{"id":1502563,"date":"2024-02-16T06:58:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T06:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=313465"},"modified":"2024-02-16T06:58:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T06:58:27","slug":"if-a-mother-can-be-found-complicit-in-her-sons-murders-shouldnt-states-be-held-complicit-in-a-plausible-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/16\/if-a-mother-can-be-found-complicit-in-her-sons-murders-shouldnt-states-be-held-complicit-in-a-plausible-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"If a Mother Can be Found Complicit in Her Son\u2019s Murders, Shouldn\u2019t States Be Held Complicit in a \u201cPlausible\u201d Genocide?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
\"\"

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAm I doing the right thing?\u201d parents ask. They make millions of decisions raising children with little official guidance. But a recent court decision in Michigan gave a resounding answer to Jennifer Crumbley. The court found that she was partially responsible for her 15-year-old son Ethan\u2019s murderous rampage, determining she was guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n

The court judged the mother accountable although she did not pull the trigger on the 9mm semi-automatic pistol the son used to murder four students and wound seven other people at a local high school. As the Gazan death toll approaches 30,000, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to bomb Rafah, we question whether those countries continuing to supply weapons to Israel are like the mother on a larger scale.<\/p>\n

What had Mrs. Crumbley done or not done? The parents had bought the weapon for him. They had taken the 15-year-old boy to a firing range. The day of the school shooting the parents had been called to the school after a teacher had found a violent drawing and message on Ethan\u2019s desk. The parents ignored strong signals that their son was potentially dangerous. The involuntary manslaughter charges were based on the mother\u2019s\u00a0failure to secure the gun Ethan used.<\/p>\n

The notion of responsibility is never simple. The International Law Commission (ILC) considered Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts between 1955 and 2001. No binding conventions or treaties resulted from the proposed articles. The Commission was unable to establish obligatory arbitration between states, to agree on penalties for international crimes, or to establish any formal legal structure with which to oversee legal state responsibility.<\/p>\n

What makes the Michigan case so intriguing is the relationship between the final act by the son and the parents\u2019 actions prior to the shootings. The German jurist Hans Kelsen examined the relationship between the consequences of an act and what preceded the act by imputation. Kelsen\u2019s argument was that imputation is beyond simple cause and effect. We know the boy caused four deaths and seven injured persons. Imputation seeks to determine the responsibility for how the actor came to commit the act. In this case, the mother did not commit the murders, but she was determined to be partially responsible.<\/p>\n

Can we use the idea of indirect parental responsibility for the action of a son to states\u2019 indirect responsibility for providing weapons to Israel\u2019s committing what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) officially ruled was \u201cplausible\u201d genocide? Can we impute responsibility for the 28,000 Gazan deaths to those countries which have supplied military material to Israel? If Mrs. Crumbley was guilty of not securing the gun, what about those countries which have not controlled the use of the weapons they sold to Israel?<\/p>\n

Article III of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states that: \u201cThe following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.\u201d The Convention entered into force in 1951. As of January 2024, 153 countries have ratified the Convention, including Israel.<\/p>\n

What does complicity mean for the United States? Although the United States signed the Convention in 1948, it was only forty years later, in 1988, that the Senate finally ratified the Convention. In addition to the Senate ratification, it also passed the Proxmire Act. The Act fully committed the U.S. to implementing the Convention.<\/p>\n

Three Canadian scholars wrote in The Conversation<\/em> the implications for Canada of the recent ICJ decision and Article III section (e) of the Convention:<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>In 2022,\u00a0Canada sent more than $21 million worth of military exports to Israel<\/a>. The\u00a0Export and Import Permits Act<\/a>\u00a0forbids arms permits to be issued if there\u2019s a \u201csubstantial risk\u201d that the goods could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law. Because the ICJ found a serious risk of genocide in Gaza, continuing to export arms to Israel would be illegal. It would also be flagrantly inconsistent with Canada\u2019s obligation to prevent genocide and could expose Canada and Canadian officials to liability for participation in genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Does the Canadian experience relate to the United States? How has the U.S. implemented the Convention? \u201cThe United States has briefed Israel on a new U.S. national security memorandum that reminds countries receiving U.S. weapons to stick to international law, the White House said,\u201d Steve Holland reported for Reuters<\/em> on February 10. Briefed? Reminded? Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to Israel. By continuing to give military aid with full knowledge of Israel\u2019s behavior, isn\u2019t the United States complicit in a \u201cplausible\u201d genocide? The United States certainly cannot plead ignorance as Ethan\u2019s mother did. Israel\u2019s blatant attacks have gone on for four months.<\/p>\n

As political science Professor Zachary Karazsia wrote in 2019; \u201cit is clear that the international community has overwhelmingly failed to uphold the Genocide Convention’s prevention mandate\u201d as opposed to \u201cpunishing perpetrators posthaste (e.g., the 1940s Nuremburg and Tokyo trials; the 1990s tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; and the International Criminal Court).\u201d<\/p>\n

If Jennifer Crumbley was guilty of involuntary manslaughter, can the actions of states be considered involuntary genocide? Is not the mother\u2019s not securing the gun like the obligation of Signatories to the Genocide Convention have to not only not commit genocide, but also to not be complicit in genocide?<\/p>\n

It is unusual for a mother to be judged legally responsible for the actions of her child. It is even rarer for a state to be judged responsible for not preventing genocide. Since the court found Mrs. Crumbley guilty of not securing the gun her son used, is there hope for the military suppliers to Israel to face consequences for not securing the use of their significant delivery of weapons?<\/p>\n

There is some hope. \u201cNicaragua has warned Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada that it will take the countries to the International Court of Justice over allegations that weapons they are providing Israel are being used in a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,\u201d Middle East Eye<\/em> reported. Also, a Dutch appeal court recently ruled that the government must halt all sales of F-35 jet parts to Israel. \u201cIt is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,\u201d Judge Bas Boele said of the decision.<\/p>\n

States, like people, should be held responsible. Preventing genocide is just as important as punishing genocide. Just ask the 28,000 Gazans and counting.<\/p>\n

The post If a Mother Can be Found Complicit in Her Son\u2019s Murders, Shouldn\u2019t States Be Held Complicit in a \u201cPlausible\u201d Genocide?\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can we use the idea of indirect parental responsibility for the action of a son to states\u2019 indirect responsibility for providing weapons to Israel\u2019s committing what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) officially ruled was \u201cplausible\u201d genocide? Can we impute responsibility for the 28,000 Gazan deaths to those countries which have supplied military material to Israel? If Mrs. Crumbley was guilty of not securing the gun, what about those countries which have not controlled the use of the weapons they sold to Israel? More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post If a Mother Can be Found Complicit in Her Son\u2019s Murders, Shouldn\u2019t States Be Held Complicit in a \u201cPlausible\u201d Genocide?\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1380,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,266],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1502564,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502563\/revisions\/1502564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}