To: UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-Moon
United Nations
Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
The Honorable Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon!
Subject: Hamas leaders must be tried for War Crimes
Your Excellency! We, the TakeAPen Global international public advocacy network and hundreds of millions more people around the world, expect the UN’s and Your personal decisive actions against Hamas leaders’ flagrant war crimes.
For many years now and in the present conflict too, Hamas leaders and their terrorist organization ruling the Gaza Strip have consistently committed the war crimes, as defined by International Law, of: indiscriminate fire at Israel’s civilian population; launching this fire from within their own civilians, schools and hospitals; and forcing civilians including children to stay on rooftops and other spots of danger, using them as human shields, exposing them to great suffering and losses – and You and the UN have not done all possible to stop or even condemn these war crimes.
We expect and demand now that You declare Hamas leaders as War Criminals without further delay, and act to take them to International Criminal Court as soon as possible, for the following major war crimes:
- Shooting thousands of rockets and grenades purposely at civilian targets in Israel.
- Firing these rockets from within Palestinian civilian compounds, such as schools, mosques, hospitals, residential buildings; putting their own civilians into danger.
- Hamas leaders bear the sole responsibility for the recent war and for the suffering on both side: since Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, Hamas fired indiscriminately 11,000 rockets into Israel, and refused to any ceasefire.
According to International Law any source of fire on civilian targets is a legitimate target itself. If that source of fire was located among civilians it still remains a legitimate target; and if fire in return causes casualties, those are the full and sole responsibility of the party placing civilians deliberately in harm’s way, that is, Hamas. Hamas leaders do even worse than that: they force Gazan civilians to defy the Israeli Army’s warnings before attacks, and instructions intended to save lives.
Therefore, Hamas leadership should be brought to international justice also for the following further war crimes which they have committed:
- Hamas stores weapons and ammunitionin schools, mosques, public buildings.
- Hamas leaders and fighters have routinely hide among civilians, also in hospitals.
- Hamas regularly uses its own civilians as human shield; particularly children, often forced to be on rooftops and other most dangerous spots.
- Children and minors have been routinely used by Hamas for military tasks, both battle and auxiliary.The Hamas regime has educated, indoctrinated and trained children and minors to murderous hatred. It teaches genocide against all Jews, and that to carry out such actions is heroic.
- Hamas leaders embezzled aid money received for the humanitarian needs of the population and used it for funding an enormous military build-up.
Recently,Hamas’ refusal of the Egypt-brokered and Arab League-sponsored ceasefire proposal proved again that Hamas leaders willingly sacrifice the life of their civilians to promote their own ideological and personal ambitions.
Mister Secretary General! Your immediate condemnation and prosecution of Hamas leaders in the International Criminal Court for war crimes they’ve committed, are absolutely necessary in order to prevent that Hamas’ war crimes become normative behavior for all tyrants in the world, causing further humanitarian catastrophes for millions of victims of oppression and killings.
Your Excellency, right upon sending this letter to You, a wide international petition is being launched to endorse it. We shall follow your timely relevant activities with great honor, firm moral support and strict expectations.
Yours sincerely,
MozesEndre
Take-A-Pen Global