Perhaps for the first time, an Israeli and an Arab have participated in a common debate on terrorism and political crime. Predictably, their views were diametrically opposed. The debate-came during a symposium on terrorism at Siracusa (Syracuse), Sicily, attended last week by three dozen jurists and criminologists-from-20 nations.
According to Yoram-Dinstein of Tel Aviv University, “the terrorist has taken the place of the pirate as enemy of the human race.” Dinstein, 43, said there were three types of terrorists: those who act in defiance of local governments, those who are actively supported by the governments from whose territory they operate, and those who are passively supported by the host government.
In the first case, Dinstein said, a stiff extradition treaty is needed. In the second case, terrorism can be considered as an act of war committed by the government supporting it. In the third case, the country victimized by terrorism is entitled to take action directly against terrorist bases, even when they are on foreign territory. This, he said, was the justification for Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory.
Gazal Sarawat, 48, formerly a professor at Cairo University and now an attache at the Egyptian Embassy in Rome, said “The resistance of a population against outside occupation is not an act of terrorism, but rather an act of war recognized by the Geneva Convention.” Sarawat conceded that terrorist actions disturb the international community, above all when innocent victims are involved, but said at the same time that the international community must bear part of the blame for what is happening in the Middle East.
At this point, Sarawat looked directly at Dinstein and said: “Professor Dinstein has spoken of the conflict in the Middle East. Now, if Palestinians are such atrocious terrorists, if their resistance cannot be considered as a war of liberation, one could ask where is the conflict, where is the war?” Sarawat added: “Instead of trying to draw up a technical definition of terrorism, it would be more worthwhile to solve the problem of the Middle East and to recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
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