Israel’s threat: international assessment: Can Israel Chamenei kill?

Israel’s Minister of Defense Israel Katz has threatened Iran’s political and religious leader Ajatollah Ali Chamenei: “A dictator like Chameni, who is at the top of a state like Iran, and has been committed to the destruction of Israel, this terrible goal of the destruction of Israel cannot exist.” Would Israel attack be a case for international dishes on Chameni? Questions and answers:

Can Israel Chamenei kill with regard to the principles of international law?

There are different levels of evaluation. “Purely according to the rules of humanitarian international law, i.e. for intergovernmental conflicts, the answer would be,” says Alexander Wentker, researcher at the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Foreign Public Law and International Law. According to humanitarian international law, it is allowed to attack military goals. Since Chamenei is the commander -in -chief of the armed forces, according to the Federal Foreign Office, he is also a military goal. So he may be attacked at any time in the armed conflict.

Which further level comes into play for an assessment?

“This is the ban on violence in the UN Charter and in international habits,” says Wentker, an expert in peace security and conflict law. Here is the question: Can Israel even apply violence against Iran? If there is no authorization of the UN Security Council, violence against other countries may only be used in self-defense, explains the expert. This requires an armed attack. Here, however, there were no evidence that Iran Israel wanted to attack immediately last week.

When is the killing of heads of state allowed?

This can be explained using the example of Russia and Ukraine. The prerequisite is that two countries are in an armed conflict and the head of state also has the command of the army. “Ukraine is likely to legitimate Russia’s President Vladimir Putin under humanitarian international law,” says Wentker. Ukraine, as a attacked state, can rely on its self -defense right.

Isn’t there the right to life in international law? Can the killing of a head of state really be legitimate?

“Yes, there is also a human right to life in the war,” confirms expert Wentker, who also researches at the University of Potsdam. The relevant regulation Schützen from arbitrary killings here. According to the International Court of Justice, however, a killing is not arbitrary if it is in accordance with humanitarian international law. “So the right to life would not be hurt here,” sums up the lawyer.

According to international law, civilians must not be a goals in armed conflicts. What if many civilians die in the event of Israel’s attack?

Then the principle of proportionality applies, explains Wentker. This must be weighed in individual cases. There are no fixed numbers or clear lines of how many dead would be acceptable. In addition, Israel must take preventive measures to protect the civilian population under humanitarian international law.

Israel threatens a trial before the International Court of Justice – if Chameni is killed and it cannot rely on self -defense?

“Probably no,” replies Wentker. In 1985 Israel withdrew his submission declaration under the jurisdiction of this Court of Justice. It is therefore difficult to determine his responsibility for violations of the ban on violence, says Wentker.