The general rule of foreign diplomacy holds that one doesn’t say the quiet part out loud. No matter what was talked about at home, ambassadors and other diplomats are typically very careful not to say anything that their home head of state hasn’t approved. Israel’s ambassador to Austria, David Roet, broke that rule in a big way during a closed-door meeting with the local Jewish community in Innsbruck on Thursday. An activist at the meeting recorded the video and it’s just now making its way to the press. Most major outlets still don’t have the story.
Hold on to your coffee, but Roet did not seem to hesitate when he suggested executing Palestinian minors involved in armed conflict. Roet said that “there should be a death sentence” for teenagers for “holding a gun” or a “grenade”.
This immediately prompts the question, “Have there been teenagers involved in direct conflict?”
No. There is no evidence that Palestinian teens or any other minors have been used by Hamas to inflict damage on Israel or Israeli troops in Gaza. None. Zero.
Not that Israel seems to have any difficulty killing children. After breaking the ceasefire last week, Israel killed roughly 500 Palestinians, 200 of which were children. In fact, children are among the majority of the 50,000 Palestinians who have been killed in the war to this point. According to Unicef, more than 14,500 children have been killed by Israel in Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October 2023.
Does it get worse? Yes, it gets worse.
Roet dismissed concerns over civilian casualties in Gaza, stating: “If you believe that there are no uninvolved [people] in Gaza… you’re believing that Israel is targeting babies intentionally, which is not correct.”
See, Israel is making their targets broad enough that they can kill babies without saying that it was intentional. Is this a war crime? Yes, it most definitely is.
Roet also warned that Europe should stay the hell out of Gaza in any rebuilding effort. “Will Europe be crazy enough to invest money again in Gaza? So we will have to destroy it the next time,” he remarked.
Former Consul Wiehl-Volgger replied, “I will play golf in Gaza whether you like it or not”
Portions of the video have been posted to X, but there still has been no official response from either the Austrian or Israeli governments. One can imagine that both countries are likely hoping that if they ignore the issue it will go away. For Israel’s part, Israeli forces were expanding their offensive in Gaza on Sunday, taking control of more territory and issuing new evacuation orders for residents who had only recently returned to their homes.
On Saturday, Jordan suggested that they would be willing to take 300 Hamas members from Gaza if that would help end the war. Jordan has increasingly been a target of Israeli missiles. No mention was made of resettling non-Hamas Palestinians, however.
Just to be clear, no matter how intense or justified a war might be, and they’re rarely justified at all, there is no excuse for intentionally killing children, including teenagers. Doing so has long been considered a war crime.
Perhaps the time has come to start taking war crimes more seriously. All of them.
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