On Hamas "Freedom-Fighters": The View from International Law

Beres, Louis Rene, Midstream

Even now, even after repeated Hamas bomb attacks on Israeli buses, nurseries, and preschools, some will argue passionately that the ends of such barbaric Palestinian violence justify the means--that an end to the so-called Israeli "occupation" justifies premeditated murder of "any and all Israelis." Leaving aside both ordinary ethical standards (by which this argument is manifestly indecent), and the fact that Israel came into inadvertent control of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 because of utterly undisguised Arab aggression, the ends never justify the means under authoritative international law. On the contrary, for more than two thousand years, binding legal rules of world politics have stipulated that intentional violence against the innocent is always repugnant and always prohibited.

How often have we heard the claim that one man's terrorist is another man's …

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Publication information: Article title: On Hamas "Freedom-Fighters": The View from International Law. Contributors: Beres, Louis Rene - Author. Magazine title: Midstream. Volume: 51. Issue: 6 Publication date: November-December 2005. Page number: 19+. © 2009 Theodor Herzl Foundation. COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group.

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