Fighting by other Means in the Mideast

A Critical Analysis of Israel's Assassination Policy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6344977
AutoresM L Gro (0000-0001-5835-7879, University of Haifa, autor correspondente)
Ano2003
Volume51
Fascículo2
Páginas350-368
Data de publicação2003-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-9248.00428
OpenAlexW2052952150
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas21
Referências citadas12

Israel's efforts to quell violence during the recent conflict with the Palestinians include targeted assassinations of militia leaders. The international community permits the use of lethal force in only two cases, law enforcement and just war, and assassination cannot be justified in either. In the context of law enforcement, assassination remains prohibited as a form of extra-legal execution, regardless of Israel's status as an occupying power. In the context of just war, assassination violates the proscription against perfidious and treacherous means of warfare. In the current conflict, assassination cannot be accomplished without collaborators, a practice that not only is prohibited by convention but seriously undermines Palestinian society. As a result, assassination provokes violent retaliation and corrodes the basis necessary to renew peace negotiations. Nevertheless, assassination may be defensible as a last resort in some cases. These include tyrannicide, killing a murderous and brutal leader to protect innocent civilians, together with instances of ‘ticking bombs’ – that is, immediate and otherwise unavoidable grievous threats to noncombatants. In each case a modified argument from necessity offers grounds for the defensible, although limited, use of assassination

Argument (complex analysis · Context (archaeology · Criminology · Enforcement · International law · Law of war · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Proscription · Sociology · History · Law · Medicine · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence · Torture, Ethics, and Law · War, Ethics, and Justification