THE ASSASSINATION OF SHEIK YASSIN AND ISRAEL’S PUSH FOR U.S. SUPPORT OF ANNEXATION OF SETTLEMENTS

by Phyllis Bennis
Institute for Policy Studies
29 March 2004

The assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin marks a serious escalation in Israeli occupation tactics. While Israel had (in earlier assassination attempts) already crossed the “red line” that once defined some limits in aggressive acts, its message in the Yassin murder was that there are no limits, that Israel’s military attacks face no restrictions. Counting accurately on Washington’s unwillingness to challenge its aggression, the assassination also ushers in a new Israeli campaign to win official U.S. support for wide-spread annexation of major West Bank settlements as part of Tel Aviv’s “unilateral withdrawal from Gaza” plan.

“Targeted assassination” is murder; it stands in clear violation of international law. The Israeli action and the U.S. refusal to condemn it make a mockery of international law. Killing is an absolute prohibition; international law does not allow exceptions for “ticking bombs,” or anything else. Article 3(I) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 “prohibits at any time and in any place” (a) “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds” and (d) “the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized people.” In the case of Sheik Yassin, the Israeli claim that he was responsible for earlier suicide attacks (which, when they target civilians, are indeed a violation of international law) does not provide legal justification. Those who claim that Sheik Yassin does not merit protection under the Fourth Geneva Convention because he supported suicide bombings should note that “protected persons” are identified as those “taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces … placed hors de combat [out of combat] by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause.” It is hard to imagine a clearer example of someone “out of combat by sickness” than a 67-year-old quadriplegic cleric, wheelchair-bound, largely deaf and mostly blind.

The assassination has been condemned by the United Nations, the European Union, and virtually every government in the world with the exception of the United States.