Let me start by saying this: Israel’s target is international law, which has developed over long centuries, and its most important part, the laws of war.
The Israeli army killed Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in the West Bank, a place that is not a battlefield, in an area designated for civilians where she came to silently protest, after the demonstrations had ended. This was the second incident of the Israeli army; in 2003, Rachel Corrie was killed after being crushed by a bulldozer driven by a soldier.
The Corrie murder was not punished by the Israeli judiciary. I do not expect a different outcome for the Eygi murder. Despite both victims being its citizens, the United States did not react as expected to these events.
The other evening, a more serious incident occurred in terms of the laws of war. In Lebanon, numerous pagers were detonated simultaneously, killing 12 people and injuring more than three thousand. Most of the dead and injured were civilians who happened to be near the remotely detonated pagers.
In one of the videos obtained by the news agencies, the moment when the pager was detonated in a marketplace can be seen. The screams of women shopping with their children at the time can be heard.
What was the reason?
Israel was supposedly punishing the Hezbollah organization, which fired harassing shots from Lebanon’s northern regions to distract its army during the mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza. The Hezbollah leadership, concerned about the potential for cell phones to be used for intelligence purposes, had instructed its militants to use pagers instead of ‘smart’ cell phones.
Pagers used to facilitate communication before cell phones became smart and then were completely phased out. It’s surprising that there is even infrastructure in Lebanon to allow their use. Those who followed the instructions started using devices purchased from Taiwan.
The domestic and international media I followed as soon as I heard the explosions are focusing on the question, “How did this happen?” because it was a first and somewhat surprising. The simultaneous explosion could only have occurred in a small device by sending a signal to a small amount of unnoticed explosive placed during manufacturing or before sale. There doesn’t seem to be anything else to wonder about in this incident.
Yet there is: the method used deserves more attention. With this method, Israel is adding a new dimension to its efforts to render international law and the laws of war inoperative, efforts which began with the Corrie-Eygi murders, and to its attempts to establish impunity through its attacks in Gaza that can only be described as genocide.
Israel is expanding the concept of ‘war’, which was once confined to specific areas and formed within those limits, to include whomever it wishes (Corrie/Eygi), and the people and region it deems as enemies (Palestinians/Gaza), setting the boundary as ‘everyone’. Now, no one, no matter which country they live in, can feel safe.
In fact, when those who were disturbed by the incident started to ask, “Are pagers still in use here? Could we face a similar event if they are being used?” the relevant minister made a statement saying, “I can definitively say that there is no risk specific to pagers in Turkey.”
What about cell phones?
The technology that detonated the pager is more than sufficient to turn the phone in our pocket into a weapon. Until now, cell phones in the world were only a source of discomfort in certain circles due to their vulnerability to cyber interference. In environments where private conversations took place, cell phones were either left outside or the batteries were removed. But now, we use devices where the battery cannot be removed.
So?
An entity (organization/state) that sees us, or rather everyone, as an enemy could use the cell phone we carry on or around us 24/7 as a weapon. In order to eliminate their targets, they might not hesitate to kill others nearby, just like in Lebanon.
This same entity could drive the people and states they instill this fear into to make mistakes they would otherwise never make under normal circumstances. The rules of ‘international law’ and ‘the laws of war’ were established to prevent humanity—and the states that could become a scourge to the world—from resorting to such methods and to punish them if they do.
Israel aims to disrupt this order as well.
ΩΩΩΩ
[The translation of the article is by ChatGPT.]
