Gaza as a New Troy | VT Foreign Policy
VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel
$ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contractsSource: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.
”The Gods closed their eyes
And the walls of the city blazed
O cries of the massacres, o agony of the killed
The massacre of the drunken and defenseless people of Troy was great
The massacre was great but Netanyahu’s’impiety was greater”
(paraphrase of Femius’ chant, Odyssey Poem)
But war crimes legislation does not apply just against the United States of America and Israel. Why?
This is often justified through the expedient of the so-called ”just war theory”,
and US and Israeli wars are always ”just”, obviously,
However this statement, its obvious unfairness, would be enough to fill the contents of an article.
Nothing more is needed. Anyway, if anyone really wants to know.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called “the father of modern linguistics”, Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics.
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, unnecessarily destroying civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime sexual violence, pillaging, and for any individual that is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to commit mass killings including genocide or ethnic cleansing, the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity.
Typical causes of the war crimes that Israel is carrying out today are civil casualties.
A civilian casualty occurs when a civilian is killed or injured by non-civilians, mostly law enforcement officers, military personnel, rebel group forces, or terrorists. Under the law of war, it refers to civilians who perish or suffer wounds as a result of wartime acts. The term is generally applied to situations in which violence is committed in pursuit of political goals. During periods of armed conflict, there are structures, actors, and processes at a number of levels that affect the likelihood of violence against civilians
The formal concept of war crimes emerged from the codification of the customary international law that applied to warfare between sovereign states, such as the Lieber Code (1863) of the Union Army in the American Civil War and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for international war.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the war-crime trials of the leaders of the Axis powers established the Nuremberg principles of law, for what appears today as an unfair legal asymmetry, ultimately the application of the law of the strongest and woe to the vanquished, (Vae Victis! Latin) such as that international criminal law defines what a war crime is.
In 1949, the Geneva Conventions legally defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over war criminals. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, international courts extrapolated and defined additional categories of war crimes applicable to a civil war. The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted and continuously expanded from 1864 to 1949 that represent a legal basis and framework for the conduct of war under international law. Every single member state of the United Nations has currently ratified the conventions, which are universally accepted as customary international law, and applicable to every situation of armed conflict in the world.
The Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions adopted in 1977 containing the most relevant, detailed and comprehensive protections of international humanitarian law for persons and objects in modern warfare are still not ratified by several states continuously engaged in armed conflicts, namely the United States, Israel, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and others. Accordingly, states retain different codes and values about wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way that either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws’ formalities and principles.
The first three conventions have been revised and expanded, with the fourth one added in 1949:
The First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field was adopted in 1864 and then significantly revised and replaced by the 1906 version, the 1929 version, and later the First Geneva Convention of 1949.
The Second Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea was adopted in 1906 and then significantly revised and replaced by the Second Geneva Convention of 1949.
The Third Geneva Convention relating to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was adopted in 1929 and then significantly revised and replaced by the Third Geneva Convention of 1949.
The Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War was first adopted in 1949, based on parts of the 1907 Hague Convention IV. HRW wrote that the Saudi Arabian-led military intervention in Yemen that began on March 26, 2015, involved airstrikes in apparent violation of the laws of war.
Two Additional Protocols were adopted in 1977 with the third one added in 2005, completing and updating the Geneva Conventions: Protocol I (1977) relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts. Protocol II (1977) relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts. Protocol III (2005) relates to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem.
Jus in Bello (Law at war)
Once war has begun, just war theory (jus in bello) also directs how combatants are to act or should act:
Distinction:
Just war conduct should be governed by the principle of distinction. The acts of war should be directed towards enemy combatants, and not towards non-combatants caught in circumstances they did not create. The prohibited acts include bombing civilian residential areas that include no legitimate military targets, committing acts of terrorism or reprisal against civilians or prisoners of war (POWs), and attacking neutral targets.Moreover, combatants are not permitted to attack enemy combatants who have surrendered, or who have been captured, or who are injured and not presenting an immediate lethal threat, or who are parachuting from disabled aircraft and are not airborne forces, or who are shipwrecked.
Proportionality:
Just war conduct should be governed by the principle of proportionality. Combatants must make sure that the harm caused to civilians or civilian property is not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated by an attack on a legitimate military objective. This principle is meant to discern the correct balance between the restriction imposed by a corrective measure and the severity of the nature of the prohibited act.
Military necessity:
Just war conduct should be governed by the principle of military necessity. An attack or action must be intended to help in the defeat of the enemy; it must be an attack on a legitimate military objective, and the harm caused to civilians or civilian property must be proportional and not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. This principle is meant to limit excessive and unnecessary death and destruction.
Recent developments:
Now it appears that five countries have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the situation in Palestine, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said on Friday, according to TASS Russian News Agency.
These five honoured countries are Bangladesh, Bolivia, Djibouti, South Africa, and the Comoros.
Hail to these nations!
Hail to these nations!
It should be noted particularly that among them there are no great powers such as the USA, China, Russia, BRICS or even European countries, Canada and Oceania but only medium and small countries dispersed among Asia and Africa…
“We are opposed to the operation that is ongoing, particularly as it is now targeting hospitals where babies, women, and the injured are dying like flies,” the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on November, 15th 2023 during a two-day visit to Qatar. that day, Ramaphosa claimed that while South Africa, an active supporter of Palestinian sovereignty, does not endorse the Hamas incursion, the Israeli response amounts to genocide that warrants an ICC investigation.
ICC It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The ICC is distinct from the International Court of Justice, an organ of the United Nations that hears disputes between states. Established in 2002 pursuant to the multilateral Rome Statute, the ICC is considered by its proponents to be a major step toward justice, and an innovation in international law and human rights. However, it has faced a number of criticisms from governments and civil society groups, including objections to its jurisdiction, accusations of bias, Eurocentrism and racism, questioning of the fairness of its case selection and trial procedures, and doubts about its effectiveness.“There is a need for the whole world to rise and call for the Israeli government to ceasefire, and stop what is happening and the ICC to investigate. Of course, legal measures need to be taken at a global level,” he added. that of giving an adequate response to the request for investigation is yet another opportunity presented to the International Criminal Court (ICC) an intergovernmental organization under the control of the UN and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands, to demonstrate its impartiality andindependence from the USA and Israel. And without double standards. But I’m sorry, I hope to be wrong, but I’m pessimistic about it, given the precedents of ICC null impartiality and independence from the USA and Israel and burdened by corresponding double standards. At least so far…
Claudio Resta was born in Genoa, Italy in 1958, he is a citizen of the world (Spinoza), a maverick philosopher, and an interdisciplinary expert, oh, and an artist, too.
Grew up in a family of scientists where many sciences were represented by philosophy to psychoanalysis, from economics to history, from mathematics to physics, and where these sciences were subject to public display by their subject experts family members, and all those who they were part of could participate in a public family dialogue/debate on these subjects if they so wished. Read Full Bio
ATTENTION READERS
We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully InformedIn fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.
About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT.
No comments:
Post a Comment