Editor,
The question of fairness regarding Belgium’s right to prosecute Ariel Sharon for an alleged war crime 21 years ago in Lebanon is debatable for sure. The conduct of Ariel Sharon as Israeli Defense Minister 21 years ago in Lebanon is not.
The practice of “universal jurisdiction” over war crimes or crimes against humanity is hardly limited to the “Maryland-sized country” of Belgium. Is it fair that the United States has indicted, pursued, captured, convicted and punished those outlaws outside our borders we claim have engaged in criminal behavior?
Is it fair that Israel — a country even smaller than Belgium — has no reservations when it comes to pursuing suspected criminals outside its territorial borders? The pursuit of Adolph Eichman, his kidnapping and return to Israel for public trial and execution is legendary. Is Israel’s extra-territorial, extra-judicial actions taken in the claimed pursuit of justice against those it has accused of committing crimes against humanity and the State of Israel fair?
Is Belgium’s claim of jurisdiction to prosecute Israeli military commanders, including Prime Minister Sharon, for alleged war crimes committed against Palestinians 21 years ago in Lebanon fair? Unless you believe that the presiding court in Belgium is incapable of conducting a fair trial — with the same legitimacy that the United States or Israeli courts — the argument over fairness is moot. The Belgian Supreme Court has ruled and has accepted that it is legal for Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to be prosecuted and tried in Belgium for his role in the mass murder of anywhere from 800 to 3,500 people at the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila when he leaves office. Until then the court has ruled Sharon enjoys diplomatic immunity.
The official inquiry conducted by the Israeli government found there was sufficient and convincing evidence that Ariel Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacre of 800 Palestinian non-combatants in 1982, through failure to prevent the murders. Other independent estimates put the number of dead non-combatants at Sabra and Shatila run as many as 3,500.
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Is it fair the only penalty Sharon paid was to resign, under a cloud, as Israeli defense minister? This must certainly raise the question of fairness to the families of the murder victims, executed in the camps at Sabra and Shatila while Sharon stood by and ignored what was happening.
The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon that Sharon led during which the Sabra and Shatila mass murder occurred killed upwards of 30,000 by some estimates and most those killed were civilian non-combatants. Don’t the survivors or their relatives of the massacre victims at Sabra or Shatila have the same rights the Holocaust survivors living in Israel 40 years ago did when Eichman was brought to justice?
But why this allegation and why now? Some Israelis and their U.S. supporters suspect that Western Europe’s history of anti-Semitism is at play. Complaining, that at least two groups of Israelis have used Belgium’s law to file complaints against Palestinian President Arafat and have not received the same attention from the Belgian courts as evidence of an anti-Semitic bias.
Is it possible, that the current policies of the Israeli government under Prime Minister Sharon and its extreme measures in the “Occupied Territories” and the blatant disregard for Palestinian human, civil and property rights are the reasons?
There are those who claim this law’s only purpose is to proclaim Belgium’s moral superiority, but all anyone has to do to avoid prosecution is fail to go to Belgium. Ignore the legal reality that when Sharon leaves office he can be prosecuted as a war criminal in Belgium.
Moreover, even if Sharon is never prosecuted and convicted, he will be remembered by Palestinians, Arabs and many of Israel’s longtime friends, as a mass murderer, even if he never steps foot in Belgium to avoid prosecution. The political reality is that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is intolerable, dissolves any claim of moral superiority Israeli’s might otherwise claim, and serves to isolate Israel as a nation from its neighbors and alienates many of its longtime supporters.
Ed Gentner
UNM alumnus
