[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Barak Appoints War Criminal Yaron!

[Karen Aram]

> 
> 
> Barak Appoints War Criminal Yaron
> 
> by
> 
> Francis A. Boyle
> 
> Professor of International Law
> 
> (The author served as Attorney  in the lawsuit against General
> Yaron in Ali Aidi v. Yaron, 672 Fed. Supp. 516 (D.D.C. 1987), Palestine
> Yearbook of International Law, Vol. V, 1989.)
> 
> Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has nominated former Major General Amos
> Yaron to serve as director-general of the Israeli Defense Ministry, while
> Barak himself retains the portfolio of Minister of Defense. According to the
> 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, Yaron, whose appointment must be confirmed by
> the Israeli Cabinet, is a war criminal by virtue of his command
> responsibility for the murder of about 2000 Palestinian and Lebanese
> civilians during the 1982 Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacre in Beirut,
> Lebanon. Should Yaron's appointment be confirmed, the U.S. government will
> be aiding and abetting the work of an infamous war criminal. In Fiscal Year
> 2000, Israel is scheduled to receive $1.92 billion dollars in U.S. military
> aid out of a total annual U.S. aid package to Israel worth $2.94 billion.
> 
> In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, driving as far north as the capital,
> Beirut, purportedly in an effort to expel the Palestine Liberation
> Organization. In August 1982, special U.S. envoy Philip Habib negotiated the
> withdrawal of Palestinian forces from Beirut. According to that agreement
> the United States government guaranteed the safety of the remaining
> Palestinian civilians and obtained Israel's assurance that its armed forces
> would not enter West Beirut. Israel, breaking its own pledge, occupied West
> Beirut and surrounded the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps on September 15,
> 1982.
> 
> On September 16, then Brigadier General Amos Yaron, acting under orders from
> the Israeli Ministry of Defense under General Ariel Sharon, allowed
> Phalangist troops to enter the refugee camps even though the same troops had
> previously engaged in massacres of Palestinians living in Lebanon. The
> killing at the refugee camps went on for three days. During nighttime
> Phalangist operations, Yaron's troops fired illumination rounds so the
> Phalangists could continue their bloody work. Israeli troops, under the
> command of Yaron, blocked the exits of the camps to prevent the refugees
> from escaping and supplied the Phalangists with at least one bulldozer,
> which was used to cover bodies with rubble.
> 
> According to the official Israeli Commission of Inquiry into the massacre
> (the so-called Kahan Commission), Yaron, who was present on the roof of the
> IDF forward command post overlooking the Shatila camp on the evening of
> September 16, knew then that women and children were being killed by
> Phalangist militiamen who had entered the camps by prior arrangement with
> the Israeli military. Not until the morning of September 18 did Yaron move
> to end the killings. Israeli military intelligence later underestimated the
> death toll at between 700 and 800, which was criminal enough. In his
> testimony to the Kahan Commission, Yaron said he was "happy" about the
> decision to send the Phalangist forces into the refugee camps because "the
> fighting serves their purposes as well, so let them participate and not let
> the IDF do everything."
> 
> Under the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which was signed by
> both the United States and Israel, by his complicity in the massacre, Yaron
> allowed the willful causing of "great suffering" and "serious injury" to the
> residents of the camps, who were legally "protected persons" thereunder. In
> so doing, Yaron was guilty of "grave breaches" under Article 147 of the
> Fourth Geneva Convention. In other words, because of his command
> responsibilities during the Sabra and Shatila massacre, Yaron was personally
> responsible for the commission of "war crimes" under general principles of
> both customary and conventional international law.
> 
> On August 1, 1986, the Israeli government announced that it was nominating
> Yaron as its Military Attaché to the United States and Canada. Immediately
> thereafter, this author and Mr. Abdeen Jabara, Esq. who had recently become
> President of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in
> Washington, D.C., decided to launch a campaign to prevent the United States
> government from accepting Yaron's diplomatic credentials and admitting him
> into the country. Together, the two of us drafted telegrams to Secretary of
> State George Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, and Attorney
> General Edwin Meese pointing out that Yaron was responsible for the
> commission of "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the role
> that he played in supervising the Sabra and Shatila massacre. As such, the
> United States government was under an absolute obligation under the Fourth
> Geneva Convention to prosecute Yaron for these heinous war crimes should he
> set foot on United States territory. Therefore, the telegrams argued, the
> United States government must not allow Yaron to enter the country for any
> reason other than prosecution. Otherwise, the United States government would
> be in breach of its own obligations under the Fourth Geneva Contention.
> 
> ADC sent similar telegrams to the ambassadors for all states parties to the
> Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, requesting that pursuant to common article
> 1, their governments had an obligation to intervene with the United States
> government to demand that the latter not accept Yaron's diplomatic
> credentials. A few European states did indeed take this matter up with the
> United States government. In the meantime, this author sent a letter to the
> Legal Adviser to the Israeli Foreign Ministry stating that in the event
> Yaron were to set foot upon United States territory, he would personally sue
> Yaron in a U.S. court for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
> 
> These vigorous efforts by this author, Jabara, the ADC, and others led the
> Reagan administration to hold up Yaron's Letter of Accreditation for a
> period of three months. According to the Israeli Press, these protests
> against Yaron's appointment were instrumental in prompting Washington to
> seek Yaron's recall. Israeli papers reported that the behind-the-scenes
> diplomatic fury which resulted over Yaron's nomination came after the
> Department of Defense received hundreds of letters from Arab-Americans and
> liberal Jewish groups protesting Yaron's presence in the United States.
> 
> Several meetings were held between Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin,
> Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz over
> the question of Yaron's suitability to serve as Defense Attaché in light of
> his involvement in the Beirut massacres. The Israeli daily Davar, associated
> with the Labor Party, first broke the story of the meetings between U.S. and
> Israeli officials over Yaron in its October 22 edition, indicating that
> Washington and Tel Aviv had agreed that Yaron would be recalled but not
> immediately. Both sides later denied that a deal had been made, although a
> spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., Yossi Gal,
> confirmed that the negotiations had indeed taken place. On October 24, 1986
> the Reagan administration officially accepted Yaron's Letter of
> Accreditation.
> 
> Undaunted, ADC's Abdeen Jabara flew to Ottawa to convince the Canadian
> government to refuse diplomatic accreditation to Yaron as Israel's Military
> Attaché to Canada. To its great credit, on March 5, 1987 the Canadian
> government refused to accept Yaron's diplomatic credentials. Explaining the
> move, External Affairs Minister Joe Clark said that Canada did not consider
> it "appropriate" to accept Yaron's credentials. Officials of the External
> Affairs Ministry indicated privately that Canada had based its decision on
> the findings of the Kahan Commission Report.
> 
> On March 28 the Jerusalem Post reported that Yaron had asked his superiors
> to cut short his Washington assignment. A "cool" reception from the
> diplomatic community in the U.S., followed by Canada's refusal to accept his
> appointment to Ottawa, were factors leading to Yaron's request to be
> considered for a territorial command, according to their sources.
> Apparently, Canada had rejected Yaron's credentials with Washington's
> approval.
> 
> In the meantime, this author, Abdeen Jabara, Linda Huber, Esq., an attorney
> in Washington, D.C., Professor Linda Malone, now of the William and Mary
> School of Law, and Albert Mokhiber, Esq., then ADC Legal Affairs Director
> and later its President, convened at ADC Headquarters for the purpose of
> preparing a civil lawsuit against Yaron on behalf of some of the victims of
> the Sabra and Shatila massacre. This author and Linda Huber agreed to serve
> as Attorneys of Record for three Palestinian women who survived the
> massacre. The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the
> District of Columbia on May 4, 1987. The Complaint alleged that Yaron bore
> responsibility for the murder of the family members of the three Palestinian
> women under international treaties including the Nuremberg Principles, which
> forbid war crimes and crimes against humanity.
> 
> The plaintiffs, Fatimeh Ali Aidi, Zeineb Sa'ad and Samia A. Khatib, all
> three of whom resided in the Shatila camp, each asked for $100,000 in
> punitive damages and an undetermined amount in compensatory damages against
> Yaron. The Complaint stated that the husband of Fatimeh Ali Aidi, the father
> and sister of Zeineb Sa'ad, and the mother, sister and five nieces and
> nephews of Samia A. Khatib, were "murdered in the Shatila Camp by agents of
> the defendant Yaron" and the IDF during Israel's occupation of West Beirut
> in September 1982. The lawsuit stated that Yaron was guilty of violating the
> Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits the killing of civilians
> under military occupation and incriminates an occupying power even if its
> "agents" carry out the killing. Citing the Nuremberg Principles, which were
> designed to prevent the repetition of crimes against humanity such as were
> committed by the Nazi occupying power in Europe during the Second World War,
> the suit alleged that Yaron's position of authority, and knowledge of the
> ongoing massacre, rendered him personally responsible for the actions of the
> Phalangists.
> 
> Yaron was served with a summons to appear in court as he left his Chevy
> Chase, Maryland apartment for work on the morning of May 5, one day after
> the suit was filed. On May 20, 50 demonstrators picketed Yaron's apartment
> building, calling attention to current efforts by France, Israel and the
> Soviet Union to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, while Yaron continued
> to enjoy diplomatic status in the United States. On May 26, a motion to
> dismiss the case was filed by lawyers representing Yaron, claiming that he
> enjoyed diplomatic immunity as Israel's Military Attaché, that the statute
> of limitations had expired, and that the international treaties cited by the
> plaintiffs allowed only governments, not individuals, to bring legal action
> for alleged treaty violations.
> 
> During the course of the Yaron litigation, the United States Department of
> State took the official position that Yaron possessed diplomatic immunity
> under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the U.S.
> Diplomatic Relations Act of 1978. Yet, at the exact same time the U.S. State
> Department was also involved in efforts to put former U.N. Secretary General
> Kurt Waldheim on the so-called "watch list" in order to bar his entry into
> the United States on the alleged grounds that he might have been an
> accomplice to the commission of war crimes during the Second World War. The
> U.S. Department of Justice so barred Waldheim as of April 27, 1987. By
> contrast, Yaron was directly responsible for the murder of about 2000
> innocent Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, including women, children, and
> old people. Unlike Waldheim, however, not only was Yaron permitted to enter
> the United States, but the U.S. government also accorded him full diplomatic
> privileges and immunities under the Vienna Convention. The gross hypocrisy
> involved in these two contemporaneous decisions by the U.S. government could
> not have been more blatant.
> 
> Nevertheless, the Federal District Judge who handled the Yaron case decided
> to defer to the wishes of the Department of State in this matter. The Judge
> observed that this was not a criminal tribunal, but only a civil action.
> Hence, the Judge ruled that Yaron was immune from civil proceedings in
> United States courts irrespective of whether or not he would be immune from
> criminal proceedings in some other forum. The Judge basically ignored expert
> Affidavits submitted to the Court independently by three American Professors
> of International Law, all of whom stated under oath that acknowledged war
> criminals such as Yaron were both criminally and civilly liable for the
> commission of their international crimes, whether in United States courts or
> elsewhere.
> 
> Despite this setback, ADC continued to mount its nationwide campaign to
> convince Yaron that an acknowledged war criminal was not wanted by the
> American people to be roaming the streets of their capital, and that he
> should go home. Exactly one year after the Israeli government press office
> had quietly announced the appointment of Yaron, the Jerusalem Post of Aug.
> 1, 1987 reported that Yaron was to resign his diplomatic position "for
> reasons related to a lingering controversy" about his role in the 1982 Sabra
> and Shatila massacre. This "lingering controversy" was fueled by ADC's "Send
> Yaron Home" campaign. According to the Jerusalem Post, although the Reagan
> administration initially accepted Yaron's posting to Washington, it had
> since been actively trying to encourage Israel to recall him. Eventually
> Yaron returned home to Israel, where he currently lives and works with his
> fellow war criminals in the IDF and the Israeli government.
> 
> Under basic principles of international law, the U.S. government must be
> concerned about directing billions of U.S. tax dollars to the control of an
> acknowledged war criminal such as Yaron. Accordingly, the U.S. government
> must discontinue all military assistance to Israel if Yaron's appointment is
> confirmed. Also, there is no statute of limitations for war crimes. Should
> Yaron attempt to return to the U.S., the U.S. government is obligated to
> prosecute him for war crimes. The same conclusion follows for any other
> State where Yaron might travel. Legally, General Yaron is just like General
> Pinochet: Hostis humani generis--The enemy of all humankind!
> 
>