danger, something merely
theoretical or academic, he may sooner or later find out that he was sadly
mistaken. The day may not be far off when an officer who commanded a
"liquidation" action, the helicopter pilot who executed it, the lieutenant
who ordered an "ascertaining killing" act and the simple soldier who did it
- are all in constant fear when going abroad. And if the Israeli laws change
when a different kind of government comes to power, as will surely happen
one of these days, they will live in fear even in Israel.
Please remember: There is no time-limit. A grandfather playing with his
grandchildren may be prosecuted for war crimes he committed when a
youngster. And there is no exemption because of grade - the sword of
justice may descend equally on a private soldier and on the Minister of
Defense.
The triangle responsible at present for everything happening in the occupied
territories - Shaul Mofaz, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Ariel Sharon - would be
well advised to have a good look at the photos of Slobodan Milosevic in The
Hague. Not long ago he was an omnipotent ruler, who could by a wink of his
eyes authorize the murder of thousands of men (including young boys) or the
rape of thousands of women (including young girls). Now he is in The Hague.
The way there may be shorter than it seems.
haGalil onLine
29-12-2001 |
