Gaza: South Africa Asks for More Orders from ICJ as UN Votes on Palestine
Is the International Criminal Court itself criminal? Are arrested student protesters the ones actually upholding international law?
I just put this news release out via accuracy.org —
Gaza: South Africa Asks for More Orders from ICJ as UN Votes on Palestine
The International Court of Justice has just reported that South Africa has asked for additional provisional measures against Israel in its genocide case. In past provisional measures, the ICJ has ordered Israel to stop all genocidal acts. The UN General Assembly has voted 143 in favor, 9 against, 25 abstentions to admit Palestine, but without voting rights. Thousands of students have been arrested in the U.S. protesting against Israel’s attack on Gaza.
FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle@illinois.edu
Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He represented Bosnia at the International Court of Justice in its Genocide Convention case against Yugoslavia.
He said today: “From 1993 to 1994 I repeatedly pleaded with the International Court of Justice to stop the genocide in Bosnia that culminated in the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre. The Court failed then by not issuing stronger orders and it has failed again by not issuing stronger orders against Israel in its genocidal campaign against the Palestinians, with more carnage now happening in Rafah.” With South Africa’s latest Application, Boyle said, the ICJ has one, possibly last, chance. (South Africa in its case against Israel under the Genocide Convention quoted from Boyle’s Application and Boyle was the first to urge that the Genocide Convention be invoked against Israel.)
South African Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor just heavily criticized the International Criminal Court, which was rumored to be going after Netanyahu personally recently, for its total non-action regarding Israel: “it took three weeks to issue warrants on Putin, seven months and nothing on Netanyahu.” Pandor notes that she received a threatening letter from U.S. lawmakers as ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has.
Boyle said today: “One of the most glaring failures of the international system is the corrupt ICC. Its refusal to do anything regarding Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Palestinians makes the ICC an accessory to the criminality.”
Boyle, noting that even though the UN General Assembly vote today was overwhelming, it was also very weak, describing it as “near de facto non-voting membership for Palestine. … What should be happening is the UN General Assembly should be meeting under the Uniting for Peace Resolution and adopting meaningful sanctions against Israel.
“Many countries have condemned Israel genocide and its attack on Rafah. The General Assembly can admit Palestine as a full-fledged voting UN member state, suspend Israel as it did apartheid South Africa and genocidal Yugoslavia, set up a criminal tribunal to prosecute Israeli officials as the Security Council did in the cases of Rwanda and Yugoslavia, recommend economic sanctions and severing of diplomatic relations with Israel.”
UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber has similarly recently stated: “Israel is a threat to the lives of millions and to international peace and security. The Security Council is blocked by the U.S. veto. The General Assembly should convene under Uniting for Peace (A/Res/377(V)) & the 2005 Summit (A/Res/60/1, para 139) to organize a protection force.”
Boyle is author of the books Protesting Power: War, Resistance and Law and Defending Civil Resistance under International Law. He said today: “All these young people getting arrested are not engaging in civil disobedience. They are upholding international law. Their civil resistance is consistent with the obligation set forth in Article 1 of the 1948 Genocide Convention ‘to prevent’ genocide. In the 1980s, I was able to use similar arguments to get acquittals at trials of civil resisters against the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa that is legally analogous to the criminal apartheid regime in Israel. Also, three ICJ rulings regarding the U.S. government’s illegal war against Nicaragua along the lines of the three ICJ rulings won by South Africa against Israel for the Palestinians produced similar acquittals for civil resisters against the Reagan administration.”
See “The Problem of Karim Khan” by Mouin Rabbani.
In my mind longtime peace wagers Daniel Berrigan, Daniel Ellsberg & Francis Boyle are priceless thinkers and influencers from an era where substance had more effect on manufacturing consent. It's tragic these brilliant influencers have almost become extinct with no proteges in sight while the sociopaths proliferate. Thanks so much for amplifying Boyle's voice here!
How does the United Nations initiate actions under the Uniting for Peace Resolution?
Perplexity.ai answered my question as follows:
The United Nations can initiate actions under the Uniting for Peace Resolution in the following way:
If the Security Council fails to exercise its primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security due to a lack of unanimity among its permanent members (i.e. a veto by one of the P5 members), the General Assembly can convene an emergency special session to consider the matter.
During this emergency session, the General Assembly can make recommendations to UN members for collective measures to restore international peace and security. These measures can include, in cases of a breach of peace or act of aggression, the use of armed force when necessary.
However, the General Assembly cannot directly authorize the use of force or enforcement action - that power remains solely with the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Some specific actions the General Assembly can take under Uniting for Peace include:
- Calling for ceasefires, withdrawals of forces, arms embargoes, or other non-coercive measures
- Establishing investigative mechanisms or fact-finding missions
- Requesting advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice
- Allocating funds from the UN budget or calling for voluntary contributions towards mitigation efforts
- Recommending collective measures like economic sanctions or severance of diplomatic relations
So, in essence, while lacking enforcement powers, the Uniting for Peace Resolution allows the General Assembly to circumvent Security Council paralysis and make recommendations for resolving threats to international peace and security when the Council is deadlocked.
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Calling for the nations of the world to sanction Israel while the genocide continues seems to be a good first step, but with no enforcement mechanism, they can only fund reporting on the sanctions and whether they are achieving the desired results, unless I'm missing something.