Weekly Commentary: Terror Gang Or State In The Making?

Blanket prisoner release demand inconsistent
Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
6 August 2009

The Fatah General Assembly being held in Bethlehem unanimously adopted a resolution today demanding the release of all Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons while at the same time asserting that all Palestinians being held by Israel have the status of “prisoners of war and combatants” subject to the Geneva Convention “as they are not terrorists or criminals.”

Here’s the problem:

The moment that the Palestinians argue that each and every terrorist now being held by Israel should be subject to the international conventions that apply to combatant they cannot also insist on a blanket release of all Palestinians now being held by Israel.

International conventions set restrictions of what combatants can and cannot do. And there are many Palestinian terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons for actions that constituted gross violations of those international rules of combat.

If these terrorists are “combatants” then they are also “war criminals”.

And war criminals don’t win a “get out of jail” card just because the war the “fought” in is over.

Fatah has to decide what they are.

As a terrorist movement they can certainly argue that any and every terrorist attack is legitimate in their eyes and thus those who carry them out deserve praise as heroes and immediate release from captivity.

But if Fatah instead sees itself as the advance guard of a Palestinian state in the making then they must not only acknowledge that there are limits and restrictions that apply to the activities of “combatants” and that “combatants” who violate these restrictions must be punished.
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