Citizen Mercenaries and the Gaza Genocide
It is, of course, nice to see Canada, the UK and France finally developing a conscience over what multiple international institutions and prominent scholarly experts have concluded. That is, the Zionist colonial regime of Israel is committing the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. After all, the evidence of murderous carnage perpetrated upon Gaza and its peoples is robust. Scientists for Global Responsibility show how weapons supplied by the above states, along with Germany and the United States (US), have not only resulted in explosive tonnage bombarding Gaza exceeding that of multiple Hiroshima bombings and destructive World War II campaigns against Hamburg, Cologne, and Dresden, but have produced a casualty count far above that estimated by besieged local authorities cited in mainstream presses.
An additional 186,000 people are expected to be slaughtered indirectly through famine and lingering impacts of the bombing. In fact, estimates have it that 4000 items of unexploded ordinance litter Gaza, rendering it effectively “uninhabitable” and projected to cost $500-million to “clean up.”
However, what is to be done? Enforcing arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israel’s leaders is proving difficult. The United Nations Security Council has been rendered ineffectual on Gaza by US veto power in favor of Israel. While boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) are easily flouted if target states do not find themselves completely isolated as was apartheid South Africa in its final days. Yet one clear avenue with both arrest and enforcement mechanisms along with necessary judicial infrastructure does exist to deal with the sort of crimes Israel and its occupation military is accused of. This is the power of domestic legal systems. If these can spring into action over pedophilic offences committed by citizens abroad, why not over genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity?
Tourist Crimes and Offences
For example, the US Department of State issues travel advisories over sex tourism warning travelers with pedophilic intentions that, whatever legal strictures apply in their destination there is no potential happy return as US law is empowered to prosecute residents for crimes committed abroad.
Canadian law offers a renowned example of this legal principle in action. In the notorious “swirl face” case from the early 2000s, global police forces worked tirelessly to identify an individual who, disguising his face with a “swirl,” posted photos of himself, across clandestine internet sites, abusing young boys in Southeast Asia, Cambodia and Thailand, in particular. Ultimately, police experts undid the “swirl” revealing the face of a Canadian citizen. This led to his arrest and transfer to Cambodia where he was sentenced to a five year prison term. Yet, on his return to Canada, the “swirl face” pedophile was again arrested and prosecuted under rarely used sex tourism laws and subsequently sentenced to a further five years in prison.
What about citizen mercenaries traipsing around the globe to participate in military conflicts? Canadian law is unambiguous. Genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed abroad are all offences for which individuals can be arrested, tried and sentenced in Canada. This is important because, unlike the “swirl face” pedophile, Canadians and others serving in the Israeli military, as it engages in its genocidal maraud, have been brazenly posting their exploits on social media.
In a recent expose, Canadian publication The Maple has uncovered and made public the identities of a full 85 Canadians who have joined the Israeli occupation forces in recent years. These individuals are profiled in several ways. It is revealed how all are Canadian citizens who were either born in Canada or lived there for lengthy periods of time. Their demographics indicate that 75 percent are men, 25 percent women. The majority hail from the Toronto, Ontario area. They come from well to do families. From scouring news sites, The Maple reproduces testaments from them asserting their interest, from a young age, in joining the Israeli military. It also quotes reflections they made upon their service as evidencing zero inhibitions over what they were doing. Though, as explained by The Maple, not all of the exposed Canadians serving in the Israeli military are involved in the current devastating Gaza assaults, their earlier Gaza related postings and activities in the West Bank Occupied Territories are also demonstrably breaches of international law.
To be sure, the mainstream Canadian press has erupted with cries of “antisemitism” and the like, asserting that Canadian dual citizens have served in other militaries such as that of Britain during World War II. Yet there is not a peep about what is going on in Gaza today or of the fact that numerous international bodies and academic experts calling it out for what it is. Nor is there any mention of international law in reference to Israeli military actions in the Occupied Territories.
Not Just Canada
Canada is not the only country with its citizens participating in recent Israeli military endeavors. Over 100 individuals from Britain are identified as either serving in the Israeli Occupation forces or residing in the Occupied Territories as “settlers.” The Euro-Med Monitor for Human Rights, for its part, has identified hundreds of European Union states’ citizens who have joined the ranks of the Israeli military. It not only provides video testimony from them concerning their service to Israel but tracks how Israel related organizations in Europe actively promote military recruitment within Jewish communities for purposes of mercenary activity in Israel. At least 1000 American citizens are serving in the Israeli military. US law has also established a precedent for arrest and trial of American citizens for crimes against humanity committed in foreign conflicts. The son of Liberian warlord Charles Taylor “Chuckie,” an American citizen, was convicted in 2008 in Florida for torture in the Liberian civil war. This was the first such case in the US.
Now is the time for legal systems in proclaimed democracies such as Canada to begin investigations leading to arrests and trials. If rarely utilized sex tourism laws can be dusted off to prosecute pedophilic tourism, what is preventing the legal systems from prosecuting returning mercenaries implicated in wholesale genocide of Palestinian children? This is particularly urgent given the headlines splashed across mainstream presses alerting the world of the possibility that 14,000 children in Gaza are at risk of death by deliberate Israeli military starvation of the territory. It is indeed time that the legal principle established at Nuremberg against claims that one “was just following orders” is rendered actionable for Gaza’s children’s sake. •
