December 21, 2009: Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center filed a petition to the High Court of  Justice (BAGATZ) in Jerusalem demanding that Hamas terrorists arrested by Israel be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity, not just murder as is the current practice.

According to the petition, the Attorney General violated Israeli law by refusing to indict  the terrorists who fire rockets into Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity-crimes that carry a life sentence without the possibility of pardon or early release. This would include their ineligibility to be freed in the type of large scale prisoner exchange being currently negotiated with Hamas.

Israel is bound by the humanitarian provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as the Hague Convention and other international treaties, which stipulate that the deliberate targeting of civilians in the context of an armed conflict is a war crime; while the deliberate and systemic assault against a particular civilian population constitutes a crime against humanity.

By engaging in terror activity and deliberately launching Kassam and Grad rockets into Israeli civilian centers during Operation Cast Lead, Hamas activists repeatedly and systematically targeted civilians, and specifically Israeli civilians, for murder-placing them squarely in the definition of both war crimes and crimes against humanity.  Citing previous Supreme Court rulings, the petition notes that such international law has been accepted as binding on Israeli courts and law enforcement authorities.

According to the petition, the State of Israel, having suffered inordinately from the horrors of terrorism, has a unique duty to serve as a model in the battle against the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by terrorists and recognized as such under international law.

The Goldstone Commission report, accusing the IDF of war crimes in Gaza, showed that the Attorney General's policy of indicting Hamas terrorists for ordinary crimes rather than crimes against humanity has fanned the flames of malicious accusations against Israeli leaders and soldiers by the UN and the Europeans. Not only has this policy played down the heinous nature of the genocidal atrocities of Hamas, it has left the field open for Israel's enemies to make false and dangerous claims against us.   Israeli officers and government officials now have to fear being arrested for war crime violations every time they travel abroad. The failure to indict captured Hamas rocket crews for crimes against humanity is immoral, hurts Israel's interests and, above all, is in flagrant violation of Israeli law.  The Attorney General must act to regain the upper hand in this dangerous matter.

For an Article About the High Court Petition