Schiff proposes to lower the bar...

Seth Ackerman sia at nyc.rr.com
Wed Mar 6 13:28:05 PST 2002


Nathan Newman wrote:


> Civil wars are actually largely outside UN
> conventions on war crimes, except for the singular exception of genocide,
> and until Palestine is recognized as an independent state, all the
legalese
> around "war crimes" is kind of misguided -- remember, they were going
after
> Sharon only for his acts in Lebanon back in 1982 because of this basic
> international rule over war crimes.

Nathan, this is just wrong. The UN has affirmed over and over again that the Geneva Conventions apply to the occupied territories. And we all know that a "grave breach" of the Geneva Conventions is a war crime. In fact, the ICRC rep for the territories last year actually used the word "war crimes" to describe the settlements.

Your argument is especially strange since you obviously believe Milosevic is guilty of war crimes short of genocide in Kosovo - which was a civil war, however painful it is to admit that.

Seth



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