Israeli plans to herd the Palestinian population of Gaza into what amounts to concentration camps have sparked charges that Israeli is preparing to commit crimes against humanity in front of the whole world. Michael Sfard, described as one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers, told The Guardian July 8 that the scheme laid out by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on July 7 to force the entire population of Gaza into “humanitarian transition areas” built on the ruins of Rafah already breaks international law. “(Katz) laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity. It is nothing less than that,” Sfard said. “It is all about population transfer to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outside the strip. While the government still calls the deportation ‘voluntary,’ people in Gaza are under so many coercive measures that no departure from the strip can be seen in legal terms as consensual.”
“When you drive someone out of their homeland that would be a war crime, in the context of a war. If it’s done on a massive scale like he plans, it becomes a crime against humanity,” Sfard added.
The Guardian notes that concerns about Israel’s plans to displace Palestinians had previously been raised by military orders for the operation launched this spring. Sfard represented three reservists who filed a petition to Israel’s courts, demanding the military revoke commands to “mobilize and concentrate” the civilian population of Gaza, and to prohibit any plans for the deportation of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.
