Innocent people get killed in wars. Examples are countless. But the West Bank isn’t at war. There, the Israeli army is policing an occupied zone, where violent incidents have increased since the war in Gaza began.
On November 29, 2023, several Palestinian boys were playing in the street near their homes when an Israeli military convoy came around a corner and stopped several hundred meters away. A door of an Israeli armored vehicle opened.
Most of the boys began to run. A 15-year-old stood facing the soldiers, possibly holding something. An Israeli soldier sprayed the street with gunfire, killing the him and an 8-year-old boy (read BBC story here).
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) later claimed the boys were about to throw explosives at the soldiers. But according to video and witnesses, the younger boy was unarmed and running away. He was shot in the back of his head.
Fog of war? Or trigger-happy soldier? It doesn’t matter, because the Israeli government almost never prosecutes its own soldiers.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) “has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years,” BBC says. And those of Hamas, too, the terrorist group behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that set off the war in Gaza.
The IDF has been accused of war crimes in Gaza at the ICC. Israel’s leaders are worried, not about their troops’ behavior, but about what the ICC might do. Read story here.
Palestinians historically haven’t enjoyed much sympathy in the U.S. because of a long history of terrorist acts that include the 1972 Munich Olympics, airplane hijackings, suicide bombings, and endless rocket attacks against Israel. But Israelis have expropriated Palestinian land for Israeli settlements, and engaged in heavy-handed treatment of Palestinian civilians. It’s become worse under Netanyahu’s government, prompting more international scrutiny.
The Palestinians are a conquered people living under occupation. The Israelis handle them roughly, but they have nowhere to go. This isn’t a formula for peace; no people can be expected to suffer endless mistreatment. That doesn’t justify what Hamas did on Oct. 7; but after decades of impasse, it’s clear Israelis and Palestinians can’t or won’t resolve their conflict by themselves. If it’s ever to end, other nations have to get involved and impose a solution.
The International Criminal Court’s involvement just might mark the beginning of such a solution, one case, one dead child at a time..