Yves here. As your humble blogger has indicated, even if it now seems like a losing cause, it is still important to oppose the slaughter in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in any way possible. The Biden Administration is clearly squirming and trying to have it both ways, bleating about how it keeps voicing disapproval to Israel’s leadership while not meaningfully limiting the arms flow. Even the claim that the Administration was halting weapons shipments unless Israel did not attack Rafah was a headfake; the weapons at issue were super heavy bombs, and it appears all the US did was scold rather than withhold.
#US President @JoeBiden threatened but never stopped supply of only two types of bombs. US supplied #Israel with 350 arms shipments & continues to be full partner in genocide against Palestinians.https://t.co/fkid134en0
— Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 (@ejmalrai) May 13, 2024
Having said that, global opposition may nevertheless have had an impact on the Rafah operation. Although Israel’s aims were not entirely clear, early stories suggested they intended to invade Egypt to secure the so-called Philadelphia Corridor and then herd Gazans through that into Egypt. Egypt said that would be an act of war (begging Stalin’s famed question of the Pope: How many division do they possess?). However, despite continuing attacks on Rafah, Israel may have retreated from its most ambitious plans while not admitting as much. But that is not much solace. Israel instead appears to be running its established playbook, of deking Palestinians to move from one supposedly safe area to another, while killing them in transit and at arrival. And the possible trimming of the Rafah plans may simply mean that the Biden red line that Israel reluctantly agreed to respect for not is not escalating the conflict by bringing Egypt into the fray, but continuing the present bloody course is acceptable.
By Jessica Corbett, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
The University Network for Human Rights report also stresses that other nations are legally obligated to “refrain from recognizing Israel’s breaches as legal or taking any actions that may amount to complicity.”
The University Network for Human Rights on Wednesday released and sent to United Nations offices a 105-page report that it called “the most thorough legal analysis” yet to find “Israel is committing genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The network partnered with the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School for the analysis, which draws from “a diverse range of credible sources” and the territory’s history.
“After reviewing the facts established by independent human rights monitors, journalists, and United Nations agencies, we conclude that Israel’s actions in and regarding Gaza since October 7, 2023, violate the Genocide Convention,” the report states. “Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people.”
As of May 1, Israel’s assault had killed “more than 5% of Gaza’s population, with over 2% of Gaza’s children killed or injured,” the analysis notes. In recent days, Israeli forces have ramped up their attack on Rafah—where over a million people from other parts of the besieged enclave sought refuge—and the total death toll has risen to 35,233, according to Gaza health officials, with another 79,141 Palestinians injured.
“Israel’s military operation has destroyed up to 70% of homes in Gaza, and has decimated civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, universities, U.N. facilities, and cultural and religious heritage sites,” the document says, noting the “staggering” number of forced displacements. “Civilians in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger and deprivation due to Israel’s restriction on, and failure to ensure adequate access to, basic essentials of life, including food, water, medicine, and fuel.”
The civilian toll has been extreme: more children killed in the first 4 months than in all of the world's conflicts in the past 4 years; deadliest conflict for journalists ever recorded; number of UN personnel killed “never seen in . . . history” (@antonioguterres).
— University Network for Human Rights (@unitedforrights) May 15, 2024
“Israel’s genocidal acts in Gaza have been motivated by the requisite genocidal intent, as evidenced in this report by the statements of Israeli leaders, the character of the state and its military forces’ conduct against and relating to Palestinians in Gaza, and the direct nexus between them,” the publication continues, pointing to comments from “officials at all levels of Israeli government, up to and including” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel has faced mounting allegations of genocide since launching its retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attack—including an ongoing South Africa-led case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found in January that the country is “plausibly” committing genocide.
Bolstering the ICJ’s conclusion, the Wednesday report declares that “Israel’s violations of the international legal prohibition of genocide amount to grave breaches of peremptory norms of international law that must cease immediately.”
“These violations give rise to obligations by all other states: to refrain from recognizing Israel’s breaches as legal or taking any actions that may amount to complicity in these breaches; and to take positive steps to suppress, prevent, and punish the commission by Israel of further genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” the document adds.
The United States has long provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic support—which have soared since October 7, despite growing pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden to cut off such assistance. The Democrat has incrementally increased his criticism of the Israeli assault in recent weeks, angering far-right leaders in both countries.
The new legal analysis—which was sent to the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel—came on the same day that 20 human rights groups issued a joint statement.
The rights organizations—including Amnesty International, Mercy Corps, and Oxfam—called on world leaders “to urgently act in bringing to an end, and pursue accountability for,” Israel’s grave breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Both documents were released on Nakba Day, which commemorates the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Some experts and campaigners contend that the Nakba—Arabic for catastrophe—continues today.
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No doubt one has to do these things, but will anyone such as the US Ambassador to Israel be convinced? And isn’t everyone who actually cares about the truth and knows anything about the subject already convinced?
…deking Palestinians to move from one supposedly safe area to another, while killing them in transit and at arrival.
I’m having a hard time processing not so much the evil that the U.S. and Israel as entities are committing, these corporate entities, governments, are given legal sanction to do immoral acts, and history has borne out that they do, are, and will do every greater acts of barbarism, what I am having a hard time processing is the sheer lack of interest in these acts from those physically around me, reminds of the Dylan’s line, “how many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn’t see?”
i’m having a hard time processing the complicity of the every day people who make up the cogs in the machine. every day they must get up, know that they are abetting a new holocaust (west bank is surely next, so we’ll be talking about the same scale soon), and be ok with it. many functionaries have resigned but countless more continue to play an ignoble role.
The only response I get is: “Have there been any demonstrations at your (academic institution)?” When I reply “not much to speak of,” the universal response has been “Good!” I have asked a few if they are familiar with the term Nakba. No answers in the affirmative, yet. I spell it for them, so maybe one seed will fall on fertile ground.
I’d be tempted to ask if they know what “ethnic cleansing” and “collective punishment” mean, and why they support it.
They’ll probably claim they don’t support it, to which one can reply, “but clearly you do support it — why is that? I’m curious to hear why you think we should just ignore international law, to bomb and kill civilians indiscriminately.”
I’ve seen Israelis get shocked when they hear that there are Palestinian demonstrations at mine (which just happens to be where the Red Brigades were founded)
It is important to have this credible report, to support public claims against Zionist policies. At the same time, regarding this statement:
AFAICT, all other states, mostly those subordinate in the USian Empire, I.e. in the so-called “advanced world,” viz. the UK, EU, Japan, etc. — they are all in complicity with this genocide and will steadfastly refuse to climb down.
This is like Thomas Piketty’s recent call (in Le Monde) for a state-level boycott of Israel by the EU, US, et alia: not going to happen.
Aside from a military defeat in the middle-East, the only game changer I can see would be a comprehensive and total electoral wipe out for several parties supporting Israel in the nations that are in complicity with the genocide.
If political parties in the complicit nations have concrete evidence of ignominious electoral defeat that is directly due to their support for a now-obviously radioactive Zionist regime, perhaps they’ll be forced to come to terms with choosing between their own future and continued support the moral albatross today called Israel. I’m not optimistic about that possibility, so I hope there are other ways of reaching the same goal.
The genocide’s greatest beneficiaries are Russia and China, and I hate that this is true because it removes a major incentive for them to do anything to stop it.
Yea. Blame Russians and Chinese for everything, as usual.
I didn’t read vidimi’s comment as blaming Russia and China for Israel’s actions but as ruefully acknowledging that Israel’s genocide is to their benefit, which reduces their incentive to intervene. Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
Out of all the countries on the planet, he chose these two unrelated to the genocide itself, and claimed that they are the ones benefiting the most. Why? He also assumed that, out of all the countries on the planet, these two should be the ones fixing it. Why? He also assumed that these two countries can fix it. Why? He also assumed that they don’t want to fix it. Why?
Why would Russia and China intervene anywhere, for that matter? Isn’t USA self appointed world policeman? Aren’t Arab countries supposed to help their brothers in blood? Aren’t Islamic countries supposed to help in the name of their god? None of them gives a toss. Russia is in the middle of existential war, against the whole Western World, and random people on the Internet expect it to do what they seem fit, for some reason. People from that Western World that Russia is in war with. People that finance this genocide with their taxes expect that someone else fix it.
More importantly, Russia and China are the ones actively working on dismantling the USA Empire. The USA Empire that is the cause of numerous genocides including this one. One could argue that Russia and China are the ones doing the most in stoping the genocide once and for all, by attacking the cause, while others are doing the lip service and treating the symptoms by dropping crates from the air and filming it for Instagrams.
Nah. Blame Russians and Chinese for everything, as usual.
your initial comment was obnoxious and as Revenant points out, nowhere did I blame China and Russia. His understanding of my comment is 100% correct.
I was happy to ignore yours but you double down. Solutions will not come from the west since we are the problem.
Your initial comment was obnoxious, but you don’t care. As other commenters have pointed out, it is incorrect and inappropriate. I guess many people have problems with deciphering words of wisdom to 100% correctnes, and lot of happy ignoring had to be done.
Since I’m not from the West, and could easily be Russian, or Chinese, or something along those lines, it must be my fault.
Israel is committing a genocide. Joe Biden could stop this with a single phone call.
Somehow, this is Russia’s and China’s fault. Like blaming a robbery victim for not having donated to the Fraternal Order of Police.
What would you expect Russia and China to do, given the nuclear-armed geo-realities? China and Russia have hosted meetings with Hamas and Fatah to try and get a reconciliation, and there are rumors of weapons and or weapons design making their way to Hamas.
The only game change on a “short time” action anyone can do (baring come to Jesus moment in the white house that ain’t happening) is an oil embargo, and that falls on Erdogan (or Azerbaijian), though the Houthi are extending their effective blockade to include the Med. I always wonder, though, where the Houthi get their targeting information from… Yemeni orbital assets are none.
Ukraininan orbital assets are none, too. Those that supply missiles tend to provide “advisors” and targeting information. ;)
Nope the greatest beneficiaries are the elites of the Arab Gulf countries and Turkiye. They desire normalization with Israel but Palestinians have always been a third wheel. Now Israel is taking care of the problem so they can all consummate their disgusting orgy in a pool of Palestinian blood.
The genocide’s greatest beneficiaries are —— and —– …
[ This is entirely incorrect and awfully offensive. ]
What I don’t understand is why Russia doesn’t bring a genocide case against the U.S. to the ICJ. The recent case against Germany was unsuccessful because Germany showed they’d stopped arms shipments to Israel.
Does Putin still think he can make nice with the Americans?
The Americans will ignore any ruling they don’t like, and bully their various vassals into doing likewise.
And risk turning it into a narrative about big bad Russian bullying Israel? Why step in when your enemies are digging epically deep holes for themselves?
Given the rapidly shifting balance of power in the world, we might note that Israel still has the death penalty for genocide and crimes against humanity. There is no obvious reason why an International Tribunal should not try Israelis and others complicit in the genocide and other crimes against humanity under Israeli law for the crimes they have committed in the Occupied Territories and in other states as agents of Israel and punished expeditiously and appropriately. This would have the further advantage of easing the housing market in Palestine and in all those states guilty of complicity with Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M
I am relieved that even the lawyers can now tell a hawk from a handsaw, s–t from shinola, genocide from mass murder. … Thoughtful pause … Good to have it cleared up. The i’s dotted, the t’s crossed. It’s a relief to know that what has been plainly evident to us, the untutored , the great unwashed, nay, even the deplorable has been confirmed. Of course, this imprimatur changes nothing. Now rescued from imprecise nomenclature bombing, shooting, and starving can continue under the proper legal label. Bibi and his boys, genocide Joe …the most Zionist president us lucky Americans have ever been privileged to have … is on the job supplying the means of industrial scale murder. Not even sarcasm can stop him.
In 2019, the DP Congress passed a $400 million military assistance package for Ukraine. Trump delayed the package when he asked Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden’s role in Burisma. Though the package was sent to Ukraine, for Dems like Pelosi and Schiff, delaying the aid in order to get opposition info was an “abuse of power” for which they impeached Trump.
In contrast, the Leahy Law prohibits US aid to militaries that have committed human rights abuses; five Israel units engaged in gross human rights abuses. Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act prohibits security assistance to countries blocking humanitarian aid. And there is the Arms Control Export Act, the U.S. War Crimes Act and the Genocide Convention Implementation Act all of which should be invoked to block aid to Israel for its plausible genocide.
The above laws were cited by attorneys inside the federal government in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland stating the Biden administration is violating domestic and international law. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/29/lawyers-israel-arm-sales-biden-00154958 and https://theintercept.com/2024/05/10/biden-attorneys-legal-weapons-israel/
Besides the diplomatic support for Israel at the UN, the genocide continues in Gaza unabated but nothing said from either party about impeachment due to “abuse of power” by President Biden. It’s more important that the authorities bring justice to Trump over hush money to a porn star.
And, much like Republicans (!!!) ignored Democrat Dennis Kucinich’s call (and the War Powers Act) for Obama to be impeached over Libya, House Republicans are ignoring Biden’s aiding and abetting of two genocides (Israel and Donbass). Meanwhile, Democrats are propping up the Religious Right house speaker for his support of said genocides.
Words have meanings. Nothing that has taken place in the Donbas over the past decade or so or is happening now is even remotely like genocide. One might reasonably argue that the Banderists would dearly like to ethnically and/or ideologically cleanse all of Ukraine, but the term “genocide” is inapplicable.
The Leahy Law prohibits US aid to militaries that have committed human rights abuses.
You can hide behind “well, it’s not a genocide, yet!” if you wish, but claiming that the various neonazi militias supporting the regime in Kiev have not engaged in human rights abuses is a laugh.
And the AECA should prohibit arms exports to Israel, but they just claim that it’s for “self defense”. The “law” can be interpreted any way they want.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_Export_Control_Act
To Uncle Doug: Words have legal meaning too. Preemptive war and war approved by the UN Security Council are legal; preventive war is not. Putin has a strong case that the SMO was a preemptive attack against the US militarization of Ukraine.
Furthermore, I think any country or countries have a legal right to attack Israel and the US in order to stop the genocide in Gaza. It seems to me that was the legitimate legal argument Clinton used to justify bombing Serbia. That is, it was a humanitarian intervention to stop the genocide in Kosovo.
To your point, House Republicans are not “ignoring” Biden’s aiding and abetting of genocide in Israel, but threatening to impeach him for not aiding it more vigorously. And it should be noted that Speaker Johnson also has the support of Trump, and has gone to Trump’s NY trial to kiss his a** and make sure they’re good buddies. So it’s all one big incestuous swamp of genocidal parasites. There is no mechanism for a Kucinich or even a Rand Paul to make a dent among our brainwashed, bribed, and blackmailed political “representatives”. UN votes and US laws mean nothing.
Law is meaningless. Enforcement is the only thing that matters.
The Glenn Amendment already makes military and financial aid to Israel illegal.
One must admire the way the dual citizens of Israel who live in and control America (for most part) achieve their objective of cowing down the majority. Their efficiency and skill is such that the entire World stands jaw agape as a Genocide proceeds calmly and methodically under the hands of religious fanatics led by a power mad psychopath. Their hold over the media is absolute even to the smallest print, the merest line and shortest syllable. Their mastery over the pay-to-play political system is so absolute that you actually send up a sigh of relief that this money power political juggernaut is not used for non-Israel issues. Imagine, they could probably completely wipe out Social Security and Medicare and Public Schools in two election cycles if they did try or at least wound it so mortally that Mike Lee (UT) can push it into the abyss with his pinkie. The vice like grip on every major University Senate and office bearer is something worth studying in depth. They have taken political puppetry to unseen heights. Ritter often says that Israel is the 51st state in his many voice in the wilderness appearances on the Internet but I think its the other way around-we are a complete vassal state to Israel. We are the eternal Thanksgiving Turkey from which they slice off whatever they want and whenever they want and for them every day is Thanksgiving.
I guess the WASP elites have no power, the US oligarchy is powerless. The bad ol’ Israelis control everything eh? That might be a very comforting and convenient explanation, but it ignores history and context. It is much more nuanced than that and you are being too optimistic – the situation is much worse.
Even if Israel did not exist, the US would still be a cesspool of corruption and hypocrisy. Scott Ritter, Michael Hudson, Norm Finkelstein, Ali Abunimah, Media Benjamin and many others make salient points that Israel does indeed serve US geostrategic , no matter what you or I want to believe.
In a nutshell: Israel and the US are just continuing British imperial policies. This is all part of a historical process, it is not an event.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/israels-brutality-against-palestinians-draws-on-british-rule/
It does not have to be “either-or” on this issue. Israel certainly serves US geostrategic interests in the Middle East, at least as those are perceived by what has been the dominant factions of our foreign policy and national security Establishment. Those who claim that the US gains nothing whatsoever from its support of Israel can easily be refuted in about two minutes. But the US certainly also serves Israeli interests by providing the conditions for its very existence. And these interests may or may not coincide with those of the US; if they decide starting a war in Lebanon or developing their own nuclear weapons or sinking the USS Liberty is a necessary condition then tough s**t America! You could say each nation uses the other in what is often (but not always) a convergence of perceived interests by the ruling factions of each nation.
But it’s too simplistic to explain US policy toward Israel and Israeli interests in the ME with reference to US imperialism alone. First, the Israel lobby is massive and its effectiveness well-documented. Second, this effectiveness has increased over time; the pockets of resistance and (limited) push-back in Congress or occasionally from the Executive branch (e.g. Reagan in 1982) have been almost completely eliminated. Related to the last point, the Straussian neocons have completely infiltrated our foreign policy apparatus in a manner that exerts influence far, far beyond their numbers and regardless of the political party in power. Those who are not Jewish themselves – like Cheney – have been completely willing to follow the neocon script for a “New Middle East” as part of their own imperial vision.
There is another reason to take the religious fanaticism behind Zionism seriously, whether that of the right-wing zealots in Israel or our own Christian Zionists in the US. Both US and Israeli national security forces have a long history of using sectarian conflict and religious fanaticism for their own cynical purposes. But both have also been burned when these “true believers” slip the reservation and get out of control. It is certainly possible that the “red heifer” folks in Israel could start an uncontrollable conflagration in the ME with the joyful help of our own apocalypse-mongers.
Again, I’d never downplay the role of US imperial interests. But as you say yourself, the complexities of particular historical contexts almost always confound easy explanations or predictions. That certainly strikes me as the case here, which is one reason why it is so scary.
Well put, thanks for the thoughtful reply. I don’t dispute the disproportionate influence of The Lobby – I read Walt & Mearsheimer back in 06 (as a working paper, before published as a book) and I agree with most of the claims. You are right, it is not either or, but some focus only on the Lobby and somehow forget the larger context of institutional corruption, and the historical process in play, as well as the converging interests of the rest of the domestic oligarchy (so-called epistemic community)
We could say that Israel serves the empire by also ensuring that Russian and Chinese interests are kept in check. .
One thing that is often left out of the context is the British role and the almost seamless continuation of British policy post Mandate. The crimes of the British Empire have been almost forgotten, and we are still dealing with the legacy today. The history rhymes so well, we could write a song.
Article shows the British military colonial apparatus working on behalf of Israel, not Israel benefitting the interests of the US.
And as if 1930s Britain was not influenced by its own “Israel lobby.”
Not that I doubt that digging about in 100+ years of censored history would be illuminating.
You obviously did not read, Israel DID NOT EXIST. WTF?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
“If Israel did not exist, the US would have had to invent it” is not going to fly around here.
You just want to make shit up, read the article above, and read the article I posted or STFU
WOW. Perfectly analysed and correct in its scope and its detail. I wish it weren’t.
Meanwhile the Grey Lady has a lengthy piece on the lawlessness of the settlers… leaving out the original sin Nakba. A lengthy, sickening read focused on the West Bank
The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel (archive)
>After 50 years of failure to stop violence and terrorism against Palestinians by Jewish ultranationalists, lawlessness has become the law.
Extremists took over Israel because they could.
Give any group of humans unlimited rights and no obligations and that group of humans will be roaring @ssholes to rival any settlers or national socialists.
I would say that Zionism is an extreme ideology to begin with. It was born in Europe, by Europeans and is an extension of racist Western settler-colonial, imperialist culture. The British practiced much the same tactics against the indigenous populations of Mandate Palestine, Kenya (Mau Mau), South Africa, India, and even Ireland.
Yes, but who is going to stop it? Moral arguments are wasted on sociopaths.
Internal rot and corruption will stop it, as history usually shows.
One hopes. The Roman Empire took over from the Republic and kept it up for centuries.
Up late and short on time today, but I’ll leave this here. I haven’t read it yet. From the NYT, already the byline leaves out fifty previous years of violence, but maybe it is something as is. Zionism’s a land without people regarding Palestine, was always untrue, and always aspirational. It was always violent and genocidal. With the excuse of October 7 it has come into full bloom.
The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel
That Israel is committing genocide and that October 7 was but a pretext was never seriously in doubt. Even the Squealers who try to obfuscate the issue know full well what they are doing and defending.
What does anyone propose to do about it? I ask this question over and over because that is the only thing that a Blinken or a Netanyahu cares about – what is going to stop me?
Our clever words, our cute memes, our close readings of texts and our passionate denunciations are the equivalent of quoting Scripture to an armed robber. He already knows that Thou Shalt Not Steal. He doesn’t care.
A loaded Colt Python held to his head and the sure knowledge that you will without hesitation pull that trigger elicits a very different response, and it doesn’t matter whether that individual in fact had every legal right to be in your house or not.
Yesterday, at the Electronic Intifada weekly podcast, Jon Elmer showed quite a few videos of the resistance taking it to the Occupiers in Rafah and Jabalia.
Although this will not directly have any effect on the genocide, it will increase the pressure on European signatories of the ICC and ICJ to avoid their own prosecution by isolating Israel and thus Israel’s allies in genocide (the US), which is why it is happening so slowly).
Given that, per Michael Hudson, the true target of the Ukrainian war was Europe, to lock it in as a de-industrialized US vassal, unraveling the support for the lock by the Euro-leadership will begin to affect the US geostrategic balance between Israel and Europe.
Sadly, the effects are agonizingly slow.
Non-Eastern Europe is a secondary target. A consolation prize, if you will. The main prize was regime change in Russia, and return to 1990s plundering of it. Russians know that, and are willing to die fighting to prevent it.
Of course under any honest analysis of the evidence and international law Biden, Blinken, and Sullivan are complicit in a terrible genocide. The shame that I feel in this moment is overwhelming.
I don’t feel guilt, I feel rage and depression. It’s causing me mental health problems honestly.
I hear you there and I am sure thousands of others share your feelings. I don’t feel any guilt – I didn’t vote or choose any of these people. I didn’t “vote” for DT or JB, I didn’t vote for the Congress Crooks in my district. I “wasted” my “vote” by writing-in candidates as a symbolic gesture.
All we can do is voice our disapproval. I have called and written our “elected officials” but public opinion does not matter, as polls show. As George Carlin put it: “they don’t give a f@#K”
Like Bill Clinton reacted when told his policies were “alienating his base” he chuckled: “whadda they gonna do? vote Republican?” The Rs say the same thing. Ha ha, the joke is on us
I read history, play and listen to music to lessen the feelings of anger and depression. Talking to folks in the community about local issues also helps. Knowing that history rhymes, and very similar things have happened in the past helps put things in perspective
International law is binding only insofar as the parties concerned are willing to abide by it. It is not binding, objective law but a voluntary act and if a state chooses not to abide by the law there is very little that can be done about it, unless a more powerful state decides to act and force it to stop what it is doing. Israel is acting with the implicit consent of the states that supply it with weapons to continue with the extermination of the Palestinians, whether that’s destroying them utterly, or forcing them to leave as refugees to find asylum wherever they can. (‘Exterminate’ used to mean to drive or force a person out of the boundaries or limits of a place – ‘terminus’ meaning boundary line). Of course there are diplomatic efforts trying to moderate Israel’s activity, but these efforts are more to do with presentation than with actually stopping the killing. Forms of protest against Israel’s actions are being violently shut down and criticism of Israel is becoming the target of new antisemitism laws.
The principles of just war were destroyed by the West when the USA dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, principles such as the principle of discrimination whereby it is only enemy combatants who are targeted and not those considered to be innocent, i.e. women, children, the elderly, and the principle of proportionality in that the level of violence is commensurate to the political and military advantages to be gained. In this century, international law concepts such as ‘humanitarian intervention’ and ‘responsibility to protect’ have shredded the notion of international law as a law between equal sovereign states. With these concepts the West has arrogated to itself the right to decide which states qualify as sovereign and which don’t, with the latter being subjected to invasion, bombing or proxy war as and when necessary. Nothing happens to the perpetrators when these military interventions are declared to be illegal under international law. The USA has its ‘Hague Invasion Act’, just in case any of its military personnel is hauled before the International Criminal Court.
Why will this latest attempt to invoke international law do anything to stop the killing when there is no power which is willing to take concrete steps to do so?
I placed this higher in the comments, but it responds directly to this point:
Given the rapidly shifting balance of power in the world, we might note that Israel still has the death penalty for genocide and crimes against humanity. There is no obvious reason why an International Tribunal should not try Israelis and others complicit in the genocide and other crimes against humanity under Israeli law for the crimes they have committed in the Occupied Territories and in other states as agents of Israel and punished expeditiously and appropriately. This would have the further advantage of easing the housing market in Palestine and in all those states guilty of complicity with Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M
I don’t really understand these numbers. If you destroy 70% of homes and limit aid to the degree stated, how does the 5% number of population killed make sense? I am not downplaying the numbers, I am saying with how Israel has behaved, I would expect something like 20% of the population killed, or even more.
The numbers are not credible. As I understand it they are based on confirmed deaths in a hospital. As most victims will not reach a hospital—especially since Israel destroyed all the hospitals weeks ago—the numbers have lost any meaning. Hundreds of thousands would not surprise me.