The facts that began the war between Israel and the Islamic terrorist group Hamas are known to all, and begin militarily and unilaterally on October 7, 2023, with the massacre of about 1200 Israeli civil and military, and with the seizure of about 250 people, including women, elderly and children, kidnapped in Israeli territory, with a clear violation of international humanitarian law, below.
In the face of this resolved attack, the state of Israel unleashed a war of response in the territories administered by Hamas, characterized immediately as a legitimate defense and, in the following months, as a total war to prevent another 7 October forever – taking into account that the declared objective of Hamas is the liberation of Palestine and the elimination of the state of Israel, as indicated in his constitutive card of 1988 – with air raids, terrestrial and naval raids, to the total siege and the feared entry of his troops in the major cities of the strip.
The report of genocide of South Africa
On December 29 of the same year, South Africa presented a complaint to the United Nations International Court of Justice against the Jewish State, accused of genocide in relation to the military behavior taking place in the strip, for clear violation of the “Convention for the prevention and repression of the crime of genocide”, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. Israel immediately contested this thesis by claiming the legitimate defense in response to the 7 October 2023.
Definition and importance of the recognition of genocide
In the context of armed conflicts, reference is made to particularly serious crimes:
– war crimes;
– crimes against humanity;
– genocide;
– crime of aggression.
Among these, genocide is the most heinous crime and is considered the crime crime for the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The intention to destroy the group in whole or in part is the key element for the identification of this crime. Therefore these are not about killings, bombings, suffering of the civilian population, serious acts in itself but unfortunately common to every modern conflict, but the deliberate will of wanting to annihilate a group, in which the subjective element is predominant on all the others must be ascertained.
The genocide, in addition to providing very heavy penalties for responsible rulers and for executing materials, represents a real infamy brand for those who practice it, and is the eternal stigma that stains a nation forever. That’s why Israel, whose people was the victim of the most violent genocide in history, opposes with all his strength to a perceived accusation as an infamous.
Because it is not genocide
- In all cases of recognized genocide, the active parties had not received any attack from the unsuccessful group, while in the case in question the Israeli response is due to an initial aggression to defenseless civilians;
- Israel is fighting an asymmetrical war against illegal fighters. And in fact the terrorists of Hamas have never respected the rules of the conflicts established by the Geneva conventions: suicide attacks, launch of rockets on the cities, attacks on civilians and military personnel out of service, seizure of helpless citizens, use of homes or public structures such as weapons deposits, refusing to Palestinian civilians to move away from the war or bombing areas, despite the Army of Israel in many cases. that will be affected;
- Israel is carrying out a military strategy of recovery of the hostages, moving according to the International Convention against the taking of hostages, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 17 December 1979, in the aftermath of the notorious September 5, 1972, when a Palestinian terrorist commando of the Settembre Nero group, affiliated to the Olp of Yasser Arafat, perpetrated a massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympia. Munich.
- Hamas, whose Arabic acronym stands for “Islamic resistance movement”, is considered by many countries a terrorist group, and in fact it is included in the list drawn up by the Council of the European Union together with figures such as ISIS/D’ESH, AL-QAEDA, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the military wing of Hezbollah.
- If there was a subjective intent of wanting to annihilate the Palestinian people, Israel would have military possibilities to completely annihilate the Palestinian population, without risking the lives of their soldiers, who fell to thousands. Vice versa, although among the difficulties of the case, humanitarian corridors and food distribution are ensured, despite Hamas attempting to intercept or block aid for internal political reasons.
- It is not understood why we should speak of precise desire to destroy a homogeneous group, when in the West Bank, a few kilometers from the Striscia, governed by the Palestinian National Authority, a relative calm is lived and the President Abu Mazen himself condemned Hamas by exhorting him to cease his criminal role in the area and to return the hostages, those live and those who are now dead.
- If there was a genocidal intent based on the race or religion, it is not understood why two million Arabs live in peace with Israeli citizenship in peace, who carry out military service, and who enjoy civil and political rights so much so that at Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, there are two Arab parties with 10 representatives.
Final considerations
Although the International Court of Justice has considered plausible some of the South African reasons against Israel, the same obviously did not make any definitive decision on the matter. For this reason it is completely incorrect to speak today of genocide, and if such an error can be forgiven to a little or badly informed citizen, this is not acceptable when to use superficially, or deliberately, the term genocide are political, intellectual leaders, analysts or journalists of the greatest Italian and European newspapers. It will be the Court, when it is, to decide on the existence or not of this crime, but until then they should cease all the exploitation in progress.
Sergio De Santis, col. (Ris.) Of the Guardia di Finanza
The article The Colonel explains: “Because in Gaza it is not a genocide” comes from Nicolaportro.it.