Israel Calls Assassination A Form Of Defense

by Ana Jerozolimski

(IPS) JERUSALEM -- Israel maintains that its policy of targeted killings, which have claimed the lives of at least 200 Palestinians since the start of the intifada almost three years ago, is a legitimate means of defense against terrorism.

But in the eyes of the Palestinian National Authority, the targeted killings are war crimes.

What is clear, at any rate, is that they form part of a seemingly endless spiral of violence.

According to the Israeli security services, the targets are so-called "ticking bombs" who unless they are stopped will manage to perpetrate an attack.

The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon argues that targeted killings could have been avoided if the Palestinian National Authority had taken measures to impede attacks against Israel.

Furthermore, the Israelis say that in many cases, the Palestinian government headed by President Yasser Arafat has been given precise information regarding a certain radical militant allegedly preparing an attack, but has done nothing, thus "forcing" Israel to act by itself.

The Palestinian National Authority, however, says the killings are unacceptable violations of international law that are not really meant to stop terrorist attacks, but are punitive in nature.

It also points out that the targets of the attacks are executed without any prior judicial process, and that the killings also claim the lives of civilians who happen to be near the targets when the attacks are launched.

According to the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG), which documents human rights violations on the West Bank and Gaza, 209 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in targeted killings since the intifada began almost three years ago. Of that total, 62 were "bystanders."

But PHRMG representative Bassem Eid clarified to IPS that "bystanders" include not only civilians with no connections to extremist groups, but also the armed guards, for example, of a Palestinian leader who might be killed while accompanying him, although they were not the targets themselves.

Of the 147 Palestinians purposely assassinated in the targeted killings, 78 were members of the Hamas movement, 34 belonged to Islamic Jihad, 23 to Al-Fatah, seven to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and two were from the Palestinian Liberation Front.

The other three belonged to the Palestinian Military Intelligence, a security service of the Palestinian National Authority.

"There is no doubt that Israel has the right to defend itself, but we would not like to see this put into practice through actions that could lead to just the opposite," EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, told IPS in Tel Aviv in late August.

"Even the right to self-defense has limits. Moreover," he added, "I do not think the policy of targeted killings could contribute to the goal of reaching an atmosphere of understanding."

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who participated in a joint press conference with Solana in Tel Aviv, disagreed. "Those responsible for terrorist acts in which children and babies are murdered must know they will not be immune.

"We cannot allow immunity for those who kill children or give orders to launch these attacks. We are determined: those people will have to bear the consequences of their actions."

The targeted killings intensified after the Aug. 19 attack by a Hamas suicide bomber, in which 22 Israeli civilians -- among them seven infants and children -- were killed on a bus in Jerusalem.

Two days later, in Gaza, Israeli forces killed Ismail Abu Shanab, who the Palestinians considered one of the leaders of the political branch of Hamas -- a distinction that Israel rejects, alleging that both the political as well as the military leaders are "terrorists."

Hamas immediately responded by announcing that the three-month "hudna" or truce declared almost two months earlier, on June 29, was over.

Starting with the first targeted killing on Nov. 9, 2000, in which Israeli forces killed Al-Fatah member Hussein Abayat in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, nine Palestinians were killed in eight separate attacks by the end of 2000.

The number of victims rose to 32 in 2001, and to 79 in 2002.

So far this year, 27 Palestinians have been assassinated by Israel in attacks usually carried out from helicopters which fire missiles on cars in which the selected targets are reported to be riding.

After the Hamas attack on the bus in Jerusalem, eleven members of that organization were assassinated between Aug. 21 and Sept. 1.

Israel says it will not stop "persecuting the terrorists" until the Palestinian National Authority starts to dismantle the armed infrastructure of the extremist groups.

According to former Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, who stepped down on Sept. 6, "Israel always wanted to weaken and destroy the hudna."

Israel "resorted to a sudden renewal of the assassination campaign, first in Nablus and then in Hebron, in order to destroy the truce both militarily and politically."

Abu Mazen was referring to Israeli military operations on the West Bank in which two members of Hamas were killed in the northern city of Nablus and the local head of Islamic Jihad, Mohammed Sider, was killed in Hebron. Israel does not include either of the operations in the category of "targeted killings."

Debate over the question has heated up in the last few weeks in Israel itself. Israeli parlamentarian Yossi Sarid, a member and former head of the left-wing opposition party Meretz, said in an interview with The Voice of Israel radio station that "I am not sure these killings are really launched, always, to stop ticking bombs."

Former prime minister and the present head of the Labor Party Shimon Peres said "We must guarantee the method is applied only when there is no alternative, in order to stop an attack."