Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East

The One That Didn't Get Away

December 20

There has been much coverage in the New Zealand press of a recent ‘war criminal ’ charge made against Israeli Gen. Moshe Ya'alon. The charge is based on an Israeli attack in 2002 that killed 14 civilians along with Salah Shehadeh, a Hamas terrorist leader. An arrest warrant was issued by an Auckland judge while Ya'alon was visiting New Zealand, but it was not acted on because the government felt there was not a prima facie case.

Despite the press exposure, the public has been given little actual information about Ya'alon's supposed war crime. Following is a more complete picture of the relevant background and facts. After reading this information, readers are encouraged to make up their own minds as to which man, Ya'alon or Shehadeh, was the real war criminal.

Who Was Salah Shehadeh?

In 1988 Shehadeh co-founded the terrorist group Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian Islamic state. Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by most Western countries including Australia, the European Community, and the United States. It rejects coexistence and peace with Israel - in any borders and on any land. Shehadeh was made the leader of its ‘military wing ’, Izzadin Al-Qassam, which openly declared war against Israel.

Since the mid-1990s Hamas had carried out hundReds of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians that included suicide bombings, machine-gun attacks, drive-by shootings and grenade attacks. From his Gaza stronghold, Shehadeh masterminded these activities and also provided funding for factories that produced Qassam missiles that were fired almost daily at Israel. He was directly responsible for initiating and directing attacks that killed and injured hundreds of Israeli citizens over a period of several years.

According to the Israeli Consulate General in New York, during the two years before the attack, Shehadeh was the most wanted man by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). He was described as the most brutal and brilliant terrorist operating in the Gaza Strip. He was completely opposed to any negotiations with Israel, even those that would lead to a Palestinian state on all the territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 war (the ‘Occupied Territories ’).

Some of the more notorious terror attacks carried out by Hamas under the leadership of Salah Shehadeh include:

• Fifteen bus passengers killed in Haifa on December 2, 2001, plus 40 wounded.
• Five Israeli teenagers killed and 23 wounded in the costal town of Atzmona on March 7, 2002
• Eleven young adults killed and 54 wounded in an attack on a cafē in Jerusalem on March 9, 2002.
• 29 Israelis killed and 140 injuRed while attending a Passover seder (festive holiday meal) at the Park Hotel in Netanya on March 27, 2002; 19 of the dead were 70 years old or older.

These attacks were all carried out against civilian targets.

Israel had repeatedly urged the Palestinian Authority to fulfill its obligation under the Oslo peace agreements and arrest Shehadeh and also dismantle the terrorist infrastructure he had built, but the PA instead turned a blind eye. Israel faced the reality that hundreds more innocent lives would be lost if Shehadeh was not stopped.

Why did Israel strike when it did?

According to Israel's Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel had been planning an attack on Shehadeh for six months, but the strike was postponed eight times because of concern about harming innocent civilians, among whom Shehadeh had positioned himself.

Then Israeli officials received word that Shehadeh was planning a Hamas ‘mega-attack ’ with a one tonne bomb that could kill hundreds of Israelis. The target was believed to be the Katif bridge that leads from Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip (since evacuated) and out of the area, over Palestinian population centres.

Even so, Israel held off for fear of killing Shehadeh's wife and daughter. Four days before the final strike, an Israeli jet fighter was turned back in mid-air when the IDF learned that Shehadeh's daughter was with him. The attack finally took place when Israel received information that Shehadeh was alone in a building with two other members of Izzadin al Qassam. Israel struck. Tragically, the information turned out to be faulty.

Who is the war criminal?

The term "war crime" is usually applied to deliberate attacks on civilians; it is not generally applied to cases of accidental or unanticipated civilian damage. When fighting enemies who operate from civilian areas, such damage is, unfortunately, to be expected. As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said about the accidental killing of Afghani civilians by US troops, ‘It's an unfortunate fact of war that, inevitably, innocent civilians are killed. This has been true throughout the history of warfare, and it remains true even in this age of advanced technology and precision-guided munitions. ’ (New York Times, July 23, 2002)

Israel had called off eight attacks on Shehadeh in order to avoid injury to innocent bystanders. However, faced with a serious and imminent threat to its citizens, it felt it had no choice but to act. After the incident, Israel expressed regret for the harm done to civilians, and stated that if they had known of the consequences they would not have proceeded with the attack.

In contrast Hamas, under Shehadeh's direction, routinely targeted civilian centres with the specific goal of killing as many innocent Israelis as possible, and afterward proudly took 'credit' for the deaths. Hamas is ideologically committed to the destruction of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian Islamic state. It rejects coexistence and peace with Israel (in any borders and on any land).