14 thoughts on “Rep. Ilhan Omar Owes Jake Tapper, Jewish Democrats and the Israel Lobby Nothing – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ refer to specific crimes committed in the context of a large-scale attack targeting civilians, regardless of their nationality, and include murder, torture, sexual violence, enslavement, persecution, enforced disappearance, etc.
    Unlike war crimes, crime against humanity can also be committed in peacetime, and contrary to genocide, they are not necessarily committed against a specific national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
    https://trialinternational.org/topics-post/crimes-against-humanity/

    Uhh…what Crimes Against Humanity has the United States and Israel committed recently?

    Does Rep. Omar, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, understand the differences between Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes? I think not.

    1. Amnon: You’ve created a distinction without a difference. And here is the relevant definition from a UN website of “crimes against humanity:”

      Definition

      Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

      Article 7
      Crimes Against Humanity

      For the purpose of this Statute, ‘crime against humanity’ means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

      Murder;

      Extermination;

      Enslavement;

      Deportation or forcible transfer of population;

      Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;

      Torture;

      Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;

      Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;

      Enforced disappearance of persons;

      The crime of apartheid;

      Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

      Clearly, the crimes of both Israel in Gaza, Lebanon and arguably, Syria are more than appropriate for the purposes of the definition.

      And US crimes in Iraq, Vietnam, and its murders of Arab civilians in its campaigns against ISIS and Al Qaeda qualify as well.

      Instead of wasting your time trashing Rep. Omar, you might try something more productive.

      You are done in this thread.

      1. @Richard Silverstein – from reading the definition you’re referring to – I see that Israel did NOT commit any of those in the recent war the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas initiated.
        The key part is: “directed against any civilian population” – and Israel clearly did NOT target civilians. Israel used for the most part very expensive and precise weaponry – to hit very specific military targets.
        The fact that in the outcome of those attacks there were also civilian casualties – this is a bitter cost of war. In fact, this is the part where the Palestinians should be prosecuted in Hague for crimes against humanity – as they are the ones that deliberately placed military assets inside civilian population.

        1. @ Alex: You are daft. The IDF clearly DID target civilians and killed 267 of them (mostly civilians). And by the way international law makes no distinction between whether you intend to kill civilians or not. Even if you don’t intend to do so–if you kill civilians you have committed a war crime. Besides, the methods Israel used and the way in which it used them clearly meant civilians would be killed.

          Enough with the human shield crap. We’ve dealt with this insipid argument here before. If you are the replacement for Amnon, you’re not doing much better than he did before he was moderated.

          1. i may be mistaken but I remember reading[in International Law] that ‘even’ a hospital containing combatants and storing weapons can be attacked
            Aside from that, it would seem that if the Israels were bent on killing civilians they could have easily killed in the thousands.

          2. @avram: this is errant nonsense. There is no justification for bombing hospitals. Neither the patients nor medical personnel are responsible for determining which patients are combatants and which civilian. No Gaza hospitals have weapons storied in them. Even if they did, it’s still a war crime to attack a hospital.

            The only reason Israel doesn’t engage in mass murder in Gaza is because it would lose what little standing it has in the international community. So yes, it could engage in genocide and kill millions, but chooses not to not because it doesn’t want to, but because it can’t.

          3. @Richard Silverstein – counting the dead is definitely a dirty business, regardless of one’s political views, but since Hamas isn’t recognized to be an official government, and Gaza isn’t officially a country – then even armed Hamas member is considered “civilian”. In order for anybody there to be officially considered a soldier, rather than a civilian – they must be internationally recognized as an army (and not just a guerilla armed group).
            It is your blog, and you can decide how to run it – but moderating me for respectfully saying something you don’t like to hear isn’t consistent with free journalism.
            I am sure you are not interested to have here only like-minded readers, and I am sure you will benefit from a bunch of different views and ideas.

          4. @ Alex: This is nonsense. Armed Hamas members or any organized military or militia are recognized as “armed combatants” under international law.

            Your comments about threatening moderation are out of place. I said nothing to you about moderating you. If you are trying to offer your opinion about moderating others, that too is out of place.

            I discipline commenters for breaking the comment rules, not for saying things I disagree with. As I’ve written here many times there are tens of thousands of comments posted to this blog which disagree with my views.

            You are done in this thread.

    2. the systematic killings of Palestinians, torture, kidnappings etc of Palestinian what do you think?

  2. @Richard Silverstein

    Amnon asked, what ‘Crimes Against Humanity has the United States and Israel committed recently’?

    Richard, replies, “Clearly, the crimes of both Israel in Gaza, Lebanon and arguably, Syria are more than appropriate for the purposes of the definition.
    And US crimes in Iraq, Vietnam, and its murders of Arab civilians in its campaigns against ISIS and Al Qaeda qualify as well”

    Omar asked the question ‘where to the victims go’ for justice, which suggests these alleges crimes against humanity are recent occurrences.

    Richard. Please provide recent instances of the United States and Israel committing crimes against humanity.
    Simply apply the facts, to the laws you quoted.

    Atrocities committed during the Spanish-American War and Hukbalahap Rebellion are no longer relevant.

    1. Poor Jack: You poor lad. You apparently missed the 267 Gazans murdered by Israel last month. You missed the deliberate obliteration of residential apartment towers and thousands of individual homes. Their deaths are a war crime and crime against humanity which will be included in the ICC brief against Israel.

      Joe Biden has only been president for a few months. Give him time. He’ll commit a war crime or crime against humanity one of these days. Trump appeared too incompetent to commit too many crimes against humanity (as opposed to crimes against common sense and human decency, of which he was guilty of many) . But the assassination of Qassaem Soleimani is clearly a war crime. And Obama was responsible for 3,000 civilians murders during the is war against ISIS and Al Qaeda.

      You are done in this thread.

  3. How dare Omar question Israel and American exceptionalism! How dare she question definitions and characterizations about democracy, terrorism, what is a war crime and complain about bias.

  4. ”In March 2020, ICC judges decided the US had not suffficiently investigated itself for possible war crimes and torture in Afghanistan. The US isn’t a party to the treaty that created the ICC, but Afghanistan is.”

    Thus Pompeo put sanctions on ICC judges and Israel planned an attack on a Palestinian envoy to the ICC in The Hague.

  5. [comment deleted: read the comment rules. Editorial decisions are mine to make. Not yours. Complaining that you don’t like my choices is a waste of both our time. I don’t care what you think about my choices.]

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