Israel’s Assassination Policy

B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, is the leading Israeli organization monitoring, documenting and advocating to improve human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Founded in 1989, B’Tselem publishes reports, engages in advocacy and serves as a resource center. 8 HaTa’asiya St. (4th Floor), Talpiot, Jerusalem 93420, Israel; 02-6735599, <www.btselem.org>

PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa Zabri was the latest victim of Israel’s policy of assassinations. In the course of this Intifada, Israel extra-judicially assassinated at least 32 Palestinians. These killings are part of an explicit policy to assassinate Palestinians suspected of acts of violence against Israelis. Israel has employed this policy in the Occupied Territories and abroad for over 30 years.

The assassination policy violates the right to life, the most fundamental of all human rights, enshrined in international and Israeli law. Unnamed security personnel make a decision to kill a person, and the decision is carried out with no legal process whatsoever. The method Israel uses to carry out the assassinations raises several concerns. Most of the assassinations are conducted in densely populated civilian areas, and there is a high risk that bystanders will be killed—as has happened on several occasions. Errors may also occur both when selecting the target and while carrying out the assassination.

The decision to assassinate a person is made in back rooms with no judicial process to examine the intelligence information on which it is based. The target of the assassination is not given a chance to present evidence in his defense or to refute the allegations against him.

Errors can occur in the course of carrying out the assassination. First, there is a great risk of harming bystanders. Second, those who carry out the assassination may err in the identification of the victim. Israeli undercover units have killed the wrong person more than once.

Such an assassination policy raises the specter of a frightening slippery slope. If Israel can kill those suspected of attacking Israelis, where should it draw the line? Perhaps those who make such attacks possible should also be targeted? And what about those who merely express support for them? Given the broad category of individuals targeted for attack, the lack of any scrutiny of this policy, and the history of the Israeli security forces, it is clear that the descent down the slippery slope is not hypothetical but simply a matter of time.

B’Tselem does not have the means to examine the people that Israel assassinated and their actions, since Israel does not publish information of this sort and does not bother providing any explanation of its decision to assassinate a certain individual. Yet, whether these are innocent people or people who have actually harmed Israelis, the policy is illegal. The accusations against individual Palestinians, grave as they may be, cannot justify a departure from the principles of Israeli and international law.

Judaism: What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole torah; all the rest is commentary.

Islam: Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself.

Christianity: Treat others only in ways that you are willing to be treated in the same exact situation.

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