Author: Aysha Hanan, Cochin University of Science and Technology
Co-author: Adarsh R. Krishna
INTRODUCTION
Writing is a political act that not only represents the present but also, within the Palestinian-Israeli context, molds the past. Words determine what is remembered and what is forgotten.
Throughout history, oppressed populations have consistently fought against occupation, claiming their right to self-defense and protection of their territories to determine their fate. In the 20th century, national liberation movements gained momentum, playing a crucial role in obtaining independence, liberating occupied territories, and exercising their legitimate right to self-determination at both national and international levels. These movements were recognized as international conflicts, confirmed by the 1977 Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Occupation is seen as a coercive act that aims to forcefully seize land, constituting a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. International law has used various means to counteract such unlawful actions, recognizing the right of people to form national liberation movements against colonialism and military occupation. The Palestinian people were pioneers in this context, with several movements aiming to confront Israeli occupation.
Law and politics are closely interlinked, and the meaning and application of the law depend on the strategies employed by legal actors and the historical context. While the law can influence behavior, its control is not absolute. The relationship between law and politics in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a global issue that requires careful consideration of the risks and benefits of using international law to address the question of Palestine.
The UN started working in 1945, with a historical mission as a global peacekeeping force aimed at economic development and social equality. Despite the limitations of the UN in creating cooperation and amity among the countries of the world, it still has relevance and importance as a global forum for nations. The past and present instances of the UN repeatedly demonstrate that the Security Council and the General Assembly cannot act as per the books under the veto power of the superpowers. This paper looks into the all-time trending Palestine-Israel conflict and the significance of international law concerning the same.
UNVEILING ISRAEL’S WAR CRIMES AGAINST PALESTINE
The crimes committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza, particularly from October 7, 2023, are clear examples of specific international crimes. Prosecutors of these crimes are essential, but determining the jurisdiction of national courts and the establishment and activity of international courts is a complex issue. International law recognizes organized resistance movements through Article 1 of the Geneva Convention, 1949. Israel has the largest number of UN Resolutions against it, which are extremely explicit and depict that none of them have been upheld and respected or abide by international standards.
Francesca Albanese, UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestine Territories, said in a discussion with a representative of the Arab Centre, Washington DC, a non-profit research organization that, ‘the objective of the Israeli response to the October 7 incident is to eradicate Hamas from root which is what the launching of 6000 bombs over an area of 360km where 2.2 million people reside, half of whom are children, signifies’. This shows that there is no proportionality in response, no distinguishing between civilians and military, and no respect for the principle of precaution, i.e., if there is a risk of harming civilians operation should be withheld, violating the legal criteria in conducting an operation.
Genocide as defined under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is a serious atrocity crime because it requires a specific intent to destroy in full or part of a population on ethnic religious or national grounds. What happens in Palestine is a very planned genocide. Self-determination is the right to exist as a people and to be free as a people economically, culturally, and politically over a given territory. The right of self-determination is an erga omnes obligation which is a parent norm of international law, denied for years to Palestinians.
Forced placement to the South in the name of ensuring the security of civilians while it was continuously under bombardment amounts to ethnic cleansing. 3,50,000 were displaced in 1948, a minimum of 7,50,000 between 1947 and 1949. Egypt is being forced to take in Palestinians through the Rafa Crossing even when there are subsequent options to move out from the Gaza Strip as there is plenty of space in Israel for civilians seeking refugee from war. Israel being the occupying power fighting an unarmed group technically has responsibilities toward Palestine to open humanitarian corridors in Israel or toward the West Bank even if it is a contiguous part of the occupied territory.
Palestinians are tried in military quotes where the rules in terms of evidence and right to attorney are completely different from the civilian system, as prisoners are detained without charges or trials. Before October 7th there were 1200 Palestinians in such administrative detention. An administrative detention order is renewed every 6 months. So, the prisoners confer that they have committed a crime even if they didn’t, as it is the only way out. Or else, they’ll have to be under such detention for an unlimited period. A military tribunal’s average trial of a Palestinian lasts 3 minutes. The evidence is prepared in Hebrew language which is unknown to them and no legal defense is provided. Palestinians can’t travel to Israel and 80% are detained illegally as they are considered deported outside of the Palestinian territory ending up in denial of legal assistance and can’t be visited by family members. Approximately 700 children are detained, half of them are in solitary confinement cells. They are interrogated for 16 days without a lawyer or parent. They’re being taken in a military jeep often in a violent manner even in the absence of proof of any offence they have committed.
According to Michael Lynk in his report to UNHRC when he was the UN Rapporteur for Human Rights in Palestine, the International Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), International Convention of the Suppression and Punishment of Apartheid (1973), and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) collectively gives apartheid a legal definition. It requires the existence of an institutionalized regime of systematic racial oppression and discrimination, established with the intent to maintain the domination of one racial group over another, and which features inhumane acts committed as an integral part of the regime. All these mandates to fulfill apartheid exist in the case of the mass atrocities in Palestine.
Israel has imposed financial restrictions on the main UN agency providing aid in Gaza, a measure which prevented a shipment of food for 1.1 million Palestinians from reaching the war-battered enclave, the agency’s director said. That stoppage means 1,049 shipping containers of rice, flour, chickpeas, sugar, and cooking oil — enough to feed 1.1 million people for one month — are stuck, even as an estimated 25 percent of families in Gaza face catastrophic hunger. The World Food Program warned that Gaza could be plunged into famine as early as May 2024. This amounts to intentional starvation.
The trauma of endless cycles of massive bombardment not just for the adults in Palestine, but also for the mass child population will prevail for generations. It has also resulted in turning out the healthy beings to a majority of physically disabled ones, one way or the other. Upon graduation from secondary school, young Israelis are drafted into military service to implement Israeli policies against Palestinians whose life-world is unknown to them and whose very existence they have been taught to resent and fear.
The transfer of Israeli civilians into an occupied territory is a question pending before the International Court of Justice as it is a violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention. Around 300,000 troops have been deployed to surround Gaza. Without water, food, electricity, and medicine, 23 lakh Palestinians are reaching out to the world for help between life and death.
UN’S ROLE IN THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION: A CRIMINAL INDIFFERENCE
The UN General Assembly passed Resolution ES-10/21 to cease-fire in Gaza by a vote of 120 to 14, with 45 abstentions. Despite passing the resolution with the support of 120 countries, the UN is unable to stop Israel from the war and bring relief to the people of Gaza who are being pushed to death without food, water, and basic medical supplies. When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to stop the war, the Netanyahu government shied away, blaming Hamas’ terrorism. In response, Guterres had to respond that Hamas’ attack did not come from a vacuum. The reason for the reprehensible obliviousness to fulfill its international responsibilities is that the hands and brains of the UN are controlled by the dominating imperium. The declarations by the Security Council and the General Assembly of the UN and the 280th resolution on the establishment of a Palestinian state look good on paper but languish in reality.
In the American-Israeli official lexicon, “terrorism” in the Middle East context applies exclusively to the actions of Arab militants, whether those of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas, or others. Under these peculiar terminological rules, the actions of the militaries of Israel and the United States cannot be described as “terrorism,” irrespective of how many Palestinians may have died at their hands. William Quandt, an American scholar who is actively involved in the Palestinian peace-making process said that the American political system makes it hard for presidents to address the Palestinian issue. Presidents have been hesitant to get too involved because it’s such a controversial topic. And because there’s a strong cultural and religious connection between the US and Israel, the US has mostly focused on managing the conflict instead of resolving it.
The UN, which is obliged to behave vigilantly and accountably is now a scarecrow acting under pressure from US-Israeli leaders, which is the most outrageous disregard on the part of the UN for the State of Palestine. The formation of the UN was a reflection of the intense anti-war sentiment that swept across the world at the end of the Second World War and the growing idea of democracy against the fascist powers
Public sentiment against imperialism and war, and the fear that capitalist and anti-socialist ideas might gain an upper hand, forced the superpowers to end the wars and create platforms for the populace. The League of Nations formed by the capitalist powers after the First World War was falling apart. This was because the League of Nations had degenerated into a mere tool of the powers that dominated the war. The situation was different from this after the Second World War when the USA and its allies were forced to put forward a plan for the independence of the colonial countries as well as to form a global platform like the UN.
As Lenin analyzed, the First and Second Wars were all about the redistribution and capture of colonies. Therefore, people comprehended colonialism as one of the main causes of world war. The United Nations was generally propagated to eliminate this colonial occupation, to secure and protect the independence and sovereignty of all nations, and to formulate international laws and understandings for the relations between nations, which was partially true. However, the USA and its allies including the Western capitalist world, had begun the experiment of imposing their new colonial power on the people of the world at this phase. Marx warned us that history often repeats itself first as tragedy and second as farce, but in our post-truth environment it would seem that the repetitious propensity of the former leaves few bounds on the apocalyptical imagination of those who hold the keys to our decision-making processes.
The Security Council, the constituent organization of the UN gives permanent membership and veto power to 5 countries that mutually recognize each other as superpowers. The major dominants use this Security Council system to prevent the UN from taking any action against them to defend and block their way. The existence of the Zionist state of Israel by creating bloodshed in the West and keeping Palestine out of existence is at the convenience of the veto power in the UN.
CONCLUSION
The principle of self-determination claimed by Palestine for decades undoubtedly overrides the principle of self-defense claimed by Israel as it is a direct consequence of wrongful acts of widespread and systematic attacks against Palestine’s civilian population. Legitimizing the blockade as if it started on 7th October is biased as there have been years of unlawful blockade through navel, air, and ground encountered. Israel’s right to protect its citizens or to defend itself cannot be challenged. But Israel cannot confuse the world about its security with the annexation plan that it is executing over the occupied Palestinian territory.
International law can be useful in regulating certain aspects of relations between states, like trade and diplomatic matters. It promotes predictability and benefits both strong and weak states. However, when it comes to geopolitical conflicts like state sovereignty and territorial disputes, the logic of reciprocity and voluntary compliance doesn’t always work. In the case of Palestine, where interests and preferences diverge, international law faces challenges. International law backed with politics, i.e., favorable to the dominant nations will only function efficiently.
In its 78th year, the UN continues to prove that it is an ineffective machinery in ensuring peace for mankind and the right of nations to exist independently. The very reason for this is the structural influence of the permanent members of the UN over its Security Council and their positions following the global capital interests that they lead. To make a real impact, the law should be used strategically by a political ovement that challenges the power structure and fights for Palestinian rights. The Palestinian demand for national self-determination has been consistent since 1917. They’ve sought different forms of statehood over the years, whether it’s a truncated state, a bi-national state, or full sovereignty over the entire region. Statehood offers self-rule, access to the rule of law, security, stability, and recognition on the international stage. It’s a legal concept that provides a framework for independence. But lately, the call for self-determination among Palestinians has expanded beyond just a national state. It now includes a deeper desire for freedom, which encompasses their attachment to the land as a source of memory, existence, and dignity. This broader demand challenges the notion that Palestinian lives are disposable. Palestine is not an embryonic sovereign.
REFERENCE
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FAQs
Q: What are the international crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, according to the article?
A: Israel has committed war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid in Gaza, including the use of disproportionate force, targeting civilians, and violating international humanitarian law.
Q: Why is the UN unable to stop Israel’s actions in Gaza, according to the article?
A: The UN is unable to stop Israel’s actions due to the controlling influence of the US and other dominant powers, which use their veto power in the Security Council to block action against Israel, rendering the UN ineffective in resolving the conflict and protecting Palestinian rights.
