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In reply to the discussion: Israel air strike 'hits charitable association for disabled' in Gaza [View all]The Magistrate
(95,244 posts)The question was 'what if Hamas was firing rockets from that building?'
You answered, 'that does not matter, you still don't bomb the building if innocents are there.'
Your answer misstated the case, and I replied to present the information that, if a combatant does take up a position in which, if he is fired on, non-combatants are likely to be injured, he commits a crime and bears culpability for the non-combatant casualties if he is fired on. There are culpabilities possible on the other side, certainly, but the root crime remains the taking up of positions behind human shields.
I have, in fact, in the past, defended actions of militants among the people of Arab Palestine which targeted combatants, saying they were legitimate actions and certainly not to be called 'terrorist', and this even if some non-combatant casualties were inflicted. The definition of combatant does not extend to people who are liable to being called up from reserve status, or conscripted, so one cannot, as some have tried to do on occasion, claim that every Israeli of military age is a combatant. I am willing, however, to extend the definition to settlers known to be associated with militant bodies of that movement.
If one is going to have recourse to a standard of law, or ethical principles, or whatever, one must apply the same standard to all, and with as much neutrality and objectivity in judgement as one can muster.