Israel's attack on Gaza was murder, not war

The South African media has been ablaze this year with the most publicised trial in recent history. Every news report, print media, family conversations and office discussions has carried the name of Oscar Pistorius. The backlash from the public was palpable when respected Judge Masipa found the athlete not guilty of “dolus eventualis” (having an awareness of the likely outcome) but guilty of culpable homicide (killing without intention). Justice Musi and Justice Murray in the case of S v Radebe said: “Intent in the form of dolus eventualis or legal intention, which is present when the perpetrator objectively foresees the possibility of his act causing death and persists regardless of the consequences, suffices to find someone guilty of murder.” Pistorius may not have been guilty of murder, but events elsewhere at the same time suggest that the state of Israel should be on trial for the same charge.

During the period of the Pistorius trial, Israel attacked the Gaza Strip; again. The coastal territory is small; at just 360 square kilometres it is nevertheless home to 1.8 million Palestinians. The ferocity of the attack on the besieged people of Gaza, who were caged-in and refused to leave the death trap created by Israel and the illegitimate president in Egypt, Al-Sisi, was astonishing. According to Hazem Abu Murad of the Gaza bomb disposal team, between eighteen to twenty thousand tons of explosives were dropped by Israel, equivalent in destructive power to the nuclear bombs dropped by the Americans on Japan. The Times of Israel said that almost 500 sorties took place, with the air force making 150 bombing runs a day. The Israel Defence Forces, reported Haaretz, confirmed that it dropped 100 one-ton bombs on the people of Gaza. Other Israeli sources confirm that 40,000 155mm artillery shells were fired into the densely-packed enclave.

Israel’s initial justification for the bombardment was that Hamas had abducted and murdered three Israeli teenagers who lived in the illegal settlement of Gush Etzion in the occupied West Bank. Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld, however, said that a lone cell was responsible; it was not done under the direction of Hamas.

The next Israeli excuse was the rockets fired by the resistance in Gaza. Yet Israel itself had broken the previous ceasefire. Israeli sources pointed out that “Hamas and other terrorist [sic] organisations operating in the Gaza Strip have complied with the understanding achieved to end Operation Pillar of Defence.” This was in November 2012, at a time when NBC News reported that Israel had just killed a 20 year old Palestinian in Gaza and injured 10 others. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malik even lodged a complaint at the UN. Once more, Israel changed its excuse for going to war: this time it was the tunnels, overlooking conveniently that the tunnels were only created in order to break its siege of Gaza; journalists described the tunnels as “Gaza’s lifeline”. The claim that tunnels were headed towards Israeli settlements for attack purposes is frivolous due to the fact that not a single Israeli civilian was killed as a result of a tunnel incursion.

The crux of the matter is that Israel unleashed a huge amount of military might on a largely civilian population in Gaza with no tanks, planes or warships of its own. Almost 2,200 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians; many of them were women and children. Claims that the latter were used as “human shields” by the resistance groups have been discredited. The Israelis even bombed UN schools being used as shelters by Palestinians displaced by the destruction of their homes. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon described it as “shameful” for Israel to attack “sleeping children”.

I believe that the unleashing of the most modern weapons of destruction and mayhem on a population trapped in a confined area creates a situation where the person ultimately responsible, in this case the prime minister of Israel, presumably, could indeed “objectively foresee the possibility of his act causing death and persists regardless of the consequences”. What happened in Gaza was murder, not war, and murder charges should be pressed home. Unlike Oscar Pistorius, though, Israel will never be held accountable, not even for culpable homicide.

The writer is the Chairman of the Media Review Network in South Africa

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.