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The State of Israel is a multiparty parliamentary democracy and the world's only Jewish state, though its population includes citizens from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Israel's human rights record has been criticized by various countries, non-governmental organizations and individuals, often in relation to the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In response, it is often stated that anti-Israeli sentiment or anti-Semitic bias plays a part in the attitudes of some of these bodies.
| State of Israel |
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| Geography |
| History |
| Conflicts |
| Foreign relations |
| Security forces |
| Economy |
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel proclaimed on May 14, 1948 that "the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country" ... "was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and "Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home." It also declared that the state "...will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."
Status of freedom, political rights and civil liberties in Israel
Rights and liberties ratings
| Country / Entity | Political rights (PR) |
Civil liberties (CL) |
Freedom rating Free, Partly Free, Not Free | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Israel
|
1 | 2 | Free | ||||||||||||||||||
| Israeli occupied territories | 6 | 5 | Not Free | ||||||||||||||||||
| Territories under Palestinian National Authority | 5 | 5 | Partly Free | ||||||||||||||||||
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free | ||||||||||||||||||
 Syria
|
7 | 7 | Not Free | ||||||||||||||||||
 Jordan
|
5 | 4 | Partly Free | ||||||||||||||||||
 Egypt
|
6 | 5 | Not Free | ||||||||||||||||||
- Note. For PR and CL, 1 represents the most free and 7 the least free rating. See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom.
Israel was ranked 28 out of 159 countries in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, ahead of every other country in the region. Its position was immediately after Estonia and before Oman. Israel's geographic neighbors Jordan and Egypt were ranked 38 and 72, respectively.
Elections, political parties, and representation
Main article: Elections in IsraelAccording to 2005 US Department of State report on Israel, “he law provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage...The country is a parliamentary democracy with an active multiparty system. Relatively small parties, including those primarily supported by Israeli Arabs, regularly win Knesset seats.”
In some instances, however, parties have been disqualified from listing candidates for election.
The Kach Party had run candidates under a platform which proposed forced transfer of Arabs from Israel and establishment of a theocracy in Israel ruled by traditional Jewish law. This platform was felt to be inciting of racism by the Knesset and was banned from participation in elections. In 1988, the Supreme Court of Israel upheld this Knesset decision. After a member of the Kach party slayed 29 Palestinians, the party was outlawed completely. See also Reactions in Israel to the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.
A concurrent 1985 decision to disqualify the Progressive List for Peace, a party which was founded to negate the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people was conversely overturned by the Supreme court in 1988.
Freedom of religion
Main article: Religion in IsraelAll religious groups have freedom of religion in Israel. According to the 2005 US Department of State report on Israel, “he law provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respected this right in practice.” The same report, however, criticized Israel for “discrimination in personal and civil status matters against non-Orthodox Jews.” The Government also does not recognize several religious communities, including Protestants which excludes them from government funding. Such institutions nonetheless are free to practice and maintain communal institutions.
After Israel's defeat of Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War, Jewish worshippers again gained access to the Western Wall. This access had been denied by Jordan in violation of the 1949 Armistice Agreements. After 1967, however, Israel guaranteed Muslim access to the mosques including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Christian access to Churches The IDF foiled a Kach party attempt to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Bahá'í Faith maintains the seat of their governing bodies, the Universal House of Justice in Haifa. Buddhism is also active as a religion in Israel.
Christianity
Several controversies regarding a perceived double-standard towards Christians by the Israeli Government have made news in recent years. During 2004, an Armenian Archbishop was spat upon by a Jewish religious student. The Archbishop rsponded: "Israeli leaders must speak out about the "daily" abuse . When there is an attack against Jews anywhere, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" A regional expert on Christian-Jewish dialogue commented such acts were on the rise as a result of a "general lack of tolerance." The Israeli Defense Forces as part of a larger military operation also outlawed all outdoor Christmas decorations and festivities in Bethlehem during 2003. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem commented: "It is not impossible to love...even the Israeli soldiers who impose upon us siege, curfew and humiliations."
Judiciary system and criminal justice
Main article: Israeli judicial systemIsraeli law provides for the right to a fair trial, and an independent judiciary. Human Rights Groups believe these requirements are generally respected. As well the system is adversarial and cases are decided by professional judges. Indigent defendants receive mandatory representation. Some areas of the country fall under the separate judicial jurisdiction of military courts. These courts are believed to be in alignment with Israel's other criminal courts on matters pertaining to civillians. Convictions in these courts cannot be based on confession alone.
Torture of Prisoners
On December 20, 2005 the Tel Aviv District Court rejected the Israeli State's petition to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Lebanese citizen Mustafa Dirani, who charged that Israeli security forces tortured and raped him during interrogations. Another former detainee alleged he was subjected to painful positioning, beatings, long periods of interrogation, threats, and food and sleep deprivation. An independent rights group verified “…the complainant suffered severe back pains and paralysis in his left leg from the abuse.”
Political Prisoners
Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, Israel has arrested more than 40,000 Palestinians. It continues to hold more than 369 Palestinians who were jailed before the Oslo Accords and currently holds 9,400 Palestinian prisoners in more than 30 jails located across Israel. Of these 330 are children, and 70 are considered seriously ill due to lack of "basic medical attention."
Sex trafficking
Israel has been criticized for its policies and enforcement of laws on sex trafficking. Women from the former Soviet Republics are brought into the country by criminal elements for forced labor in the sex industry. In 1998 the Jerusalem Post estimated that pimps engaging in this activity derived on average $50,000 - $100,000 (USD) per prostitute, resulting in a countrywide industry of nearly $450 (USD) million annually. By July, 2000, Israel passed the Prohibition on Trafficking Law. In its 2003 report, the Human Rights Committee noted it "welcomes the measures taken by the State party to combat trafficking in women for the purpose of prostitution” . However this issue remains problematic. The 2005 US Department of State report on Israel noted that “societal violence and discrimination against women and trafficking in and abuse of women.” In June 2006, the United States Department of State placed Israel on a special watchlist for "failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to address trafficking in human beings."
People with disabilities
Israel enacted an Equal Rights for People with Disabilities Law in 1998. The US Department of State report on Israel, however, criticizes Israel for, “de facto discrimination against persons with disabilities.”
In Israel more than 144,000 people with disabilities rely solely on government allowances as their only means of support. According to Arie Zudkevitch and fellow members of the Israeli Organization of the Disabled: "The amount of money that we get cannot fulfill even the basic needs of people without special needs." In Tel Aviv, more than 10,000 people marched in solidarity with the disabled, demanding increased compensation and recognition from the Israeli Government.
A 2005 report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel raised the concern: "It was reported this year that the Health Ministry has known for over two years that private psychiatric hospitals are holding 70 individuals who no longer need hospitalization, but continue to be hospitalized to serve the institutions` financial interests." The report suggests that, "the Health Ministry is supposed to supervise the private hospitals, but has been powerless to move these patients into an appropriate community situation." The most recent statistics of the Israeli Health Ministry showed over 18,000 admissions for psychiatric hospital care.
Freedom of speech
Israeli media is independent and is generally not under government control, though the Interior Minister has the power to close newspapers under certain circumstances. The Government can also censor anything in either Israel proper or the Occupied Territories that it deems sensitive, on grounds of national security. According to the 2005 US Department of State report on Israel, "he law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respected these rights in practice subject to restrictions concerning security issues. The law provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the government generally respected these rights in practice. On February 2, 2005 a public body which oversees aspects of Israeli television banned commercials which featured Palestinian figures speaking about the recent Geneva Accords. The body claimed rights according to regulations on television and commercial ethics.
Nevertheless, government officials and others have been critical of the freedom of speech rights given to settlers during their forced evacuation from Gaza and the West Bank. This led to the criticism that “the authorities took disproportional steps, unjustifiably infringing on the right to political expression and protest.” The Israeli Government arrested Knesset Member Azmi Bishara for making what it deemed pro-Hizballah statements in the Israeli city Umm al-Fahm and earlier in a region of Syria. Another Israeli citizen, Mordechai Vanunu considered a whistleblower by Human Rights Groups and many foreign Governments was arrested and imprisoned for 18 years for revealing Israel had a clandestine program through which it had developed nuclear weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction. In its press release of April 19 2005, Amnesty International said 'If Mordechai Vanunu were to be imprisoned for breaching the restrictions imposed on him, Amnesty International would consider him to be a prisoner of conscience' . The Israeli government still considers him a traitor.
Right to privacy
According to 2005 US Department of State report on Israel, “aws and regulations provide for protection of privacy of the individual and the home. In criminal cases the law permits wiretapping under court order; in security cases the defense ministry must issue the order…”
Gay rights
Main article: Gay rights in IsraelIsrael is the only country in the Middle East that guarantees civil rights for its LGBT population, including adoption rights and partner benefits.
Israeli law does not recognize same-sex marriages, but it does grant a common-law marriage status for same-sex domestic partners. The Sodomy law inherited from The British Mandate of Palestine was repealed in 1988. A national gay rights law that bans some anti-gay discrimination, including employment; some exemptions are made for religious organizations. Since 1993, homosexuals have been allowed to openly serve in the military, including special units.
Ethnic minorities
Ethnic minorities have full voting rights in Israel and are entitled to government benefits. However, the 2005 US Department of State report on Israel criticized Israel for “institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country’s Arab citizens.”
Migrant workers
In June 2006, the United States Department of State issued a report which stated that "the Government of Israel does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and has failed to show efforts to address conditions of involuntary servitude allegedly facing thousands of foreign migrant workers."'
Privatization and human rights
The 2005 annual report of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) found that "accelerated privatization" is damaging human rights. According to the report, "State economic policy, including cutting stipends, reducing housing assistance, and constantly declining state participation in health-care and education costs, are forcing more elderly, children and whole families into poverty and despair. The increasing damage to citizens' rights to earn a dignified living - both due to low wages and the lack of enforcement of labor laws - is particularly prominent."
Human rights in the occupied territories
Settlements
On April 7, 2005 the United Nations Committee on Human Rights stated it was "deeply concerned at the suffering of the Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan due to the violation of their fundamental and human rights since the Israeli military occupation of 1967... in this connection, deploring the Israeli settlement in the occupied Arab territories, including in the occupied Syrian Golan, and regretting Israel's constant refusal to cooperate with and to receive the Special Committee"
Israeli military strategists defend the occupation of the Golan Heights as necessary to maintain a buffer against future military attacks from Syria. The land was captured in the second of three wars in which Syria invaded Israel.
Military activity
In a 2004 report on Israel, Amnesty International stated:
- "abuses committed by the Israeli army constituted crimes against humanity and war crimes, including unlawful killings; extensive and wanton destruction of property; obstruction of medical assistance and targeting of medical personnel; torture; and the use of Palestinians as human shields."
- "The Israeli army killed more than 700 Palestinians, including some 150 children. Most were killed unlawfully — in reckless shooting, shelling and air strikes in civilian residential areas; in extrajudicial executions; and as a result of excessive use of force."
- "Most members of the Israeli army and security forces continued to enjoy impunity. Investigations, prosecutions and convictions for human rights violations were rare. In the overwhelming majority of the thousands of cases of unlawful killings and other grave human rights violations committed by Israeli soldiers in the previous four years, no investigations were known to have been carried out."
Palestinian militants have utilized a tactic of blending among civilian populations, which likely exacerbates civilian casulaties in Israeli attacks. Israel claims not to target civilians.
Human shields
See also: Human rights in the Palestinian National Authority § Exposure of civilian targets to military actionIn April 2004, Israeli soldiers used 13-year-old Muhammed Badwan as a human shield during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Biddu. The soldiers tied Badwan to the front windscreen of their jeep to discourage Palestinian demonstrators from throwing stones in their direction.
Such actions are condemned by human rights groups as violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 27 states: "civilians who find themselves in the hands of one of the parties are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect...They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof." In Article 28 of the Convention, the official commentary refers to this practice, which was used during World War II, as "cruel and barbaric." Articles 31 and 51 also prohibit the use of physical or moral coercion on civilians or forcing them to carry out military tasks.
The Israeli High Court has issued an injunction against the practice. "You cannot exploit the civilian population for the army's military needs, and you cannot force them to collaborate with the army," said Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court of Israel.
Despite this ruling, on July 17, 2006 Israel Defense Force soldiers were reported to have used six civilians, including two minors, as human shields during an incursion into Beit Hanun. Two boys, one aged 14 and the other 16, were ordered to lead soldiers into an area where a heavy firefight with Palestinian militants had just taken place.
Extrajudicial killings
See also IDF: Code of Conduct against terrorists.
On July, 2002 the Israeli Defense Forces carried out an air strike targeting Salah Shahade, the commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas in a densely populated residential area of Gaza City. The bombing resulted in the deaths of 15 persons, 9 of whom were children and the injury of 150 others. According to the Israeli Government, Shehada was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians, and earlier Israel asked the Palestinian Authority to arrest him, but no action was taken. Israel maintains that Shehada constituted a “ticking bomb”, and was in the process of preparing another large-scale terrorist attack inside Israel.
Israel continues to utilize a policy of targeted killings, arguing that Palestinian militants organize suicide bombings and other deadly attacks against Israeli civilians while hiding among civilians and thwarting such attacks is sometimes the only practical way to save innocent lives. The IDF claims that such military operations are only pursued to prevent imminent terrorist attacks, not as revenge for past activities, and that it is used only when there is no practical way of foiling such attacks by other means such as arrest. Defenders of this practice point out that it is in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention (Part 3, Article 1, Section 28) which reads: “The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.”
Alleged Anti-Israel bias by human rights organizations
United Nations
Main article: Israel and the United Nations § Anti-Israel biasThere are many who claim that the United Nations has a history of negative focus on Israel that is disproportional in respect to other members, including actions and statements of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Some examples of this bias include that in 2005 the Commission adopted four resolutions against Israel, equaling the combined total of resolutions against all other states in the world. Belarus, Cuba, Myanmar, and North Korea were the subject of one resolution each. In addition, in 2004-2005 alone the U.N. General Assembly passed nineteen resolutions concerning Israel, while not passing any resolution concerning Sudan, which at the time was facing a huge humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region.
In 2006, the UN General Assembly voted to replace UNCHR with the UN Human Rights Council.
Amnesty International
Main article: Amnesty International § Alleged Selection BiasAmnesty International has been accused of having a double standard when it comes to its assessment of Israel.
Sudan
In 2004, the NGO Monitor, a program of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, released a study comparing Amnesty International's response to the twenty years of ethnic, religious and racial violence in Sudan in which (at that time) 2,000,000 people were killed and 4,000,000 people displaced, to their treatment of Israel. When NGO Monitor focused on 2001, they found that Amnesty International issued seven reports on Sudan, as opposed to 39 reports on Israel. They further called attention to the difference in both scale and intensity: “While ignoring the large-scale and systematic bombing and destruction of Sudanese villages, AI issued numerous condemnations of the razing of Palestinian houses, most of which were used as sniper nests or belonged to terrorists. Although failing to decry the slaughter of thousands of civilians by Sudanese government and allied troops, AI managed to criticize Israel’s ‘assassinations’ of active terrorist leaders.”
Expanding their investigation to include the years 2000–2003, they found the imbalance in issued reports to be 52 reports on Sudan and 192 reports on Israel. They call “this lack of balance and objectivity and apparent political bias is entirely inconsistent with AI's official stated mission.”
In 2004, Professor Don Habibi of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington lamented the limited reports on Sudan and Darfur, in contrast to reports on Israel. He criticizes Amnesty International, among others, for their “obsession” with Israel, to the exclusion of other human rights violators. Habibi wrote:
This obsession would make sense if Israel was among the worst human rights offenders in the world. But by any objective measure this is not the case. Even with the harshest interpretation of Israeli’s policies, which takes no account of cause and effect, and Israel’s predicament of facing existential war, there can be no comparison to the civil wars in Sudan, Algeria, or Congo. Like the UN, the policies of AI and HRW have more to do with politics than human rights.
— Human Rights NGOs and the Neglect of Sudan, Don Habibi
Palestinian violence against women
American legal academic, Professor Alan Dershowitz, is also critical of Amnesty International's perceived bias. Dershowitz analyzed an AI report on violence, rape, and murder perpetrated against Palestinian women by Palestinian men in the West Bank and Gaza which placed blame on Israel. Dershowitz points out that AI ranks the "escalation of the conflict” and “Israel’s policies” higher than the “norms, traditions and laws which treat women as unequal”, implying Israel is more to blame than the Palestinian perpetrators. Dershowitz claims that when he asked Donatella Rovera, AI’s researcher on Israel and the Occupied Territories, for sources or statistical data that supported the report’s claims, he was refused anything other than a suggestion to Google "pretty much all the NGOs” in the region. He concluded that AI's excuses show that it "places its own political biases ahead of the interests of the female victims.”
United States Department of State
European Union
See also
- Human rights in the Palestinian National Authority
- Human rights in Egypt
- Human rights in Syria
- Human rights in Jordan
References and footnotes
- wikiquote:Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
- "Freedom in the World 2006" (Template:PDFlink). Freedom House. 2005-12-16. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "The 2005 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index". Transparency International Annual Report. Transparency International. 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-28.
- ^ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (March 8, 2006). "Israel and the occupied territories". Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 2006-08-01.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Gold, Dore (2001). "Access to Jewish Holy Places". Jerusalem in International Diplomacy. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved 2006-07-31.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|month=(help) - Gilbert, Martin (November 14, 1994). "Jerusalem: A Tale of One City". The New Republic. p. (cover story). Retrieved 2006-07-31.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Bahá'í World Centre". Bahá'í International Community. 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-31.
- "Diamond Way Buddhism in Israel". Diamond Way Buddhism. 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-01.
- "Buddhanet's Middle East Buddhist Directory: Israel". Buddha Dharma Education Association. 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-01.
- "Israel's Christians spitting mad". The Daily Telegraph. 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
- "Church leaders say Israelis are tightening vise". National Catholic Reporter. 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
- ""Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel"". The Jerusalem Fund. 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
- Israel Trafficking, Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation. Accessed: July 27, 2006.
- A Modern Form of Slavery, The Jerusalem Post. 13 January 1998, pg. 10
- Human Rights Committee (August 21, 2003). "Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee: Israel". United Nations. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Ori Nir (June 9, 2006). "Human Trafficking Report Slaps Israel". Forward. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - "Israeli Organization of Disabled Persons Holds 77 Day "Sit-In" about Benefits". Disability World Issue No. 13. Israeli Organizationo f the Disabled. 2002. Retrieved 2006-07-28.
- ^ "ACRI Report Slashes Civil Rights Abuses and Privatization". Annual Report on Israel. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel. 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-28. Cite error: The named reference "acri" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- Lerner, Dr. Jacob (May 19, 2005). "Psychiatric Hospitalization" (Template:PDFlink). Statistical Annual 2004 (in Hebrew—with English statistics below). Israel Ministry of Health. pp. 32–65. Retrieved 2006-07-30.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - Walzer, Lee (February 21, 2002). "Queer in the Land of Sodom". The Gully. Retrieved 2006-08-01.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Homosexual rights around the world, Gay Rights Info
- Question of the Violation of Human Rights In the Occupied Arab Territories, Including Palestine, United Nations Human Rights Committee. Accessed: July 27, 2006.
- The Golan Heights: A History of Israeli Provocations and Expansion. (Reference made to Iraeli claims of a need for a buffer.)
- ^ "Israel and the Occupied Territories". Report 2005. Amnesty International. 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
- Luft, Gal (2003). "The Logic of Israel's Targeted Killing". The Middle East Quarterly. X (1). Retrieved 2006-08-01.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|quotes=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Israeli Soldiers use civilians as Human Shields in Beit Hanun". The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights. B'Tselem. 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-20.
- "Israel bans use of human shields". BBC News. BBC. 2005. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
- John Dugard (2002). "Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine". Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967. United Nations General Assembly. Fifty-seventh session Item 111 (c) of the provisional agenda. Retrieved 2006-07-31.
- "Salah Shehada - Arch Terrorist". Israel Embassy Briefing. United Jewish Communities. 2002. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
- Steven R. David (September 2002). "Fatal Choices: Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing" (Template:PDFlink). THE BEGIN-SADAT CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES; BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY. Retrieved 2006-08-01.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Luft, Gal (2003). "The Logic of Israel's Targeted Killing". The Middle East Quarterly. X (1). Retrieved 2006-08-01.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|quotes=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Podhoretz, John (July 24, 2002). "Hamas kills its own". Opinion. New York Post. p. 29. Retrieved 2006-08-05.
The Fourth Geneva Convention goes into great and elaborate detail about how to assign fault when military activities take place in civilian areas. Those who are actually fighting the war are not considered "protected persons." Only civilians are granted the status of "protected persons" whose rights cannot be violated with impunity. The Fourth Geneva Convention convicts Hamas and Salah Shehada in one sentence. That sentence makes up the entirety of Part 3, Article 1, Section 28. It reads: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations." This sentence appears in the Fourth Geneva Convention precisely to deal with situations like the ones the Israelis faced.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) Note: The New York Post link to the article may be found here, but it requires a subscription. - Neuer, Hillel C. (2006). "The Struggle against Anti-Israel Bias at the UN Commission on Human Rights". Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism (40). Retrieved 2006-07-30.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|quotes=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - "UN, Israel & Anti-Semitism" (HTML). UN Watch. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|accessyear=,|month=,|accessmonthday=, and|coauthors=(help) - "UN creates new human rights body". BBC. 15 March 2006.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Fredman, Asher Ahuvia (August 26, 2004). "Asleep at the Wheel: Comparing the Performance of Human Rights NGO's on Sudan and Arab-Israeli Issues". NGO Monitor. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Don Habibi (July 2, 2004). "Human Rights NGOs and the Neglect of Sudan" (Word document). Retrieved 2006-07-27.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Dershowitz, Alan (September 19, 2005). "The Newest Abuse Excuse for Violence Against Women". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
