by Francis A. Boyle
Global Research, December 31, 2008
The United Nations General Assembly must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a “subsidiary organ” under U.N. Charter Article 22. The ICTI would be organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council.
The purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY did for the victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic Regime throughout the Balkans.
The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans. Furthermore, the establishment of ICTI by the U.N. General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, Defense Minister Barak , Chief of Staff Ashkenazi and Israel’s other top generals that they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international crimes upon the Lebanese and the Palestinians.
Without such a deterrent, Israel might be emboldened to attack Syria with the full support of the Likhudnik Bush Jr. Neoconservatives, who have always viewed Syria as “low-hanging fruit” ready to be taken out by means of their joint aggression. If Israel attacks Syria as it did when it invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran has vowed to come to Syria’s defense.
And of course Israel and the Bush Jr administration very much want a pretext to attack Iran. This scenario could readily degenerate into World War III.
For the U.N. General Assembly to establish ICTI could stop the further development of this momentum towards a regional if not global catastrophe.
© Copyright Francis A. Boyle, Global Research, 2008
The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11541
see
Another Massacre in the On-going Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay
Dandelion Salad 
What Israel has done is despicable. An International Criminal Tribunal for Israel would be the fair solution to prosecute Israel for these international despicable crimes. A tribunal such as the ICTI could find words to name the systematic violence inflicted upon the marginalized population of Palestine and Lebanon- as CRIMES and not remain in silence. Whether the U.N. will take action in this respect is just a hope, given the “restrictions” under which the Security Council and the General Assembly operate, and the general reluctance of the sovereign states to set up judicial bodies which could indict crimes of sovereign states. If the U.N. institutions will not do any justice prosecuting these flagrant international crimes against people of Palestine which the entire world witnesses, then the effectiveness of this organization is much questionable.
It will never happen. Just as it will never happen that Bush and Cheney will be indicted for crimes against humanity, neither will Israel’s thugs. We are living in an age where there is no accountability for actions, however heinous.
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