The laws of war – Israelis know them bestWhile the tendency of human rights groups these days seems to be to do whatever possible to remove war as an option on the global arena, the fact remains that in the real world, war and self-defense are still a necessity--as is knowing what international humanitarian law is really all about:
An Israeli team from the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, recently beat out 44 universities to take first place in the 2010 edition of the Jean-Pictet Competition on international humanitarian law.
The week-long international competition, held between March 20-27 in Quebec, Canada, matched up teams from universities around the world to test their knowledge in the field of international humanitarian law (IHL) – commonly referred to as the laws of war.
“For an Israeli team to win a competition in the field in which Israel is so often criticized is significant,” said the team’s academic supervisor, Daphné Richemond-Barak. “The Jean-Pictet is the most prestigious competition in the field worldwide.”
In the competition, teams role-played as representatives from foreign affairs, military advocates or the Red Cross. They were questioned by judges and judged by jury. Among the “judges” for the event was Philippe Kirsch, first president of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
In a nutshell, said [coach Ido] Rosenzweig, IHL might be summarized as, “Do the most damage to the enemy [while] minimizing harm to civilians.”Too bad the Goldstone Commission could not be similarly tested.
He explained the four core principles of IHL as follows: distinction of soldiers from civilians; military necessity as a rule in evaluating targets; proportionality; and humanity to the enemy.
Technorati Tag: Israel and International Law.
2 comments:
Go Israel!
Now if Israel could just utilize some of that knowledge to prove itself to others.
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