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2012-03-27 - Israel The Third Strategic Threat
2012-03-27 - Israel The Third Strategic Threat
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Israel's assault on an aid flotilla heading to Gaza is a decisive episode in the country's challenge to international humanitarian law and its advocates. But it may have unexpected results, say Thomas Keenan & Eyal Weizman
Many details remain to be established about the Israeli commando assault on the Mavi Marmara the lead ship in a flotilla intent on carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip - in the early hours of 31 May 2010. But whatever the investigation of the incident [14] ultimately reveals, the killing of nine human-rights activists bears witness to two related developments: the increasing politiciisation of humanitarian aid, and the growing sense of threat that the Israeli government seems to feel from human-rights organisations and international law.
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Since human-rights workers and humanitarian groups emerged in the field of international conflict, they have been the targets of repressive regimes or violent militias, who often interpret the provision of relief and assistance to civilians as intervention on behalf of the enemy. Aid convoys to the other side have routinely been attacked or hijacked, staff kidnapped or killed, hospitals and compounds seized and destroyed. When shelter, medicine, and food are seen as interventions, it means that control over the conditions of civilian life has become one of the weapons in the conflict. Humanitarianism is in a strict sense grounded in the principles of neutrality, impartiality, and commitment, first and foremost, to the civilian victims of conflict. However, aid workers are not always successful in convincing fighters of their independence, and sometimes themselves blur the border between support for victims and support of a political cause. Furthermore, when the pursuit of a military strategy (such as a state of siege) entails and/or is designed to affect the quality of civilian life, the provision of aid can become an element in a politico-military calculation. When aid is thus politicised it can easily become a target for all parties in a conflict. As Toni Pfanner [15] of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC [16]) noted in 2005: recent attacks on humanitarian organisations, including the ICRC, both in Iraq and in Afghanistan have shown that humanitarian relief may be contrary to the belligerents' interests or, even worse, that attacks on humanitarian workers may foster their agenda." But with very few exceptions, direct and intentional attacks on aid workers or human-rights advocates have hitherto been largely the work of undisciplined militias, ragged armies, criminal gangs, and police-states. The perpetrators have included the Taliban, the Bosnian Serb army, Iraqi insurgents, and the organisers of Latin Americas dirty wars. Now, with the lethal raid [17] on the Mavi Marmara, is Israel in this respect following in their footsteps?
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Eyal Weizman is an architect and director of the Centre for Research Architecture [70] at Goldsmiths College, London. Among his books is Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation [62] (Verso, 2007) Related Articles Israel-Turkey-United States: Gazas global moment [74] Paul RogersBrazil-Turkey and Iran: a new global balance [75] Mariano AguirreIsrael and Gaza: rhetoric and reality [76] Avi ShlaimTurkey and Israel: ends and beginnings [77] Kerem OktemGaza: the Israel-United States connection [78] Paul RogersIsrael, Gaza and international law [79] Conor GeartyIsraels politics of war [80] Martin Shaw Read On Eyal Weizman, Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation [62] (Verso, 2007) Human Rights Project [63], Bard College B'Tselem [64]
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Source URL: http://www.opendemocracy.net/thomas-keenan-eyal-weizman/israel-third-strategic-threat Links: [1] http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/thomas-keenan [2] http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/eyal-weizman [3] http://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/conflict [4] http://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/international-politics [5] http://www.opendemocracy.net/countries/israel [6] http://www.opendemocracy.net/editorial_tags/middle_east [7] http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflicts/index.jsp [8] http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy_and_power/index.jsp [9] http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-debate_97/debate.jsp [10] http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity-regions/security-in-middle-east-and-north-africa [11] http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity-themes/international-law [12] http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.opendemocracy.net/printpdf/54616&t=Israel: the third strategic threat [13] http://twitter.com/share?text=Israel: the third strategic threat [14] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10203726.stm [15] http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/review-857-p149
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