By Mary Ellen O’Connell
Assassination is a particular form of murder. Regardless of who carries out the act, on whose orders or why, it is always unlawful.
This is the reason Vadim Krasikov was languishing behind bars in Germany prior to being released on Aug. 1, 2024, as part of a historic prisoner exchange.
Krasikov was serving a life sentence for killing exiled Chechen separatist Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a Berlin park in 2019.
The German court that sentenced him found that he was carrying out the Kremlin’s orders; his victim had fought Russian forces in the Chechen wars and was suspected of terrorist attacks in Moscow. But neither of these factors provide legal justification for the killing.
The same is true in the case of Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas political leader. He was killed on July 31, 2024, while in Tehran at the invitation of the Iranian government. The Israeli government, which is widely believed to be behind the killing, has repeatedly expressed a willingness to hunt down Hamas leadership around the world following the group’s deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel has carried out many such assassinations in Iran, Lebanon and elsewhere over the years.
Despite these and other international cases, the term “assassination” is not defined under international law. Legal scholars like me rely on standard dictionary definitions where assassination is defined as “murder by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons.” But treaties and other international law do make clear that killing for political reasons by sudden or secret attack is unlawful.
The most important treaty on this question is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – adopted in 1966 by the United Nations and binding today on 174 states, including Russia, Israel and the United States. The covenant affirms: “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”
Treacherous acts
This does not mean that deliberate killing can never be justified. International law contains rules that determine when it is permissible to use deadly force.
In peacetime, it is lawful for police to use lethal force to save lives in immediate danger. Officers killed the man who shot at Donald Trump, for example, to prevent the gunman from shooting again, as lives were in immediate danger.
The use of military force against another state is regulated under the United Nations Charter. The Charter prohibits all uses of force, unless authorized by the U.N. Security Council or in a case of self-defense. The charter allows a state to use force in individual or collective self-defense “if an armed attack occurs” until the Security Council can act.
The U.N.’s International Court of Justice has further clarified that even when a state has the right of self-defense, military action in response must be necessary, proportionate and aimed at a sovereign state responsible for the initial armed attack. The court has repeated these principles in multiple decisions, most comprehensively in a case brought by Iran following lethal U.S. attacks on its oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
Once an armed conflict has begun, parties to the fighting have the right to use lethal force to defeat the adversary. International humanitarian law permits intentional killing of enemy fighters within legally defined armed conflict hostilities. Even then, no one may be singled out for killing based on what they did in the past. And civilians not participating in the fighting may never be intentionally targeted.
Recent international decisions support the importance of the concept of restricting the killing of fighters to within active zones of hostilities. Outside such areas, the peacetime human right to life applies. The European Court of Human Rights has emphasized this point in a series of rulings, most recently in early 2021.
These decisions contradict an older view held by some in the U.S. military that political or military leaders of a wartime adversary may be killed wherever they are found.
As a political leader of a party at war with Israel in Gaza, Haniyeh might fit this older interpretation. However, it still would not extend to killing “treacherously or perfidiously,” as laid out in the binding regulations annexed to Hague Convention IV of 1907. To kill treacherously or perfidiously means to kill someone who has no expectation of being in danger of death. For example, a soldier who falsely raises a white flag of surrender to lure an enemy in close enough to kill them would be guilty of killing treacherously.
Haniyeh had such an expectation of safety in Tehran, and as such his killing can be seen as treacherous.
A double standard
All principles on the use of lethal force under international law rule out assassination. And yet, countries including Israel, Russia and the U.S. persist in using it. A few others – France, India, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom – have used it in a few infamous, high-profile cases.
Israel has acknowledged responsibility for assassinations dating to even before its founding.
The U.S. has joined the rest of the world in criticizing these killings. In 1988, for example, Israel assassinated a PLO leader named Khalil al-Wazir in Tunisia. The U.N. Security Council condemned the operation in a resolution that the U.S. refused to veto.
To try to mollify critics, Israel began referring in 2000 to its practice of assassination as “targeted killings.”
The term makes it sound more like the legitimate killing in wartime. In 2001, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk rejected Israel’s attempt to legitimize assassination when he said on Israeli television: “The United States government is very clearly on the record as against targeted assassinations. They are extrajudicial killings, and we do not support that.”
Then the Sept. 11 attacks occurred and the U.S. itself adopted the practice of targeted killing. The first known case was carried out by the CIA against six suspected members of al-Qaida in Yemen in November 2002. The killings were condemned as unlawful by a U.N. human rights expert soon after.
Yet, U.S. killings with drones and other means have continued to this day. All the while, the U.S. has consistently condemned Russian assassinations. What many international law experts, including me, see is a U.S. double standard when it comes to the use of lethal force, including its use in assassination.
While efforts may have been made to mount a defense of assassinations such as that of Hamas’ Haniyeh, there is a simple truth: Lethal force is highly restricted, and assassination is never legal.
Mary Ellen O’Connell is Professor of Law and International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
The Conversation arose out of deep-seated concerns for the fading quality of our public discourse and recognition of the vital role that academic experts could play in the public arena. Information has always been essential to democracy. It’s a societal good, like clean water. But many now find it difficult to put their trust in the media and experts who have spent years researching a topic. Instead, they listen to those who have the loudest voices. Those uninformed views are amplified by social media networks that reward those who spark outrage instead of insight or thoughtful discussion. The Conversation seeks to be part of the solution to this problem, to raise up the voices of true experts and to make their knowledge available to everyone. The Conversation publishes nightly at 9 p.m. on FlaglerLive.
Pogo says
@Mary Ellen O’Connell
DaleL says
To quote the story: “The Israeli government, which is widely believed to be behind the killing, has repeatedly expressed a willingness to hunt down Hamas leadership around the world following the group’s deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023.”
So why would Ismail Haniyeh have an expectation of safety in Tehran? The leadership of the terrorist organization Hamas are legitimate targets of war no matter where they are located.
It is the callous disregard for the safety of civilians in Gaza which is criminal. It is also the failure of the Israeli government to curtail West Bank Israeli settler violence and vigilante “justice” which is criminal. The killing of an enemy combatant, a planner and participant in the October 7th atrocity, is not criminal.
Hank says
It is the callous disregard for useful idiots not to be calling out and holding accountable IRAN for funding the Hamas and others to attack Israel. The same Iran who does not care about the innocent Palestinians who die, in fact that is what they want to happen so it makes a headline and the useful idiots scream about Israel. Stop the killing of innocent Palestinians at it’s source, not half way down the food chain. If you don’t it never stops.
Kennan says
There is a lot to unpack, but it is basic and logical. First of all Hamas was originally funded by Benjamin Netanyahu. Using Qatari money to quell an imaginary Palestinian uprising. Having Hamas as a governmental entity, he felt controlled Palestinians while also making it, in his mind: Less Egregious having blockades, calorie, restricted diets, and of course, those lovely airstrikes Israel simply calls” Mowing the lawn”.
Nobody condone terrorism, so the act of terrorism is horrible, but groups like Hamas and Hezballah before it as well as As others were born out of a need to fight back against Israel’s military occupation and subjugation of Palestinians for decades upon decades.
The general public is being fed steady diet of Conflationary Propaganda. Israel is desperate to equate Hamas with Palestinians to justify the targeting of hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and humanitarian aid among many others while moving Gozans around to create the” Illusion of Fairplay” While killing everyone somewhere else.
Hamas or not, Ishmael Haniyeh Was a chief NEGOTIATOR For a cease fire deal with Israel. A cease-fire that was accepted by the U.S., But rejected at the last minute by Israel, multiple times while trying to start a regional war in the Middle East by assassinating Haniyeh, Bombing a consulate in Syria To kill an Iranian leader, And then bombing an airport in Yemen because of their blockade of goods to Israel because of what was happening in Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu continues to set an already unstable Middle East on fire to avoid sanctions and jail for the “ War crimes” He has committed in Gaza. He is systematically, although stupidly trying to take everyone’s eyes off the ball. Hard if not impossible to do when you have administered the most well documented genocide in the history of mankind.
At this obvious point of the genocide, it’s ludicrous for the Biden administration to ask for a cease-fire. The damage is done. Gazza is gone! Every hospital, school, and 80% of Gaza is unlivable. The optics of the U.S. Government living on” Another planet” In terms of what the entire world has witnessed for almost a year is criminal.
Remember, this is not a war! Stop treating it like one! Terrorism is a tactic fought with military technology and intelligence overtime. You don’t collectively punish everyone by targeting hospitals, schools, let no food come in, shut down news organizations like Al Jazeera because they are reporting the news. News that contradicts Israeli talking points. Let’s not forget all the press core members killed. Over 100 at this point.
We have managed to support Israel and it’s an apartheid state for 76 years and its military occupation of Gaza since 1967. Israel has the audacity to ride the.” Holocaust wave” to Virtue signal their way for support knowing they administered a” Slow Holocaust” Of Arabs starting in 1948, off the tail end of a holocaust they endured in World War II.
Let me make it very clear that these are just facts. There is a very decided difference between Jews, is Israelis, and of course, Zionists. A factual and nuanced understanding of said facts needs to be understood before throwing antisemite at everyone to stop needed conversation.
In closing, one of the most obvious facts throughout all of this is the fact that the United States could’ve ended this along time ago. We give Israel $4 billion a year just for being Israel. An additional 40 billion or more for weapons since this thing began. 20 billion just a week ago while crying “ Crocodile tears” And calling for a cease-fire?
Yes the U.S. wants peace in the Middle East and to stop creating terror cells born from seven decades of subjugation by Israel, then it needs to lay down severe sanctions and cut off all money to Israel. They have become the modern day Nazis that we as a country need to disassociate with. let them keep Israel proper. return Gazza to Palestine and organize a collective effort internationally to rebuild. You will then bolster trust with the international community, you will stop the momentum that is making us a pariah state all over the world and develop a stronger relationship in the Middle East that could restore overall balance and make the world much safer.
We created this problem in 1948. It has jumped to its fiery crest in 2024 and we can no longer look away.
DaleL says
I agree that Hamas and Netanyahu are opposite sides of the same coin.
For example from NPR: “In 1996, Israel faced a critical election for prime minister. The conservative candidate, Benjamin Netanyahu, was the underdog. The heavy favorite for prime minister was Shimon Peres, the dovish incumbent and the leading advocate for a peace agreement with the Palestinians. As the election approached, Hamas suicide bombers carried out several deadly attacks, killing more than 50 Israelis. Professor Nathan Brown, a Middle East expert at George Washington University, said this had a powerful impact on Israeli voters. “Suddenly Netanyahu’s message, which was, ‘we can’t trust the peace process,’ started making an awful lot more sense,” said Brown. Those Hamas attacks boosted Netanyahu at the polls. “In a very narrow victory, he was elected prime minister. So there was kind of a symbiotic relationship between them,” Brown added.”
Pogo says
@Lost: bloody gold lamé keffiyeh
Return to owner
https://www.google.com/search?q=palestine+leader+net+worth
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=war+definition
Kennan says
Let me address a couple of things.
First of all. Pogo. Pogo. Pogo. Please.!! really? Let me explain to you how this works. Nobody is so ignorant as to think that war has no collateral impact,but when you turn water off. Turn electricity off, target hospitals, so called “safe zones”, blow up schools, universities and close down news offices like Al Jazeerah because no news is good news for Israel.
Hamas, a political entity put in charge in Gaza to initiate the oldest tactic in occupation known to man. DIVIDE AND CONQUER. Israel can now conveniently say that they must target Hamas to have any chance at two state solution, which they don’t want. Netanyahu has stated this time and time again, presented a map of what Gaza would look like after the “so called war “ was over.
The U.S. wants a two state solution. Blinken and the hypocrite at the state department spend the last 10 months telling Israel a cease fire deal is imperative. Israel says “Fuck You” and the U.S. forgets they are in charge, forgets we are providing weapons that they use to kill everyone. The U.S. continues to pretend to condemn what is happening, and the killing continues. Israel kills civilians not knowing we’re vast majority of Hamas members are, which in turn gives them the ability, knowing Hamas is spread out to kill a couple terrorists while wiping out hundreds of civilians. Great tactic if you want all of Gaza for yourself and you have U.S. officials handling the international outrage, crying “CEASEFIRE “ while simultaneously voting against it at the UN. Makes absolutely no sense!
When Netanyahu blew up a guest house in Iran to kill Hamas negotiator Heniyah, he wasn’t killing a Hamas leader. He was killing negotiations, telling the world he wasn’t interested in negotiating. Attacking a sovereign that may now become more involved in a regional conflict started by Israel and eventually get thousands of American boys and girls killed for nothing. Why? Because America is too weak to say no to Israel.
This isn’t difficult. 1+1 doesn’t equal 5. The Arab HOLOCAUST being thrust on Gaza in many ways is as bad or worse than the Jewish one, by virtue that this one is being done and documented in front of the whole world. The U.S. is telling everyone that one group of people is worth more than anyone else.Especially Arabs. Not a good look.
Don’t make broad based, broad brushstrokes and use very basic dictionary meanings that could never contextually explain what a war is, especially when you put one of the strongest military’s in the world against a militant group. You can now blow needles in a haystack, use very little intelligence and get rid of those pesky Palestinians.
Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight Pogo.
NICE TRY.😊
Pierre Tristam says
I wish, Kennan, that you would get in touch with me. I tried your email address, but it’s not valid. Please contact me at [email protected].
DaleL says
It would seem that posting with an invalid email address should be unacceptable. The comments are essentially anonymous because we get to choose our own “name” and our email address is not published.
“Kennan” commented: “The Arab HOLOCAUST being thrust on Gaza in many ways is as bad or worse than the Jewish one,…”
That is complete BS. As bad and unacceptable as what is happening in Gaza and the vigilante “justice” on the West Bank, it is NOT a holocaust. It does not compare to the Armenian genocide and Jewish genocide. In WWI a million Armenians were systematically murdered in Turkey. Their identity was erased. In WWII over 6 million Jews were systematically murdered in Nazi controlled Europe.
Why is the Muslim world so weak as to tolerate Hamas? Why do Gaza Palestinians protect and support Hamas? An organization that in 2007 executed or expelled officials of Fatah. The main demand by Israel is that the October 7th hostages be released. How is that unreasonable?
Pogo says
@DaleL
Well said, as always.
Some comments remind one that lies and stupidity may be as pernicious as tetanus and rabies.
Man is the only animal that blushes–or needs to.
— Mark Twain
Kennan says
Not to be long-winded or anything, but our support of shooting fish in a barrel flies in the face of who we say we are as a country.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Maybe we need to fall as an empire, so we can rise as a nation so that our values as a country can mirror are implied ones.
Kennan says
I guess I let my dyslexia get the best of me when I put my first name first before my last name on my email. My apologies, ladies and gentlemen. Honest mistake.
However; I will not walk back my statements in regards to the holocaust. I am very well aware of how many people died in the World War II holocaust. It was horrific. 6 million Jews. The Armenian holocaust also horrific. I have referred in previous posts to this Arab Holocaust being the worst of the 21st Century, and if any of you were listening, the reason, I referred to this situation being as bad as the Jewish holocaust, certainly potentially so. It is because it is being done in the open. Not in the shadows as the one previous. We have modern documentation, cameras, everywhere, the IDF gleefully does TikTok videos of who they just killed and mocks them. The Israeli Government does this now. This is simply a pinnacle point of a subjugation that started in 1948, which intern was a slow holocaust and displacement of Arabs that has gone on for the better part of 76 years with the world watching. The number of Jews killed in World War II was unprecedented, and should always be remembered, but I’m quite certain that Jews that suffered in the holocaust would look at this with shame, knowing that they endured something that they Began to thrust upon Palestinians in 48 and continue till now. Let me once again reiterate we are not talking about numbers here. We are talking about how this holocaust, and yes, it is a.HOLOCAUST Has been engaged in numbers, but in terms of the shameless presentation in front of the whole world with the acceptance and support of the U.S.
We haven’t learned a thing have we? Nobody is gonna lecture me, or virtue signal their way into downplay this situation. If you want to simplify it by calling it a Numbers game, be my guest. When this thing is over all The Israel apologists Will be on the wrong side of history. I have many Jewish friends, honestly more than I can count. Zionist are different. Israel is different. My aim is to educate and certainly not to offend, so if I did, I’m sorry, but I will not walk back anything that I have said in any of my posts, I have the ghost of my father. A Middle East expert, my own experiences in the Middle East And Facts lighting my way.
Kennan says
Let’s be thoughtful. We all know the holocaust of World War II cost millions of lives, but please in a modern society with all the technology and eyes Watching us all we have to also recognize the slow torture of 76 years of subjugation, killing, occupation, and finally the get out of jail free card that has been modern Israel for the last 57 years. We do what we want with the complete support of the United States of America. Just think about it. Hell of a lot of dead people in the last 76 years. I doubt we know how many.