’S POLICY IS PERFECTLY ‘PROPORTIONATE’
Alan M. Dershowitz
Wall Street
Journal, January 2, 2009 ’s actions in Gaza are justified under international law, and
should be commended for its self-defense against terrorism. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter reserves to every nation the right to engage in self-defense against armed attacks. The only limitation international law places on a democracy is that its actions must satisfy the principle of proportionality.
Since ended its occupation of Gaza, Hamas has fired thousands of rockets designed to kill civilians into southern
. The residents of Sderot—which have borne the brunt of the attacks—have approximately 15 seconds from launch time to run into a shelter. Although deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime, terrorists firing at Sderot are so proud of their actions that they sign their weapons.…
While installs warning systems and builds shelters, Hamas refuses to do so, precisely because it wants to maximize the number of Palestinian civilians inadvertently killed by
’s military actions. Hamas knows from experience that even a small number of innocent Palestinian civilians killed inadvertently will result in bitter condemnation of
by many in the international community.
understands this as well. It goes to enormous lengths to reduce the number of civilian casualties—even to the point of foregoing legitimate targets that are too close to civilians.
Until the world recognizes that Hamas is committing three war crimes—targeting Israeli civilians, using Palestinian civilians as human shields, and seeking the destruction of a member state of the United Nations—and that
is acting in self-defense and out of military necessity, the conflict will continue.
(Alan M. Dershowitz is a law professor at Harvard. His latest book is The Case Against Israel’s Enemies.)
