Urgent action must be taken against the world war in Palestine

– Every state can do something to end this genocidal war: closing embassies, imposing economic sanctions, divestment, enforcing arms embargoes, and boycotting aviation and communications are simple actions states could take

– The unprecedented attacks on Gaza and fears of a larger regional war with global implications have accelerated debates about the urgent need for multipolarity. International law will and must change forever after October 7th

– Humanity is facing a moment of truth. Either we rise up to end genocide, or we allow brutal conflicts to spread across the globe and make genocide the norm

The author is a professor of international law at the University of Hebron, Palestine.

ISTANBUL

Since October 7, 2023, the world has been waging an open war for the existence of Palestine and the Palestinian people. Despite claims to the contrary, most states, international organizations, courts, mainstream media and academia in the Global North have become complicit in the first live-streamed genocide in human history. Humanity has lost the values ​​and ethical foundations that it has developed and claimed over the last three centuries. Governments either support the ongoing massacres by exporting weapons to the Israeli army, supporting the occupier diplomatically, trading with them, remaining indifferent or simply making empty statements to their voters.

The international system has lost its legitimacy

Humanity has forgotten the principles that underpinned the global order after World War II. The UN Security Council has reached an impasse and has taken no action to stop the genocide. The General Assembly has become a forum for useless speeches and unenforceable resolutions. The International Court of Justice is moving slowly and cannot even enforce the cessation of genocide in Rafah. The court continues as usual, as if daily massacres were not taking place before the eyes of its judges. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) approaches the issue of arrest warrants for Israeli war criminals timidly, as if he is waiting for tens of thousands more children to be torn apart so he can act. Even judges at the International Criminal Court have been complicit in the denial of justice in Gaza, deliberately issuing lazy arrest warrants for Israeli perpetrators and relying on flimsy arguments such as the validity of the Oslo Accords. Global organizations are paralyzed or unwilling to meet their obligations to protect suffering populations. The system has lost its legitimacy and has failed miserably.

This year has witnessed the systematic destruction not only of Gaza, but also of the foundations of global justice. No distinction was made between combatants and civilians, as required by the Geneva Conventions. The principles of necessity and proportionality were not observed. Blind murder, systematic torture, the elimination of medical professionals and journalists, and the destruction of hospitals, schools, universities, courts, communities, mosques, libraries, businesses and United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) facilities are contrary to all human rights instruments, for whose development humanity has fought over the past century. And humanity and international institutions and courts are just watching. Every state can do something to end this genocidal war: closing embassies, imposing economic sanctions, divestment, enforcing arms embargoes, and boycotting aviation and communications are simple actions states could take. Still no or only slight movements.

The Gaza genocide changed international law once and for all. Before October 2023, attention focused on the war between Russia and Ukraine and its impact on the crumbling unipolar order. However, the Israeli bombings, which spared no aspect of life in this continuous genocide, and the world’s inaction against it, have exposed the inherent deficiencies of the global legal order. Until recently, reform efforts have focused on the imbalance in the UN system, particularly the Security Council and its veto power, and the emergence of a multipolar world. The unprecedented attacks on Gaza and fears of a larger regional war with global implications have accelerated debates about the urgent need for multipolarity. International law will and must change forever after October 7th.

Universal law must be rebuilt

The unprecedented carnage in Gaza has highlighted existing gaps in key areas of international law and the need for inevitable reforms beyond the current security system. International human rights law and its mechanisms need to be revitalized. Humanitarian law needs concrete enforcement powers. The ICC must be decolonized. Genocide law should be reformulated with enforceable prevention and accountability tools. Arms transfer laws and the criminalization of aid and assistance must be strengthened. The law on sanctions and the third country obligation principle must be specified. The universal jurisdiction of domestic courts to prosecute international crimes needs to be reconsidered. The responsibility to protect must be upheld. Environmental law should include new concepts: ecocide, agrarian murder and democide as part of its enforceable rules. And maritime law and maritime manning must become justiciable. The attack on Gaza shows the urgency of universal legal reconstruction.

Humanity is facing a moment of truth. Either we rise up to end genocide, or we allow brutal conflicts to spread across the globe and make genocide the norm. Either we wake up now or we expect a third world war that will force us to reform the global system. We, humanity, must ask ourselves: Do we want a world where the law of the jungle reigns, or can we rethink the current order, which has proven to be a fading relic? The choice is ours. And we can act now.

*The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu’s editorial policy.

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