Topic: 2024-Private Military Contractors
Country: Israel
Delegate Name: Sam Ostrow
Firstly, Israel proposes expanding discussions to private security companies and contractors along with private military contractors (PMCs), and suggests referring to them using an all-encompassing term of Private Military Security Contractors (PMSCs). We believe that the best way to address the issues that face PMSCs is to work through the problems holistically as security and military are extremely intertwined.
On the seventh of October, 2023, Israel was attacked by the terrorist organization Hamas whose mission was to slaughter Jews without regard for the sanctity of human life. In acts of execution, rape, human cruelty, and pure evil, the lives of 1,200 of our brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers were taken in the most horrible manner, and hundreds were taken hostage. In a post October 7th world, Israel wishes to express its ironclad support of legal actions by PMSCs and its opposition to criticisms of the legal usage of private security companies. We hold this viewpoint as a key aspect of our security apparatus is PMSCs working at important checkpoints and other critical positions to protect Israeli and Jewish society. The importance of this role has skyrocketed in the past year as threats and attacks against Israel and the Jewish people have reached new heights. Protecting our nation and peoplehood has new levels of difficulty and we will not abandon the people that work to protect us. As a nation utilizing PMSCs as a means to protect, we wish to reaffirm our position of safety and well-being for our citizens. In doing so we hope to seek a proposal that meets our criteria of protecting Israeli society while addressing issues regarding PMSCs.
For, while we oppose the criticism of legal usage, we look forward to cooperation and diplomatic discussion regarding the immoral use of PMSCs in today’s global landscape. We wish to address some of the key examples of immoral usage, with a focus on usage in the Middle East. We are not foreign to the wrongdoing of PMSCs. There is no doubt that the utilization of PMSCs in the Middle East has at times proved harmful to Israeli security. Some PMSCs located around the Middle East have at times aided in the attacking of Israel, through their security of others who seek to harm Israel or their own combative actions. From our experience, we recommend to the Disarmament and International Security Committee of the United Nations the adoption of guardrails for PMSCs. We propose the writing of a code of conduct and regulations that will be established by this committee in order to prevent acts of terrorism, and other violations of international law due to PMSCs actions on behalf of clients. If the regulations or code of conduct is broken by a private contractor while they were acting on behalf of a state party, that state will be subject to both economic and diplomatic consequences that will be determined by this committee during the development of the code of conduct and regulations.
