The Criteria of Just War and the Economics of Some Responses to Poverty

Introduction

The dawn by Elie Wiesel is a novel set in British occupied Palestine after the Second World War. Elisha, the main character is tasked with the mandate to kill; kill a captive of war. The captive of war is an Englishman, John Dawson in retaliation for the death of a Palestinian captive of war, David Ben Moshe. Elisha, a Buchenwald war survivor is only eighteen years old and fighting alongside a Palestinian rebel group that is fighting the British reign in the Palestinian soil. Elisha, under the training and command of Gad, has until dawn to kill John Dawson (Wiesel and Frenaye, 2011). It's now in the evening and Elisha is very thoughtful about the assigned task. Elisha had fought fiercely several battles and conducted armed ambushes against the Britons but he never knew the man was tasked to kill. Gad encourages Elisha to set aside his thoughts about killing the man who never offended him directly. Gad convinces Elisha that its war, war has no mercy, do the enemy what he does you if you never got the chance to act beforehand.

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The context, dawn can be analyzed with the just war theory. The British took the war to the Palestinians on a just war scenario. The just war situation is a basis by which seek to justify their action to take the war to another nation. The latter is an orchestrated justification that a nation is right to start over a war on another nation. Just war theory has been used in many scenarios where some militarily powerful nations make unjustifiable claims against the other wage war on another, poorer and less powerful nation (Brooks, 2013). The British, being economically and militarily stronger than Palestine, waged war on them on a just war theory. The Palestinians had to respond to the British war which claimed many lives of the Palestinians. In retaliation of David Ben Moshe's execution, the Palestinian rebel force has to kill John Dawson in their war retaliation strategy, every Palestinian death must be equated to another Briton's death (Wiesel and Frenaye, 2011).

The just war theory categories include the Jus Ad Bellum and the Jus In Bello (Brooks, 2013). The Jus Ad Bellum includes the just authority rhetoric that involves political might and the rule of a political system to agree to use its control over the people to call the war on another nation. The political class in power allows the distinctions of justice and therefore the regime may see it just to wage a war (Brooks, 2013). Besides, the just because is another just war strategy in which discussion is held to conclude into a reason of having a war. The League of Nations established Israel nation which Britain was to oversee. The oversight, however, turned to be a just cause of war against Palestinians, the historical brother to the tribe of Israel. Just war theory is can be seen in the cases of the last resort of a disagreement.

The Jus In Bello defines the conditions of a justifiable conduct of war (Brooks, 2013). The latter includes force used in war proportionality. The Britons never used this measure against the weak Palestinians. Additionally, the discrimination strategy should be used in wars where the noncombatants are spared in all cases (Brooks, 2013). The Briton's were not mindful of war morale. Moreover, it's not the responsibility of any country for the consequences of war and therefore the British no responsibility for the damages and deaths in their unmatched war against the Palestinians (Brooks, 2013). Elisha fought the British forces in the Irgun movement in the 1940's because he cognitively understood that the British used the just war strategy to enter and occupied Palestine and it, therefore, called a forceful eviction regardless of the consequences.

The fierce battle between the British and the Irgun terrorist movement prepared Elisha to make hard military decisions like killing any member of the enemy group even if he never hurt him directly. Elisha is told that John Dawson should be executed because the British were also planning the execution of a Palestinian prisoner of war (Wiesel and Frenaye, 2011). For the sake of retaliation, Elisha shot dead john Dawson just an hour before dawn though it took him a lot of courage to do so. The just war strategy established British as both hegemonic and economic imperialist in the Palestinian territory. The Palestinians were then poor, in the economic shadow, exploited by the British and had no other option but to reclaim what was once theirs and taken away.

The just war theory is identified with economically mighty nations with the ability to fund the war against a poorer nation. The economically weakened Palestinians wanted to topple over the economic imperialism of Britain that had deteriorated their nations dream and left with no hope to depend on themselves (Wiesel and Frenaye, 2011). The nation remained a beggar to the Englishman and hence making them a weak force against the whites strong and well-paid army. Many were angry with the Britons economic imperialism while they remained beggars in their own republic. The situation made many lose the humanity part of them and could kill any Briton given the chance to do it for the injustices committed against the local Palestinian population. Elisha had seen all these injustices by Britain's and now he has the chance to revenge against one of their own, unarmed.

Based on the reality about just war criteria and the earthliness of humankind, Elisha did the right thing to execute John Dawson. The politically and militarily powerful take the upper hand advantage and wage war on the weaker nations for no absolute reasons. The economically strong exploit the poor republics and promise them grants for favors that are exploiters in nature. The economic imperialism makes the poor nation poorer. The latter therefore calls for a vengeful strategy to claim the political and economic freedom from a ruler that uses a just war strategy against the other nations. It's therefore justifiable for Elisha to shoot dead john Dawson without much thinking about it. Arguably, the British would not pity an innocent Palestinian soldier as he, Elisha pitied John Dawson, the British army war captive.

Elisha should understand the aspect of justice in war. The latter means avoiding committing the crimes of warlike shooting the unarmed soldiers who have surrendered, avoiding armed confrontations with the local population among other crimes of war committed by forces against the citizens of a nation. However, the ills committed by the British reign in the Palestinian soil deserves not a glimpse of mercy on anyone who was on a failed mission to continue the torture of the Palestinians in their republic. It's arguably not unjust to kill the captured British soldier John Dawson unless the British were ready to surrender and give Palestine her independence immediately, lest, the war was on. There was no negotiated economic freedom to ease the poverty of the Palestinians and therefore the military action was viable to solve the latter by fighting for independence (Wiesel and Frenaye, 2011). The shooting of John Dawson by Elisha was purely orchestrated by the imagination of the negative impact the British rule had brought to the land of Palestine. Poverty was the main impact form the economic imperialism of the colonist. Arguably our decisions should not influence our economic status like Elisha except when it justifiably calls for the action.

References

Brooks, T. (2013). Just war theory.

Wiesel, E., & Frenaye, F. (2011). Dawn. Brantford, Ont: W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library.