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Beastly Boy

(11,599 posts)
18. So you are suddenly interested international law. Very commendable.
Sat Feb 3, 2024, 11:13 AM
Feb 2024

Sadly, if not pathetically so, your newfound interest doesn't extend beyond entering a few keywords into a google machine.

You didn't even look up the definitions, legal or otherwise, of "despoiled" or "mutilation", let alone check your source's references in international law that accompany its commentary. Thus, the first thing in the ICRC's introduction to the Customary International Rules you referred to states:

International humanitarian law has its origins in the customary practices of armies as they developed over the ages and on all continents. The “laws and customs of war”, as this branch of international law has traditionally been called, was not applied by all armies, and not necessarily vis-à-vis all enemies, nor were all the rules the same. However, the pattern that could typically be found was restraint of behaviour vis-à-vis combatants and civilians, primarily based on the concept of the soldier’s honour. The content of the rules generally included the prohibition of behaviour that was considered unnecessarily cruel or dishonourable, and was not only developed by the armies themselves, but was also influenced by the writings of religious leaders.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1134&pid=139870

Were you to look up the definition of "despoiled", which is synonymous with grave robbing, you wouldn't have even included it in your rant. Nobody ever claimed any grave robbery on the part of IDF. The elements of "Mutilation", if you were to follow references given by your source, are defined by ICC within a broader category in this way:
Article 8 (2) (b) (xvi)
War crime of outrages upon personal dignity
Elements
1. The perpetrator humiliated, degraded or otherwise violated the dignity of one or more persons.49
2. The severity of the humiliation, degradation or other violation was of such degree as to be generally recognized as an outrage upon personal dignity.

https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/Publications/Elements-of-Crimes.pdf

Like it or not, blowing up corpses into an unrecognizable mess in the course of conducting military operations, and exhuming bodies from graves are customary practices in warfare, and, being customary, are therefore not considered humiliating, degrading, or outrageous in legal terms. Like it or not, this is the extent of international law that you suddenly decided to take interest in.

Anybody can get up on one's soap box and demand an investigation into anything. But it helps if one knows WTF one is talking about before making a fool of oneself.

I have wasted enough of my time. You don't have an obligation to inform yourself about what you decide to post, and I, in turn, don't have an obligation to respond to nonsense.

I suggest we both use our time more productively.


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