Palestinians don't heed Geneva - Denials of this are frequent despite their abounding violations

The truth about the Palestinian interpretation of the Geneva Convention became clear to me this past Wednesday night. At the MESA-sponsored presentation of "It's the Occupation, Stupid," it became clear that the Geneva Convention does not apply to the Palestinians. While the supporters of Palestine have often tried to use this document to make claims of human rights abuses against Israel, they seem to turn a blind eye to the frequent violations by Palestinians.

Such violations have included the use of children as soldiers (this is based on the testimony of some of the participants in The Boston Globe of Apr. 29) as well as the use of the Church of the Nativity to support gunmen, a violation of the protection of cultural places of worship which states that such places cannot be used to support military operations (it is also made clear that the Palestinian terrorists inside are not civilians - they gave up that status the second they took up arms against Israel).

Yet, at this event, the fact that the Israelis surrounded the Church was protested. They were blamed for not feeding the terrorists inside. When I spoke of the need of Israel to bring terrorists to justice and that the only people they were responsible for feeding were the hostages (the Geneva Convention also forbids holding hostages), I was criticized on how this was analogous to, bear with me here, racism. The fact that Israel wants to feed only the civilians and not the criminals who hold them hostage was compared to white discrimination of blacks on Southern buses, as if the decision to deliberately murder innocent civilians was the same thing as being born with dark skin.

Palestinian violations of the Geneva Convention do not even stop there, and in many cases, the Palestinian actions not only justify what Israelis have had to do to stop them but put the lives of their own people in jeopardy. The fact that Palestinian terrorists and militants do not wear a "fixed, distinctive sign," required by the Geneva Convention, removes their prisoner of war status and also puts the lives of everyone around them at risk. The accidental killing of civilians in many of these situations is the direct result of the Palestinian violation of this rule. Contrary to the apparent belief of some at this event, a Palestinian gunman cannot change his militant status by running out of ammunition and holing himself up in a church.

In addition, Palestinians have sacrificed many pregnant mothers and hospital patients by using the ambulances of the Red Crescent to transport bombs. While denials of this practice are frequent, as was the case at the presentation, it has been documented on the Israel Indymedia Web site , one of the Web sites presented by the pro-Palestinian speakers as a good source of media on the current Middle East situation.

Supporters of Palestine have often bemoaned the lack of Jewish criticism of Israel. When asked about the presence of pro-Palestine events on campus, one attendee attributed the lack of them to this school's "Jewish administration." It is, in fact, the supporters of Palestine who deny the facts. Continued violation of the Geneva Convention is why Palestinians cannot summon any support in the US, not an American media that refuses to take the statements of Yasir Arafat at face value. It is the attitude that Palestinians are exempt from the laws of the Geneva Convention as well as the widespread acceptance of suicide bombers and gunmen who target civilians that has kept the people of Palestine from obtaining the State they desire.

-Facts cited in this article were obtained from www.indymedia.org.il.