Zionist war crimes continue in the absence of accountability

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Wantonly conducting war crimes and arbitrarily attacking civilian infrastructure is the standard modus operandi of the Zionist regime under Benjamin Netanyahu. This is evident in the barbaric air raids that targeted Damascus International Airport, which temporarily rendered it out of service for the second time in a year and killed at least two Syrian soldiers. Netanyahu, who won the November 2022 election and was sworn in as Prime Minister for his sixth term in December, is now embarking on a mission to push his conservative, expansionist Zionist agenda across the region, even if it comes at the expense of other states. The attack on Damascus demonstrates how "Israel" is a clear threat to regional peace. 

If one goes by varying definitions of international law, the barrage of air-launched missiles that came from the direction of Lake Tabaraya constitutes a war crime. As per the amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions in 1977, countries are prohibited from deliberately or indiscriminately attacking civilian objects or civilians themselves regardless of whether such areas contain military facilities. The same Protocol (Article 51, Para 8) also states that locating military objectives near civilians will not absolve parties to a conflict from legal obligations with respect to the civilian populations. Furthermore, Article 8 clause 2 IV of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court clearly states that war crimes include deliberate destruction and appropriation of property which is carried out wantonly by the aggressor. "Israel", however, has managed to conduct hundreds of raids on targets inside Syria without ever discussing or acknowledging the scale of barbarity. Allowing it to go Scott-free is to normalize Zionist extremism as part of foreign policy. 

While conducting such war crimes, it is clear that "Israel" does not account for any of the numerous interpretations and variables of international law, which include proportionality, military necessity, and distinction. Its criminal behavior takes place amid an inability of the international community to prosecute an entity that endorses wanton violation of state sovereignty and justifies the right to aggression by playing the anti-Semitism card. In light of this, countries such as Syria that are reeling from conflict and destitution become subject to ruthless aerial bombardments with impunity. Such crimes pose an existential threat to regional stability. 

According to senior fellow at the Harvard School’s Middle East Initiative, Rami Khouri, the raids on Damascus are an attempt by this new far-right government of Netanyahu to signal to the Iranians, the Russians, and the Syrians that "Israel" will maintain its policy of striking any target that it deems a danger to its "national security". Such assessments are grounded in fact, as the entire composition of the Netanyahu cabinet courts hawkish and provocative elements of the Jewish far-right, including Kahanists, which are terrorists. In turn, such orientations provide a free license for "Israel" to expand settlements in occupied territories, sustain apartheid, and then carry out wanton attacks against other sovereign states. 

The institutionalization of far-right Jewish extremism as a tool of domestic and foreign policy is evident in the decision to appoint far-right provocateur, Itamar Ben-Gvir as the Police Minister. Ben-Gvir has glorified terrorists such as Baruch Goldstein and is a devout Kahanist. As a result, much of the advice for the Netanyahu cabinet will come from fascist ministers advocating for expansionist foreign policies that include, and are not limited to, aerial bombardments of countries such as Syria. The Israeli occupation forces spearhead, Oded Basiuk for example, presented controversial operational outlooks for 2023 which affirms that the course of action "Israel" will take will be continuous in order to shape and influence the region. Hence, it is clear that "Israel’s" foreign policy encourages sabotage, disruption, aggression, and acts of war. 

With such orientations, it is expected that similar acts of aggression in countries such as Lebanon and Iran could take place. The Netanyahu cabinet is a threat to the entire region, as well as a source of discord. As a result, legitimizing, funding, or sanctioning Israeli actions must be called out as unacceptable by all members of the international community, including the United States, which has been "Israel’s" most pronounced advocate. It is a known fact that the government in Washington D.C. through Congress has passed legislations historically, guaranteeing Israeli military superiority to any combination of enemies or foes that surround it. In essence, this entails that "Israel" with its hyper-conservative government has full immunity to carry out attacks anywhere across the region in the absence of any accountability. 

For advocates of Middle Eastern peace, such a scenario is a damning indictment. For years, the region has bristled with violence due to nefarious designs pursued by numerous Israeli administrations. The year 2022 has already been the worst year for Palestinians killed by the occupation forces where according to official figures, 225 people were killed in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. According to most Palestinians, the Israeli occupation forces have changed their modus operandi in 2022 by making it acceptable to shoot and kill any legitimate Resistance movement. At the global level, this translates into arbitrary targeting of any sovereign state in the absence of prosecution.

It is high time that the international community, which has a stake in a stable Syria and Middle East, condemns Israeli crimes and calls a spade a spade. Only then can peace prevail.