Hi everyone, long time lurker, first time posting.
A couple days ago on the Napoleon subreddit, a question was asked whether Napoleon was justified in the execution of prisoners at Jaffa. One user, Brechtel198, claimed that since the prisoners had broken parole, they were subject to the death penalty.
Other users pointed out that only a few prisoners of Jaffa had broken the penalty and the rest were executed along with them. Also, Napoleon had broken the terms of capitulation of the prisoners from El-Arish prior to Jaffa, citing Etienne Louis-Malus.
I was curious what sources are available that discuss the Jaffa massacre? It's seems there is still disagreement on what happened.
We’ve covered this before here:
https://www.thenapoleonicwars.net/forum/napoleon/mass-graves-found-in-jaffa/dl-focus
If I’m deciphering you ‘nom de forum’ correctly I suspect your user will go to any length to excuse Napoleon of everything and anything.
It is worth noting though that The Hague conventions and modern ideas of war crimes are far in the future. However, there was much unwritten custom and practice. There is little evidence that Napoleon regarded parole offences as capital. He welcome numerous officers that broke their parole and escaped to rejoin him.