Israel committed war crimes against press

The morning after the director-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) received the Dan David Prize at a ceremony in Tel Aviv, he accused Israel of war crimes. “It is a war crime to target journalists because they are journalists,” Christophe Deloire told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “When Israel shot those journalists, it was intentional… The journalists could be clearly identified as journalists, with cameras and jackets and it could not be just by chance.”

Deloire was responding to a request for an explanation as to why his organization last week formally asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate what it regards as war crimes by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against Palestinian journalists covering protests on the Gaza border since the launch of the “March of Return” on March 30, 2018.  RSF submitted its request to the ICC hours before the UN Security Council’s May 14 meeting.

“The Israeli authorities could not have been unaware of the presence of journalists among the civilian demonstrators, and therefore failed in the elementary duty of precaution and differentiation when targeting these protected persons with live rounds,” Deloire said in a statement that same day. “These deliberate and repeated violations of international humanitarian law constitute war crimes. While referring them to the International Criminal Court, RSF calls on the Israeli authorities to strictly respect international law.”

The RSF request came only months after a United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry issued a report claiming that IDF soldiers intentionally shot children, people with disabilities and journalists.

“The UN just confirmed what we already considered a fact,” Deloire told the Post.  He acknowledged that “Israelis surely face difficult circumstances, but there are lots of things that should be improved” when it comes to freedom of the press in Israel, he said.