Collective Punishment

A real war crime, frequently misapplied to Israel. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention bars penal sanctions on a protected person “for an offence he has not personally committed,” punishing civilians, by fine, detention or home demolition, for someone else’s act. It does not mean that a lawful military operation, which unavoidably affects a population, is “collective punishment.” Fighting inside a territory at war, or cutting its power, is not a penal sanction imposed to punish the innocent, and the term loses its meaning when stretched to cover ordinary warfare.