Iran Points To Asterisk In Geneva Conventions: *Only Applies To Israel

Such a proviso helps explain the conduct of the international arena over several decades.

Tehran, January 25 – Scholars of International Law held a symposium today on the legality of Iran’s settlement of Shia Muslims in formerly Sunni areas of Syria and Iraq, from which the consensus emerged that as formulated, the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of occupied territory and the population under occupation does not apply to the case, since an asterisk in the section introducing those laws refers to a note that limits the restrictions to occupying powers that are Israel. As such, they noted, Iran is exempt from upholding the Geneva Conventions.

The symposium, attended by dozens of experts in International Law, the Laws of Armed Conflict, and related texts governing the conduct of armies and occupiers, included a presentation detailing the factors excluding Iran’s policies in Syria from those laws’ applicability. Specifically, noted Professor Jujeen Gondorveesh of Tehran University, a little-discussed provision of those documents notes that all the restrictions and obligations incumbent on occupiers refer only to when Israel is the country doing the occupying, as demonstrated by the asterisk pointing the reader to the lower margin of the page: *applies only to Israel.

Such a proviso helps explain the conduct of the international arena over several decades, according to experts. “The apparent double standard when it comes to, say, the UN’s treatment of Israel vs. its treatment of other countries involved in occupation, such as Turkey, Russia, Morocco, or China, has followed International Law the whole time,” observed William Schabas, a Canadian scholar. “Apparently no one openly discussed this, but it turns out that demanding adherence to all these procedures from Israel and only Israel is specifically embedded in the source documents on the subject.”

Left unexplained, say those experts, is how the drafters of the documents had such prescience as to exclude everyone but Israel from adherence to the Geneva Conventions when most of the laws were adopted by international treaty before Israel existed. “I have a theory, but it’s little more than that,” offered Schabas. “The entire development of international law is to cement in power those who already have power – thus the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, two of which can hardly be considered superpowers anymore. Jews represent the limits of power, since their culture has always challenged the prevailing order. By circumscribing the activities of an anticipated Jewish State, and only that Jewish State, the powers that were – and that be – those countries aimed to forever keep the Jews from causing too much trouble.”

“Evidently it hasn’t been enough, and world peace hasn’t resulted, for some reason,” he added. “Well, that’s what Resolution 2334 is for.”

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