The International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday began its hearing on the application of the Republic of South Africa that Israel's attacks on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are "genocidal". The reaction of the Western imperialists, led by the USA, to the case before the ICJ, the main judicial organ of the United Nations (UN), has once again exposed their hypocrisy when it comes to international law.
Unlike the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is also based in The Hague and is only binding on participating countries, the UN-affiliated ICJ does not try natural persons. Unrecognised by many countries, not least the US and Russia, the ICC has come to prominence with its recent arrest warrant for Russian leader Putin on charges of committing a war crime by illegally deporting Ukrainian children.
The first point to make here is that the ICJ, even though its rulings are binding, does not have the power to impose sanctions and, moreover, takes years to issue final judgments. Nevertheless, South Africa's application on the allegation of 'genocide' is accompanied by a request for an order to stop Israel's attacks and the issuance of such an order by the court is significant in terms of increasing international pressure on Israel and the imperialists who support it.
While US Secretary of State Biden, who has shown himself to be Israel's biggest supporter during his four visits to Israel in the last three months while its attacks on Gaza have continued, has declared the genocide case against Israel to be an "injustice", British Foreign Secretary Cameron says he does not believe Israel has violated international law, while German Foreign Minister Baerbock says she does not see genocidal intent in Israel's defence against Hamas.
In Gaza, an area the size of a small Ukrainian town, almost twice as many civilians, mostly children and women, have been slaughtered in the past three months than in the 23-month war in Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands more have been forced to flee. Hospitals, churches and schools in Gaza are being bombed; the Israeli government talks of expelling more than two million Gazans and is making preparations to do so. However, as the above statements show, according to the Western imperialists, led by the USA, there is no legal problem with Israel's massacres and uprooting of thousands of people!
What did these imperialists do when Ukraine sued Russia for war crimes in the same court? No sooner had Ukraine filed its application than they issued a joint statement supporting it and calling for Russia to be punished.
Let there be no misunderstanding. There is nothing we find acceptable about Russia's attacks on and occupation of Ukraine. However, the Western imperialists, who did not stop at imposing embargoes and sanctions on Russia for this reason and threatening those who did not comply with these decrees, are now lining up to defend Israel in the face of Israel's attacks and massacres of genocidal proportions.
Their positions on Ukraine and Palestine alone provide enough material for us to see the hypocrisy of the Western imperialists, who at every opportunity talk about defending international law and peace in accordance with the aims and principles of the UN. Their positions on these two wars and acts of aggression clearly show that the Western imperialists only remember the principles of the UN when and where it serves their interests.
The positions of the US-led forces on the war in Ukraine are also not based on their love for the Ukrainian people. US Senator Blumenthal, on a support visit to Ukrainian leader Zelensky last summer, revealed the true intention behind this support when he commented: "Americans should be assured that we're getting our money's worth. We've degraded the Russian armed forces by about 50%, halved Russian military strength, with an investment of less than 3% of our annual military budget.
The USA and NATO see the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to undermine Russian imperialism, their rival, and this fight for the spoils is behind the sanctions they are imposing on Russia, citing UN principles. The same imperialist forces, far from opposing the attacks and massacres by Israel, which defies UN resolutions calling for an end to the occupation and a two-state solution, act as the biggest supporters of these attacks with their military and financial support. This is because they see Israel as their main fulcrum in the Middle East, home to the world's most important energy reserves and transit routes.
This means that even before the beginning of the trial at the ICJ, the defence of Israel by the leaders of these countries had at the same time the intention to prevent their own complicity and hypocritical policies from being exposed.
It is also worth mentioning that the Erdoğan regime, which criticises the attitude of the Western imperialists on the Palestinian problem and Gaza, is in the same position as Israel in terms of political orientation, even if the violence and dimensions of the attacks are different, when it comes to the Kurdish problem. When one of the regime's media mouthpieces, Erem Şentürk, posted a photo of a Kurdish child injured in the Erdoğan regime's bombing of Rojava in 2019, pretending to be a Palestinian child injured by Israel's phosphorus bombs, on his social media account during the first phase of Israel's attacks and massacres on Gaza, and deleted it after the truth was revealed, this summed up the Erdoğan regime's position on these two problems.
In conclusion, the proceedings that have been started following the application of South Africa, which fought for years against the racist apartheid regime, on Israel's genocidal attacks in Gaza are an important opportunity to expose Israel's war crimes and the forces that are complicit in these crimes. However, it must not be forgotten that such tribunals are dominated by power relations, and therefore popular struggle and solidarity are at the forefront, both in terms of the outcome of these trials and the power of sanctions.
Yusuf Karadaş
