Gaza rocket victims to Belgium: Try Hamas chiefs for war crimes

Please forgive me for being a bad Jew and dare to have a right to self defense. There is a slight difference between collateral damage and deliberately targeting civilians (Hamas never denied it). If Hamas could it could all Israeli civilians by some smart atomic bomb. The IDF prevents it by effective counter-terror measures.

"since when do the crimes of party A constitute the right for Party B to commit crimes?" You should ask the Israel cheerleaders who post here. It's the most common excuse used to legitimize Israel's aggression against the defenseless Palestinian people. "if Israelis can be tried, why should not Gazans?" Leaders on both sides should be tried and if convicted they should have to share the same prison cell.

boot is on the other foot watch for the consequences.

ROR ?They were not citizens of the state of Israel!

This is a great idea! There are a couple of pre-requisites that have to be met first, like making Gaza/Palestine a Nation State first, then having the Palestinian State sign the Geneva Conventions, then the court will actually have jurisdiction to charge them. So here we go: Step 1: Create a State of Palestine. Step 2: Has them sign the Geneva Conventions. Step 3: Now the State of Palestine has the chance to charge them for any crimes. Finally, once all this is complete, then and only then can charges be considered. Let's do it!! Starting with creating a Palestinian State!

Aby, everyone can slaughter animals in Switzerland, provided they stun them before killing them. No perfect but sounds reasonable. Vegetarian

They can blame it on Al Jazeera and the British adventure,

Yielding to pressure from Israeli leaders, Belgium is soon going to renounce its claim to universal jurisdiction. Child killers from both sides will be away to sleep easy in their beds.

Of course, our naive leftist apologists for the Palestinians can't imagine that Palestinians should be held responsible for their actions. The most condescending racism in modern times is the lower standard of expectations for Palestinians by leftists, as the leftists are so tainted by "the Whiteman's Burden",that they see Palestinans as somehow lesser beings, unable control their more base passions. Of course Palestinians can commit war crimes, its just that our leftists are so enamoured of the myths of the "Palestinian narrative", that reality evades them.

is US, European, and more extended public support retreating from the Israeli leadership like an ebbing tide on the Goodwin Sands.

Be careful of what you wish for--if Belgian authorities do issue these warrants, how can Israelis and Jews argue that European countries have no authority to do the same for Israeli officials, politicians and military personnel?

Leave Israel to its truly indigenous people, not those who followed the violent Arab conquest of the holy land after its Jews were occupied and disbursed. Go back to where you belong and kill and maime as much as you like.

Murderous attacks on civilians cannot be equated with self defence that targets those seeking to murder Israelies, even if Pal civilians are killed, get hurt or their property is damaged.

So the 3278 rockets and mortars that were fired into to Israel in 2008 and thousands in previous years don't count ? This was not a crime ? Those injured in such attacks have no right to complain ? please explain

Who you talking about, the Jews of the Arab world?

This is just what I have been saying all along. Hamas are guilty of war crimes. Let Israel have an independent commission. It will be fair and independent and in spite of what people think of white phospherous bombs, Israel was well within it's right to defend it's citizens, and no Israeli will be convicted. Hamas drew Israel into the camps by fighting and launching missiles from there. That is a war crime that everyone witnessed and those missiles were aimed and landed in Israeli civilian communities, another war crime. Not only that, but every member of Hamas from the top henchmen in Damascus all the way down to the foot terrorist in the slums of Rafah, are guilty. Hamas and the Palestinians have much more to worry about than Israel.

... you will need a bigger country. I don't think Belgium is big enough to fit all the "war criminals" of the world.

It's about time someone went after the real war criminals.

Lano, see O's response #7. once again you fall into the "but what about them?!" trap. since when do the crimes of party A constitute the right for Party B to commit crimes? if Israelis can be tried, why should not Gazans?

In the e.u. antisemitic/communist/moslem brownosing "justice",terror is protected victims are persecuted,don't expect justice.

palestinians. too bad no one is stealing belgium out from under them. then we could see how these carpetbaggers would react

6000 qassams rocekts were fired against Sderot. That is a fact. they did not much harm but what it proves is that if you let them have better weapons they will harm a lot. That is what it counts. The intentionality. Those rockerts were fired to harm children and women. Israel invasion was to retaliate and stop them from persuing their deadly plans. Israel achieved that and should be blessed for that.

You stole their country, you murdered their people, you destroyed their farms, you demolished their houses, and you expelled millions of them to the four corners of the world..and now you want to try them as war criminals? Isn't this the ultimate fornication with language?

to be thankful because Hamas cant shoot straight and only killed a handful of Israelis over the years. I would like to see charges of crimes against humanity brought against, Hamas, Hisbollah, Syria, Lebanon and Iran, all over the world. If Hamas is still trying to push the Jews into the sea, then the Jews have a right to defend themselves. I criticize Cast Lead for not going far enough in routing Hamas, leaving the leadership and arms in place.

and must face the International justice

As for looking in the mirror. Which country has for 61 years been illegally acquiring the territory of the Palestinians? Which country has refused to recognize RoR for it's own civilians?

Hopefully justice will be done.

As a Belgian and having lived in Israel for several years I laud this initiative. I hope our courts will finally do something more than pay lip service to international law and bring justice. Nevertheless, I would like to see the names Barak, Livni, Ashkenazi and Olmert also included in this list. Might not be a bad idea to charter a plane and bring them over together. That way we'll save some money and they will have a couple of hours to spend together and talk to eachother!

Aby I think you might be a little confused... Even though Dino has "Swiss" in his name that does not mean that he speaks for the nation of Switzerland, nor that he is responsible for any decisions it takes. I think you will agree that it is entirely possible for a citizen to have opinions that are different from those of his or her nation. Any argument following the lines of "your nation did this or that at some point in time so you have no right to criticize someone else's nation of doing something else" is extremely daft. As is so often pointed out: two wrongs don't make one right. If I read about someone getting murdered that does not give me a right to murder just because historically someone else has comitted murder. Anyway it is good that Hamas leaders might be tried for war crimes. And there are probably some Israeli soldiers who should be tried as well.

Last time I checked it was Olmert & Co. who were raining down bombs(including white phospherous) on over 200,000 caged up, helpless, sick and starving palestinians, of which over 1400 died, with over 50,000 left homeless. 3 Israeli combat deaths and 7 by friendly fire. Institutions, livlihoods, and lives, were systematically and methodlogically demolished. Sounds like a crime to me. Israeli's have a strange sense of justice. I don't know if to laugh or cry.

Hope they have something other than Israeli press reports as evidence. If they do, go for it! It will be interesting to see the evidentiary links to some.

It is good to see that the Goldstone Report is beginning to be cited in courts.

Assuming there is reasonable evidence of a war crime, and who the perpetrators were, including the leaders of Hamas if they are found to have supported the war crimes, then by all means charge them. If Belgian law is like British law then a court would probably only take action if the perpetrators entered Belgium. I note that civilians being injured is not in itself evidence of a war crime, or the whole of the IDF would be charged. The quid pro quo is of course that Israel must accept that its key leaders including Olmert, Livni, Barak and Ashkenazi must be chargeable, as the evidence of war crimes against them is well documented by the UN and the HRC, and that evidence has not even been refuted by Israel or the individuals concerned.

What about the minarrets? Where is the human rights in Swiss. Try to change if you can, then post here. It will be better for Swiss to obey human rights. There is only a tiny percent of muslims in your country and yet you are forbiding the building of minarrets in Swiss. Why? The champions of Human Rights, just look at the mirror, what would you see. Who is the more racist could you ask to your self, I or you. If you were in place of Israel, I can imagine and extrapolate what kind of racist laws you would create. Change the law of animal slaughtering in Swiss. Jews can not slaughter animals in Swiss. Aby

....if they have a good conscience, they can prove their innocence there.