Momina Zeeshan – Writer
Wars have always played a major role in shaping the world affairs, and unfortunately all the nations
today, glorify their war struggles. Nations throughout the world feed their ego and their fragile pride by recalling events of war, how they fought, how they have sacrificed their lives for a piece of land and how they let their loved ones die in the course of something as evil as wars. But as it is said,
good can only be felt due to the presence of bad, peace too can be felt by the presence of war somewhere at some point.
Good outcomes at times emerge out of something evil. Treaty of Westphalia, which introduced the world to the concept of nation state, was a result of brutal 30 years war among the European Empires, American Revolution after the war of independence which justifies itself well today had not been possible without British oppression, French Revolution was a consequence of long existing tyranny of the French Monarch, League of Nations emerged out of WWI and United Nations after WWII. So, the world is not all anarchic, if there are wars, there are laws of war. Yes! Laws of war or International Humanitarian Law exists. This law tells the states, what and what not to do during an armed conflict. Coming to the Arab-Israel conflict, now more commonly known as Israel-Palestinian conflict, let’s have a bird’s eye view as to how Israel is in compliance with the International Humanitarian Law.
First of all, if here we are discussing whether Israel is in compliance with the laws of war, I am of the opinion that this should not be called a war in the first place. The first part of laws of war i.e jus ad bellum, demands a justified reason for a transition from a state of peace to state of war. In short, a just cause for waging the war. Which in case of Israel is absent. There is no just cause, rather its just a matter of acquiring some land which they think is promised to them by the divine. They believe themselves to be the chosen people of the god and therefore, they think they have all the rights over this piece of land.
Coming to the next part of Laws of war, i.e. Jus In bello, highlights the conduct that should be
adopted during the war/armed conflict. It explicitly state rules like women and children should be
protected during the armed conflict, the unarmed civilians should not be harmed, places like hospitals, schools should not be targeted, and then it states how principle of proportionality should be observed. Principle of proportionality restricts the amount of force that one can use. It observes that he force should not exceed the enemy’s force. I think after mentioning about these rules that are to be followed according to IHL during a conflict, it is quite self-explanatory whether Israel is in compliance with these laws or not. The children in Palestine are being killed brutally, families are being displaced and deprived of their homes, women are being raped by Israeli soldiers, schools and hospitals are being destroyed by Israeli air strikes.
The last part of Laws of war, i.e jus post bellum, seems impossible to be applicable to this conflict,
or I may say genocide. Since it talks about the responsibility to rebuild what have been destroyed, to
terminate the war on moral grounds, in short trying to fix the situation, I believe Israel is not capable of this.
There is nothing in this world that can compensate the damage that has been done to the Palestinians. I feel ashamed that the bare minimum I can do is raise my voice.
I genuinely feel sorry for all the states, who despite having the power, are silent.
This is not an issue of religion, this is not an issue of territory, this is not an issue of who is right and who is not, this is merely a humanitarian cause. All the people in the world who consider themselves to be humans, should stand up against this brutal genocide, irrespective of your religion, ethnic background and nationality.
Writer can be contacted at momeenamoin@gmail.com
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