Hamas’ Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes

The purpose of this article is to describe the war crimes and crimes against humanity of Hamas by reference to the Rome Statute and the Geneva Convention of 1949. There is also a description of what a terrorist is under International Law. 

 With the recent terrorist activities in Israel, as a Jewish American, one feels rather helpless to watch the largest scale of mass murder since the Holocaust. The savage butchery is unfathomable.  

 To begin as this mass terrorism has exhibited there is no difference between Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism or Anti-Israelism. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2002) (ICC) under Article 7 and 8, illustrates Crimes against humanity and War Crimes and Violations of the Geneva Convention of 1949. 

Article 7 Crimes against humanity  For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. 

Article 8 War crimes  The Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes, in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes. 2. For the purpose of this Statute, “war crimes” means: (a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:  (i) Willful killing; (ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments; (iii) Willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health; …. Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement; (viii) Taking of hostages. (b) Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law, namely, any of the following acts: (i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; (ii) Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives; (iii) Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflict; (iv) Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated; (v) Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives; ….. (ix) Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives; (x) Subjecting persons who are in the power of an adverse party to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are neither justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the person concerned nor carried out in his or her interest, and which cause death to or seriously endanger the health of such person or persons; (xi) Killing or wounding treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;…..  (xxi) Committing outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; (xxii) Committing rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, as defined in article 7, paragraph 2 (f)…..

Through social and generic media and video generated by Hamas itself, we have seen the documentation and verification of: 

• Video of families shot,  
• 40 babies murdered and decapitated,  
• Children murdered in front of their parents, children and families burned alive, the raping of woman,  
• The parading of naked raped women in Gaza, 
• Shooting pregnant women 
• The theft of Magen David Ambulances (Israel’s version of Red Cross ambulances) 
• The targeting of Magen David Ambulances using Drones, 
• The shooting and destruction of a children’s hospital, 
• The taking of civilian hostages, mothers, grandmothers and holocaust survivors, very young children, children, 
• The slaughter of 260 musical festival goers, who went to what is like a “rave” in the United States, 
• The indiscriminate mass murder of civilians, execution style, 
• The showering of over 5,000 rockets indiscriminately into a sovereign country without care of the number of civilians killed, 
• The burning of children alive, 
• The burning of children tied together in tires to make the pain more severe, 
• The mutilation of civilian bodies, 
• The mutilation of soldier’s bodies.   

When one applies the documented and verified crimes against humanity and war crimes the perspective of those protesting in favor of “Palestine” is mind boggling. One cannot fit the acceptability and support of the “Palestinians” in one’s head. This goes from Harvard, Yale, Tufts, Columbia, and to my educational background which is ground almost entirely in the UC (University of California) system. The worst are probably UC Irvine and UC Davis, although this is systemic in the entire UC system. The lack of moral compass, ignorance of history, and spewing forward of words like “colonialism” and “apartheid” with little understanding of what they mean illustrates rabid Antisemitism. What are the best schools in the United States teaching students, and what is their motive?  

It is safe to assume that the professors at these schools are more knowledgeable than their students, but if that is true, academia is intentionally spewing forth propaganda borne of Antisemitism, not seen since the day of Joseph Goebbels (minister of propaganda for the Nazi party, 1933-1945) and Der Sturmer (Antisemitic newspaper (1923-1945), making academia complicit in the Jew Hatred.)  

While many in the media have called Hamas “militants or even soldiers” this is false as these butchers are terrorists.  “The United Nations Security Council, it its resolution 1566 of October 2004, elaborates this definition, stating that terrorists acts are “criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.” The Security Council recalls that such acts are “under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature.” The UN (United Nations) General Assembly reaffirmed this definition in January 2006 (Resolution 60/43), defining terrorist acts as “criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes.” See, https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/terrorism/, accessed, November 12, 2023. 

What is inauspicious about the violation of international criminal law is that many in academia, and certainly the students, find the war crimes and crimes against humanity justifiable by using the words they do not even understand, such as “colonialism” and “apartheid.” If these are our leaders of tomorrow, we have much to fear as to the future, and is borne of Antisemitism.