In a rapidly expanding global battlefield, promoters and opponents of Israel's genocidal attack on Gaza face off in the unusual setting of a courtroom. Over the past six months, an unprecedented number of domestic and international lawsuits and claims have been filed by lawyers, activists, organizations, and nations who believe that international laws and treaties prohibiting genocide have real meaning and should be enforced. It has been submitted to an international court.
This new frontier in the century-long battle between Palestinian Arabism and Zionism promises a more level playing field, where traditional military-political strengths and weaknesses are neutralized and even reversed. is important.
The unusual legal mobilization is already worrying the Israeli government, which has turned to its Western allies for help in fending off accusations. Meanwhile, the Israeli military has established an international law division to deal with a flood of new legal challenges to Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip.
Despite this, mainstream Western media has largely avoided covering this important story in depth.
Perhaps that is because the United States and many other Western governments have been accused of being key participants in genocidal crimes in these cases. Or maybe it's because Western allies have been accused of such heinous crimes.
Whatever the reason, the lack of enthusiastic coverage says a lot about the heart of Western media. This is consistent with the long-standing congruence, or lack thereof, between Israel's position, U.S. government policy, and mainstream media coverage.
One of the pivotal developments in the legal battle to stop Israel's genocide is the ongoing South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). At the first hearing in January in The Hague, most Western news outlets did not fully cover South Africa's case in the case, perhaps due to Israel's continued attacks on Gaza and Many inconvenient truths about 75 years of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people have been revealed.
On January 26, the ICJ found that it was “plausible” that Israel had committed acts in the Gaza Strip in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. While Israel and its Western allies ignored this, much of the Western media either downplayed it or emphasized the positive for Israel: that the ICJ did not order an end to Israeli attacks.
But for the rest of the world, the ruling was an important victory. This has given new momentum to the fight to stop governments and businesses from supporting Israel's attack on Gaza. The findings encouraged many people around the world who have launched their own legal challenges to Israel's brutal war on Gaza.
In February, Nicaragua asked the governments of Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada to immediately stop supplying arms, ammunition, technology and parts to Israel. It said in a written statement that it would take all appropriate legal steps, including filing a complaint with the ICJ, “to ensure respect for these fundamental international instruments and customary international law.”
In early April, Nicaragua took Germany to the ICJ, accusing it of “facilitating the commission of genocide” in Gaza. It formally asked the court to order the German government to stop supplying weapons to Israel.
Various parties have also applied to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has the power to try individuals and groups accused of atrocities.
In early March, Australian lawyers referred Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the ICC on suspicion of complicity in genocide. The submission cites the Australian government's actions, including freezing $6 million in UN aid to the Palestinians, exporting arms to Israel and providing military aid, as the basis for the referral.
A few weeks later, Palestine Law, supported by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights and 15 Arab and international organizations, sent a communication to the ICC calling on the court to investigate Israeli war crimes and genocide accusations.
Although in most cases only local news outlets reported on these new developments, they collectively amounted to a global battle between pro-Israel states and anti-colonial and anti-apartheid activists from the Global South. It represents a dramatic new stage in the world's history.
In parallel, legal challenges in domestic courts across the Western world highlight the growing ties between Western human rights defenders and the Palestinians.
In November, the respected Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit in California court on behalf of Palestinian families in Gaza and the United States, and President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin He was accused of violating the constitution. Prevent and be complicit in Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. They called for a court ruling ordering the U.S. government to suspend military and diplomatic support to Israel while the genocide continues.
The court found that Israel's actions “likely amounted to genocide” and called on Biden to investigate the United States' unwavering support for Israel, since foreign policy is the prerogative of the executive branch. , decided that it could not rule on this issue.
In March, CCR filed an appeal backed by more than 100 lawyers, experts, and human rights organizations, arguing that under U.S. and international law, preventing genocide is a legal requirement, not an option. The Court of Appeals is scheduled to hold an initial hearing in June.
Diara Shamas, a senior CCR staff lawyer who works on CCR anti-genocide cases and was in The Hague for the ICJ conference, said in an interview last week that different parties are using various legal tools to stop genocide as quickly as possible. He said he is looking into using it. As much as possible.
“The promise of the law is to deter precisely this type of criminal activity. What matters in the genocide issue is how states are required to behave in accordance with fundamental international norms,” she said. Stated.
Believing in this promise and the legal requirements for action, other parties have begun to file legal challenges aimed at ending Western support for Israel's genocide.
In December, Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network asked the UK High Court to block the granting of arms export licenses to Israel because of atrocities in Gaza. Although the court dismissed the case, Al-Haq vowed to seek another court hearing on the matter.
In February, in a similar case brought by Oxfam Noviv, Pax Nederland, and the Rights Forum, the Dutch Court of Appeal ruled against shipping spare parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel due to the risk of clear violations. ordered the government to stop the delivery of of international law.
In early April, Berlin-based lawyers filed an emergency application on behalf of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip to prevent the German government from approving arms sales deals to Israel. They believe the weapons are being used in violation of laws against genocide and war crimes. Provisions of the German Arms Control Act.
Meanwhile, Palestine Speaks and Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East have accused Volker Beck, a former German parliamentarian and president of the German-Israel Association, of inciting hatred and denying war crimes in Israel's war in Gaza. filed a lawsuit against Mr.
What this moment made clear, Shamas said, was how domestic and international legal systems function in parallel, rather than in a hierarchy. The genocide charge is so serious that it opens up new legal and other avenues of action to stop it, including public demonstrations, petitions, lobbying and activism in Washington. . “The intersection of politics, law and activism is on full display,” she says.
It is also important to note that there is no statute of limitations for the crime of genocide. So whenever facts supporting genocide charges against Israel are unearthed and verified in Gaza or in a foreign capital, lawsuits can be filed around the world.
“Lawsuits against governments, individuals, and corporations may have just begun. Arms manufacturers, energy companies, and others could be indicted, and many individuals involved in genocide accusations should be concerned. ,” Shamas said.
Legal litigation is one of the most powerful tools for bringing facts to the world's attention, exposing criminal behavior, and seeking redress for gross wrongs. The sector should ideally be a natural ally for the media, which should disseminate facts and reliable analysis.
As legal challenges to Israel's genocide continue to mount around the world and Western governments, officials, and corporations are implicated as accomplices, mainstream Western media continue to ignore or downplay them. No wonder it is. But there will come a time when it will no longer be possible to hide the West's complicity in Israel's genocide of Palestinians. The news media should now at least be honest about the proliferation of lawsuits worldwide over Israeli genocide. Otherwise, we risk being swallowed up by the many political and corporate accomplices currently being named in courts around the world.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
