Israel army punishes one Gaza soldier

The Israeli Defense Force has punished one soldier for “accidentally” shooting a Palestinian woman in the leg during January’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ military incursion into the Gaza Strip. The solider in question has been demoted and put on probation.

It’s the first official punishment handed down by the IDF against its soldiers for causing civilian casualties during the Gaza operation. Though so far it looks like this soldier’s punishment will be the exception rather than the rule. Despite well-researched reports by the United Nations and other human rights groups recounting hundreds of incidents of Israeli soldiers deliberately causing harm to Palestinian civilians – including accounts of IDF snipers shooting women and children, and of a squad of soldiers using a Palestinian boy as a human shield – the Israelis are continuing to push the ‘few bad apples’ explanation: that any alleged abuses were caused by a small number of ‘rogue’ troops within a very ethical and professional army.

Richard Falk, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories in a report issued on Tuesday, accused Israel of wide-spread abuses in Gaza, and suggested their conduct rose to the level of a “crime against humanity” – a term first used against Nazi leaders during the Nuremburg war crimes trials following World War Two. Falk used the term in describing Israel’s policy of sealing the borders of the Gaza Strip – home to a million and a half people – before launching Operation Cast Lead, thus preventing civilians from leaving the combat zone.

Israel (and to a lesser degree the United States) have criticized Falk’s report and its findings. But if you look at the Israeli argument it boils down to this: since they were fighting terrorists who don’t respect the laws of war or the well-being of civilians, the Israelis didn’t have to either. Aharon Leshno Yar, Israel's ambassador to the UN rights council, said Falk’s report “[it] willfully ignores and downplays the terrorist and other threats we face,” before discussing how Hamas has no problem operating from urban areas, in effect using civilians as human shields.

But I would argue though that respecting human rights and striving to protect civilians is exactly the thing that separates civilized nations from the terrorists, and isn’t that the point of fighting terrorism in the first place?