Israeli defence minister Photo Credit: instagram
For nearly nine months, the US and other Israeli allies have justified the Israeli army’s Gaza and West Bank operations. Despite multiple UN and human rights findings of genocide, torture, collective punishment, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity, they have denied or ignored them.
Israeli allies regularly defend the Israeli army by citing Israeli courts for criminal justice. The US State Department has criticized the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor, Karim Khan for not deferring to a national inquiry before obtaining arrest warrants for Israeli officials. Israeli officials have made the same claim.
A closer look at the Israeli legal system shows that prosecuting Israeli officials for war crimes is unlikely to succeed.
The Israeli legislature and judiciary recognize international law and conventions. They allow Israeli government, security, and military forces to ignore international law through legal exclusions. This undermines international law’s grave-issue bans.
This legal mismatch between Israeli and international law is shown by torture and collective punishment.
Torture is criminal under international humanitarian and human rights law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, Convention against Torture, etc. forbid this.
Israeli law prohibits torture under paragraph 277 of the 1977 Penal Code and the 1991 Convention Against Torture. Despite considerable documentation by Israeli NGOs and media, torture continues without legal consequences. Human rights groups report that this illegal practice has increased in the past nine months.
Between 2001 and 2022, the Public Committee Against abuse in Israel (PCATI) received over 1,400 reports of Israeli abuse, but only two were examined and none were indicted.
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