By Sujit Bhar
The recent Israel-Hamas-Palestine conflict brought to light the insignificance of international law, especially criminal and human rights law. To decide whether a war morphs into a genocide or a pogrom, you need to go by certain definitions. To that extent, Israel’s constant bombardment of innocent civilians, including children and women, within a captive population, deprived of water, electricity, medicine and even basic food and power, is definitely one.
The United Nations’ Secretary General, António Guterres, has come out openly against Israel’s constant bombing, and even hampering the passage of humanitarian aid in the initial stages. He has asked for immediate cessation of hostilities. However, nobody has paid any heed to this.
A top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has also said that impeding Gaza-bound aid was a potential crime under the ICC jurisdiction. Some aid was allowed to filter through from Egypt, through the Rafa crossing, but humanity had nothing to do with it. It was because the United States, under pressure from its own people and senators, forced the hand of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel.
Top ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said that impeding aid supplies bound for the Gaza Strip, which was at the time under a complete Israeli blockade, may constitute a war crime that falls under the court’s jurisdiction.
As Khan says this, one must remember that Israel has no interest in his comments. Remember, Israel is not a member of the ICC and disputes its jurisdiction on the basis that Palestine is not a sovereign state capable of being a party to the Rome Statute, and Netanyahu repeatedly condemned the allegations and investigation.
So, even when innocent people, including children and women, are being killed by incessant bombing and shelling, all that after they have been fenced off, what the international community would be busy thinking is whether this really fits the “definition” of a genocide.
The fun fact is that there was a Genocide convention—the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide (1948)—adopted on December 9, 1948, and coming into force on January 12, 1951, with an initial 150 states as member.
The definition contained in Article II of the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part. It does not include political groups or so called “cultural genocide”.
Which nations so far have been caught out for the act? Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia have been caught and “punished”.
These were barely nations armed to the teeth, barely nations that have massive economic lobbies in the US and these were not nations that hid under some vague Biblical other such other excuses.
The crux of the matter is that these huge money-wasting edifices are worse than white elephants. They are disruptive. Craig Mokhiber, a top UN official and a human rights activist has resigned, saying that this attack is a “textbook case of genocide.” He has been quoted by several free media outlets, though the generally obedient US media has not.
Mokhiber, former Director of the New York office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote: “In the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, homes are seized and reassigned based entirely on race and violent settler pogroms are accompanied by Israeli military units. Across the land, apartheid rules. What’s more, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and much of Europe are wholly complicit in the horrific assault…”
The UN called it a “retirement” and his comments were termed as “personal views”. Will the UN then call António Guterres’ comments as also personal?
Remember, it was Europe that initiated the Rome statute of the ICC.
The issue has become so serious that former US President Barack Obama and even current US President Joe Biden, had to insist that the two-state solution was definitely on the table the day after hostilities end. Till then, though, the US will be fully behind Israel destroying the Gaza Strip, as well as the West Bank.
And amid this, toothless UN bodies, including the UN Security Council, keep talking over beagles and coffee and never come to a decision.
The ICC, for example, has little right beyond its member countries. Today, thanks to the massive military industrial complexes of the US, China and Russia, many countries are armed to the teeth. Today, the pulling up of countries, like Yugoslavia and Rwanda and Cambodia were, would not be easy. To that extent, the very existence of the ICC is debatable. What is its purpose, if it cannot do anything but issue warnings? At least the International Court of Justice, which deals in civil matters, has a better record of settling disputes across borders.
What this war has shown to all, is the complete ineffectiveness of many international bodies that take up space, earn millions upon millions in donations and deliver nothing to humanity. Things need to change.