Assignment Cover Sheet
Student name: Piyanat Numdee
Student Number: z3401624
Course convenor/lecturer: DR. Deane-Peter Baker
Course name: Introduction to Military Ethics
Course code: ZGEN2240
Assessment number: 1
Assessment task: Major Report
Word length: 2169
Date submitted: 26 September 2014
I, Piyanat Numdee affirm that the work in this assignment is solely my own other than where explicitly acknowledged being otherwise.
I assert that the preparation of this work has been completed in accordance with ethical standards appropriate to students of UNSW at ADFA and is true representation of my current capabilities in this course.
In terms of the principle of jus ad bellum, was Israel justified in launching its military action against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad in Gaza in July 2014?
Israel’s military action against Palestine
There has been an ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, after Israel pulled out its forces from the Gaza and the West Bank since its occupation from Six Day War in 1967. Recently in July 2014, Israel launched a military action against Palestinians in the Gaza which is under control of Hamas. After 7 weeks of the campaign, there were over 2,100 deaths which the majorities are Palestinian. I would claim that Israel’s military action against Hamas was not justified, because the action did not meet most of the criteria of jus ad bellum, as will be explained later in this report.
Analysing the Israel’s
I attest that the work submitted for this assignment is entirely mine, that no another person has written or dictated this assignment in whole or part, and that all material relied on (if any) is fully and properly attributed and cited.
According to the Human Rights Watch during July 23 and 24, 2014 in Khuza’a, a border town between the Gaza Strip and Israel, Israeli soldiers were shooting and killing innocent families while trying to force them out of their homes. At first the Israeli military gave warnings to the civilians warning them to flee their homes however most did not listen. Many had nowhere to go and stayed only in fear. Afterwards they used force shooting, and shelling the Palestinians. Killing children and families who only want to live better lives is unacceptable by all international standards. Israel’s excessive force should not be tolerated before any more lives are lost. To add on, Israel has been purposefully denying Palestinians access to basic human resources such as food and clean water. A United Nations report states that In 2010 six ships led by the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief were sailing to the Gaza Strip. They were attempting to bring aid in clean water, food, medical supplies and building supplies to the Palestinian people. However in May Israeli special forces boarded the ships killing 10 activists and detaining several hundred. They took control over the boats and sailed them to Israeli ports. This is purely an act evil against people who just wanted to help. There is no reason for a country to deny humanitarian aid to
Israel has used tactics to defend itself, and to get the international “right to exist”. Israel has used security tactics to feel safe, but these tactics are endangering the civil and human rights of the citizens of Israel. “...No country has a recognized God-given or otherwise right to exist, only responsibilities under international law and moral responsibilities…”
According to The Supreme Court Sitting as the High Court of Justice, petitioners claim that the targeted killings policy violates the rules of international law even if the laws applicable to the armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinians are the laws of war. These laws recognize only two statuses of people: combatants and civilians. Combatants are legitimate targets, but they also enjoy the rights granted in
Have you ever thought about why Palestinians kill Israelites in cold blood? The media puts stories out to the public saying that Palestinians are committing acts of terrorism and have no reason to do so. That is only one side of the story, not enough people look at the palestinian side of things and why they were doing the things they are doing to Israelites. Israel has done so many terrible things to the Palestinians for years. Israel ended up building a giant wall around Palestine and put many checkpoints down saying that it was to keep the Palestinians out of Israel, but in reality, the wall and checkpoints were used to control the Palestinians.
The history is clear, after the World War II and the holocaust; Jewish wanted their own country, and then the struggle between Jewish and Palestinian started. When the two sides went to war in 1948, Gaza was controlled by Egypt, and the other area which is the West Bank controlled by Jordan. In 1967 after facing another war Israel occupied these Palestinian areas, after facing these two historical wars and Gaza was being under a blockade, which means Israel controlled its borders and control whoever gets out and in. Hamas won elections in Gaza and took control there, which made most of the world call Hamas a terrorist organization and others call Hamas a group of freedom fighters, it means Palestine must be accountable for Hamas’s war
Arab and Israel have been fighting over Gaza for decades. After the holocaust where six million Jews were killed, many Jewish people wanted their own country. So they were given a large part of Palestine, which they though of their home but the Arabs in near by countries thought this was unfair and didn’t accept the new country. Because of this the two sides went to war and in the end Gaza was controlled by Egypt. It contained thousands of Palestinians who fled the new Jewish home, Israel.
When Hamas uses its military wing to kill Israeli citizens. They were accused of fighting the Israelis because they are Jews. Hamas reported that these accusations were false and completely wrong. The group was called terrorist nor for the plans or action that stood for, but that they employed indiscriminate violence. Since Hamas did not agree with Israeli taken over the Palestinian, they are considered terrorists from destroying Israel. As stated by Stanley Cohen, “Hamas is a nationalist resistance forced to resort to violence because it has so little power compared with Israel” (Davidson,
must remain staunch allies with Israel. When the UN Human Rights Council published a report documenting war crimes committed by Israel, Clinton lead the fight in preventing action from being taken. She has also refused to condemn several Israeli conducted massacres, including those during the 2014 war on the Gaza Strip; Clinton has claimed that the nearly 1,500 were due to “the way Hamas places its weapons,” but, according to independent human rights researchers, very few civilian deaths were the results of these placements. The Human Rights Watch, in response to the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, wrote, “In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.” Clinton then co-sponsored a Senate resolution, unconditionally supporting Israel’s actions during the offensive. Along with that, she has attacked the peaceful BDS movement for being “anti-semitic,” a claim usually reserved for the far-right. She has called for increased counter-terrorism military strikes in Syria and
According to international law, Hamas has every right to exist, since it is a resistance movement which is withstanding the occupation of Zionist. Hamas is compromised of freedom fighters who are desperately protecting their citizens and homeland. Hamas have every right to defend itself from these Zionist to ensure the safety of the Palestinians (Hamas is a resistance movement, not a terrorist group, insists Qatar,
Despite Israel’s best efforts to avoid harming non-combatants, there were many civilian injuries and deaths were reported in Gaza. As in prior Israel-Hamas conflicts, Hamas had deliberately placed its operational centers, storage facilities and rocket launching sites, infiltration tunnels, in densely populated areas, including private homes, mosques, schools and medical facilities, a violation of the Law of Armed Conflict (which prohibits a party to hostilities
Consequently, after hours of searches and reading articles published from each side on the middle east conflict and its issues two things became undeniable clear to me, one, the Gaza Strip is an occupied territory and two, there really are terrorists in the Gaza Strip who want to exterminate the Jewish population. Nonetheless, Israel, perhaps rightly so given its long history of being attacked and the continued philippic speeches by
I hereby confirm that the work contained in this assignment is solely my own, except for reliance on
In contrast with authorization of Gaza to access its territory for investigation, Israel remained closed for any cooperation. The report of the fact finding mission on Gaza Conflict, known as the Goldstone Report, was strongly criticized by the international community, and I would like to draw a clear consecutive line between the critique and the refusal of Israel to cooperate. On the one hand, Alan Dershowitz argued that the Goldstone Report is more accusatory to Israel and biased against Israeli witnesses compared of Palestinians, and it much more emphasizes the intentionality of Israeli conduct. On the other hand, Dinah PoKempner justified the ''imperfect'' exercise of Goldstone fact-finding due to its heavy constraints caused by refusal of Israel for cooperation. It is rather clear that refusal of the State to cooperate is a serious obstacle challenging the acquirement of the information and risking its impartiality. The initial methodology of holding public hearings in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, which was also intended to be broadcasted live, was changed due to refusal of access to Israel and the West Bank, thus the hearings of participants from Israel and the West Bank was decided to hold in Geneva. However, this did not prove to be completely successful, partly because of non-cooperation of Israel. While on my opinion the public hearings as a method for collection of primary information are quiet effective, it did not work in the fact-finding mission on the Gaza Conflict, which proves that the non-cooperation of the State is a strong obstacle. However, this method was successfully used by the UN CoI on human rights violation in the DPRK to overcome the obstacle of denial to access the State. In a situation of no access to DPRK, the commission interviewed 240 witnesses, who were refugees, who fled DPRK. This kind of solution is effective, though raises two
” Palestine is from the sea to the river, from Rosh HaNikra to Rafah. The siege will not change our belief, wars don’t cause people give up resistance and resistance leaders. We will not recognize! We will not recognize! We will not recognize Israel!” - Ismail Haniyeh. (1) As you can imagine this is a huge problem. They refuse to recognize Israel and are very violent about it. They believe that targeting civilians actually help their fight against Israel.