Silencing Human Rights in the Clash of Arms? Israel's Official Policy of 'Targeted Killings' - A Dark Side in Fighting Terrorism

Abstract

Israel views the Palestine uprising of September 2000 (al-Aqsa Intifada) as an armed conflict which in turn means that the framework applicable to this is the law of armed conflict. The issues regarding the status of terrorists as well as counter-measures that are raised in the Arab-Israeli conflict are complex. On one hand, the terrorists fall within the ambit of combatants and thus engage the law of armed conflict; on the other hand they are criminals and thus fall within the rubric of domestic legal enforcement. It is the - targeted killings - as one of the means Israel uses to combat what terrorist attacks directed against its citizens, and what the Palestinians refer to as their uprising against the Israeli occupation that is the focus of this Article. Depending on the construction of the realities of the Intifada, the legality or illegality of - targeted state killings - still remains to be determined on a broad spectrum that engages both the laws of armed conflict and human rights. This Article seeks to adopt a limited dimension-reviewing the actions against the background of international human rights. Human rights law although interrelated with the law of war and humanitarian law, is a distinct branch of international law and it is the human rights perspective with which this Article is concerned with.