Weaponizing Pagers Violates International Law and May Be a War Crime, UN Rights Chief Says

AP Photo/Bassam Masri

It's just not fair, I tell you. Israel manufacturing pagers ordered by terrorists loaded with explosives is not fighting fair. They shouldn't have disguised the explosive. They should have warned the terrorists. 

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Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, claims that the pager attacks using Hezbollah electronics not only "violated international human rights law" but also appear to violate international humanitarian law’s key principles in carrying out attacks: "distinction between civilians and combatants, proportionality, and precautions."

As I said, Israel is not playing fair. They should have let Hezbollah blow up 3,700 Israelis to achieve the "proportionality" test of UN human rights law.

“Let me be clear — this method of warfare may be new and unfamiliar,” Türk said, “but international humanitarian and human rights law apply regardless and must be upheld.”

That international law never applies to terrorists is self-evident. Israel's response to such nonsense? How do you say "buzz off" in Yiddish?

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib accused Israel of terrorizing Lebanon's entire population at the Security Council meeting. “Look at the ugliness of what has happened in this picture," said Bouhaib. He was holding a photo of a mangled hand. Since the overwhelming majority of the pagers were handed out to Hezbollah terrorists, it's a shame the other hand couldn't have been blown off too.

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Associated Press:

Bouhabib insisted that Israel not only launched the attacks but told the council there were “official declarations” and a tweet by an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “that was lately deleted, emphasizing the responsibility of Israel and praising the positive results of this assault.”

He appeared to be referring to a deleted tweet by Netanyahu adviser Topaz Luke, who reportedly retweeted a post that included a reply indicating that Israel was behind the attacks in Lebanon and neighboring Syria.

There was something conspicuously absent from the foreign minister's rant against Israel. Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon filled in the blanks for the Council by blaming Hezbollah, saying the Lebanese people are “trapped in the grip of this terrorist organization.”

“While Israel is not seeking a wider conflict, let me be clear: We will not allow Hezbollah to continue its provocations,” he said. Israel will do “whatever it takes” to return the 60,000 citizens forced to flee their homes in the north because of Hezbollah rocket attacks, “and we will not allow Hezbollah’s terror to dictate the future of our nation.”

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U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo warned the council that the explosions along with more than 11 months of bloodshed in Gaza, and near-daily exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border, pose a grave risk to security and stability in the region.

She urged all actors to exercise maximum restraint, and she strongly urged countries with influence on the parties “to leverage it now.”

The UN is becoming more and more irrelevant. Two massive wars are underway on the planet and all the UN can do is wag its finger at the combatants, stomping their little feet and ordering everyone to play by the rules.

Israel and Ukraine are fighting for their existence. I hardly think "rules" are relevant at this point.

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