The Israeli Nuremberg Defense

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By Will

Haaretz is publishing what so far appears to be a damaging testimonial of Israel's brutish conduct in the Gaza invasion a few months ago. Israeli fighters quoted in the first article featured soldiers who spoke of the IDF's moral lapses, from the deliberate killing of civilians to the official allowance of trashing the homes they requisitioned -- including the ritual of leaving "Death to Arabs" graffiti on their walls.

These stories, if anything, demonstrate the certain need for a war crimes investigation and the sincere willingness to prosecute them. Otherwise, the blatant disregard for human life exhibited by the Israeli military will only continue to exacerbate. If anything, prosecution will compel Israeli soldiers to stop thinking they can murder at will under the guise of "following orders."

One story in particular illuminates both the horrific banality with which the IDF targeted civilians, and the predictable rationalization that "following orders" justifies the worst forms of human cruelty.

There was one house with a family in it... we put them into some room. Afterward, we left the house and another company went in, and a few days after we went in there was an order to release the family. We took our positions upstairs.

There was a sniper position on the roof and the company commander released the family and told them to take a right. One mother and her two children didn't understand, and they took a left. Someone forgot to notify the sniper on the roof that the family had been released, and that it was okay, it was fine, to hold fire, and he... you can say he acted as necessary, as he was ordered to.

I don't think he felt too bad about it, because after all, as far as he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders he was given. And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to ... I don't know how to describe it .... The lives of Palestinians, let's say, is something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned they can justify it that way.

In what context are the lives of soldiers to be held higher than civilians? Soldiers are fighters who accept the risk of the death as part of their duty. To privilege their own being over that of the occupied civilians constitutes worse than a moral lapse, it is sheer criminality, not to mention cowardice.

In a follow-up article, Amos Harel pointed out the the soldiers' "reality is completely different from the gentler version provided by the military commanders to the public and media during the operation and after." It is just another case of what my uncle calls 'Al Nakba Denial' -- the systematic refusal by Israeli officialdom to accept its culpability for Palestinian displacement and suffering.

Harel points out "Israel's view of the enemy is becoming more extreme." From each conflict to the next, the disregard for civilian life only grows. This is frightening harbinger, especially with the rise of politicians who openly espouse ethnic cleansing as a solution to the "demographic threat."

I reject World War II analogies that treat Israel as a Nazi regime. It is yet to implement a program so genocidal. However, one need not be Hitler to be tried for war crimes.

What scares me is the soldiers who so easily slide into the rationalization that they were just following orders. If Israel did grow into a genocidal monster, would they still follow orders?

It is as if their free will and accountability for their own actions is nullified by the military, as if one cannot easily decide not to shoot the woman and two children heading in the opposite direction. Only coming from a position in which Palestinian dehumanization is taken as granted does such utter brutality follow any logic.

Thankfully, war crimes law does not accept "following orders" as an effective defense. The Nuremberg Defense, as it is called, was raised by Nazis tried after the war for their part in the holocaust against Jews, Gypsies, gays, and other groups chosen for extinction by the German death machine.

As Wikipedia points out,

Before the end of World War II, the Allies suspected such a defense might be employed, and issued the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which specifically stated that this was not a valid defense against charges of war crimes.

These testimonials in the Haaretz coincide with U.N. official Richard Falk's statement that there is evidence Israel committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip and that there should be an independent inquiry. International notables such as Desmond Tutu called for such an investigation.

Perhaps if the international community actually investigated and prosecuted Israelis for war crimes, its soldiers would think twice about shooting fleeing women and children. Without the risk of being held responsible, they are free to exercise any level of wreckless disregard for human life, including intentional murder, against a largely refugee population. Israel would never again be able to just kill 1000 Palestinians civilians and not suffer a shred of accountability (these stories tear to shreds Israel claim to doing all that it could to avoid civilian deaths, a lie inherently hard to believe with such casualty rates).

If even one child is spared, any prosecution is worth it.