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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/despite-ambiguity-in-international-law-palestinians-are-winning-the-legitimacy-war/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/despite-ambiguity-in-international-law-palestinians-are-winning-the-legitimacy-war/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Despite Ambiguity in International Law, Palestinians are Winning the ‘Legitimacy War’<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">by Ramzy Baroud - October 14, 2020<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<div id="gmail-attachment_126406" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2020/08/IMG_2609-scaled.jpeg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="339"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-126406" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair</p></div>
<p>‘International law’ remains one of the most discussed terms in the
context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It is almost always
present, whether the discussion pertains to the Israeli wars and siege
on Gaza, the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank or
the encroaching apartheid throughout Israel and the Occupied
Territories.</p>
<p>Despite the importance and relevance of the term, however, it rarely translates into anything tangible. The <a href="https://merip.org/2019/07/israels-permanent-siege-of-gaza/">Israeli siege</a>
on Gaza, for example, has continued, unabated, for nearly 14 years,
without international law serving as a protector of Palestinian
civilians against Israeli violations of human rights. More recently, on
September 13, the Israeli government <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200914-israel-approves-1000-settlement-units-in-occupied-west-bank/">approved</a>
1,000 illegal settlement units in the West Bank, in stark violation of
international law. It is likely that Israel will go ahead with it,
anyway.</p>
<p>With regard to violating international law, Israel is in a unique
category of its own, for Israel’s behavior is always governed by its
military strength and the backing of its Western allies.</p>
<p>To gain more insight into the relationship between international law, conflict resolution and accountability, I<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMtVONP3_co"> spoke</a>
with Professor Richard Falk, one of the world’s leading experts on
international law and former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human
Rights.</p>
<p>Of particular relevance to our discussion are the current Palestinian
efforts at pursuing international action to hold alleged individual
Israeli war criminals accountable at the International Criminal Court
(ICC). The fact that the Court has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/dec/20/icc-to-investigate-alleged-israeli-and-palestinian-war-crimes">agreed</a> to investigate alleged war crimes in occupied Palestine has generated an <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191224-reports-israel-considers-denying-entry-of-icc-investigators-in-response-to-war-crimes-probe/">angry response</a> from Israel and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/02/us-sanctions-international-criminal-court-prosecutor">unprecedented sanctions</a> from Washington, targeting ICC judges and staff, including Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.</p>
<p>I asked Professor Falk about the ‘limited scope’ of the ICC
investigation, as the Court will only be looking into Israeli war
crimes, thus, for now, excluding crimes against humanity, among other
illegal practices that should be applicable in the case of Israel.</p>
<p>“The scope of the investigation is something that is ill-defined, so
it is a matter of political discretion,” Professor. Falk said, adding
that “the Court takes a position that needs to be cautious about
delimiting its jurisdiction and, therefore, it tries to narrow the scope
of what it is prepared to investigate.”</p>
<p>“I don’t agree with this view … but it does represent the fact that
the ICC, like the UN itself, is subject to immense geopolitical
pressure,” Falk told me. Still, the seasoned international law expert
described the ICC investigation as a “breakthrough”.</p>
<p>“It’s a breakthrough even to consider the investigation, let alone
the indictment and the prosecution of either Israelis or Americans that
was put on the agenda of the ICC, which led to a pushback by these
governments … Israel has denounced the Court as if it is improper to
examine any State that claims the matter of geopolitical impunity. So
you have a core denial of the rule of law.”</p>
<p>Undeniably, this breakthrough and the advanced position of
international institutions regarding the illegitimacy of the Israeli
occupation are the outcome of the insistent effort put in by Professor
Falk and other champions of international law throughout the years. In
fact, the relentless attempts aimed at silencing Falk – and others like
him – were carried out so that their criticism of Israel’s violations
did not, eventually, lead to such dreaded investigations, like that of
the ICC.</p>
<p>“There are very militant Zionist-oriented NGOs, like UN Watch, that
engage in defamatory kinds of activities and use all their resources and
energy to persuade people, including the UN Secretary-General, to
criticize me and urge my dismissal or some type of sanctions,” Falk
reflected on the challenges he faced during his term at the UN between
2008-14.</p>
<p>Fortunately, but also tellingly, “in the end, the role of Special
Rapporteur was respected … and there was so much support for my
activity, including foreign ministries and also from outside the Islamic
world. I felt that it was an important kind of presence to maintain.”</p>
<p>“The Zionist groups were, of course, very frustrated and they didn’t
try to respond to my reports on the violations of human rights in the
Occupied Territory; instead, they concentrated on defaming and smearing
the messenger rather than addressing the message,” Falk said,
identifying the very essence of the strategy used by pro-Israel groups,
whether at the UN or elsewhere.</p>
<p>I also asked Professor Falk about the term ‘Israeli occupation’ as, in my limited understanding, the term has been <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions">devised</a>
by the Geneva Conventions – and previous international definitions – to
regulate a transitional period during which an Occupying Power is in
charge of the welfare and well-being of the civilian population living
in an Occupied Territory.</p>
<p>“International law is quite ambiguous about the duration of a
military occupation and Israel has made a kind of specious argument that
the Geneva Conventions and the normal law governing belligerent
occupation doesn’t apply here, because this is disputed sovereignty
rather than a case where another country has been occupied,” Falk said.</p>
<p>Coupled with US-western support and <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/instant-article/idUSKCN1IX5UW">vetoes</a>
at the Security Council, Israel has historically exploited this
ambiguity to entrench – instead of ending – its occupation of Palestine.</p>
<p>Since international law “doesn’t provide an endpoint to the
Occupation, the most effective way of challenging it from an
international law perspective is that Israel has committed so many
fundamental breaches of the obligations of an Occupying Power – the
establishment of the settlements, the incremental annexation, the
integration of Jerusalem into the sovereign State of Israel..”</p>
<p>“They are all fundamental violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention
and they represent an effort to make the end of Occupation not possible
in the sense that it was meant: turning the society back to the civilian
population that is occupied,” Falk continued, describing this situation
as a “serious flaw, legally and politically.”</p>
<p>“But is there a reason for optimism?” I asked Professor Falk, whose
energy and tireless work continue to define this indefatigable warrior
of human rights.</p>
<p>“As colonialism and oppression lost their acceptance as forms of
legitimate political behavior, the political balance shifted and the
perseverance of national struggles turned out to be more formidable than
the weaponry at the disposal of the colonial powers,” Falk said.</p>
<p>According to Professor Falk, history is clearly on the side of Palestinians, who are already “winning the legitimacy war”.</p>
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<em>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “</em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><em>These Chains Will Be Broken</em></a><em>:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”
(Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim
University (IZU). His website is </em><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><em>www.ramzybaroud.net</em></a>
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