Gaza; anticolonial struggles, international law (& the IHRA)
JVL Introduction
Just days after the Israel bombed, burned and killed people sheltering in tents in the grounds of a hospital, many are asking about the value of the UN and of International Law. We urge you to watch the video that features thoughtful contributions from Francesca Albanese, Noura Erakat and Daniel Levy.
The discussion sets what is happening in Palestine and beyond firmly within the context of anticolonial struggles, notes that further protocols were added to the Geneva Conventions in the 1970s to take account of the fact that most violent conflicts were not between States but between States and non State actors. Rules about protecting civilians still applied in the context of guerilla warfare, so that it is illegal for guerilla fighters to use civilians and illegal for the State that they are fighting to kill civilians because they support the guerillas or to proceed with an action against those fighters if there would be disproportionate harm to civilians. What is shockingly noteworthy is that neither the USA nor Israel signed up to these additional protocols.
Daniel Levy briefly notes the phenomenal effort made by Israel and its supporters to get the widespread adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism. As we warned, it has become part of the smokescreen covering what Israel is actually doing in the name of “self-defence”.
Erakat speaks about anticolonial struggles and how the theoretical analysis of the direction Israel was heading is now become reality. Albanese speaks of the mental trauma of the destruction of everything that people in Gaza have known; she retains hope for International Law. For all hope rests, perhaps above all, that so many across the world have been mobilised to act in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
LL
This article was originally published by Quincy Institute You Tube channel on Tue 15 Oct 2024. Read the original here.
Israel’s Invasion of Gaza: One Year Later
On October 13, 2023, Israel began ground operations in the Gaza Strip, less than a week after the Hamas attack on October 7. A year later, Gaza has been reduced to rubble: 90 percent of the population is displaced, over 42,000 people are confirmed dead, with thousands more likely dead or dying, and Israel now having invaded Lebanon on October 1st. Israel continues to occupy Gaza and is engaged in “systematically emptying” northern Gaza; while at the same time, Israel has escalated the conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon and may launch new strikes on Iran, potentially dragging in the U.S., the broader region, and even possibly Russia and China into a global conflagration. Where is the Middle East – and US policy toward the Middle East – a year after the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and Israel’s ensuing atrocities in Gaza? Is the region moving towards even greater conflict, or is de-escalation still possible? What does the past year tell us about the strength (or lack thereof) of international law, human rights conventions, and America’s own regulations in terms of arming and supporting parties at war? Addressing these questions and more, the Quincy Institute held a conversation with Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine; Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American activist, university professor, legal scholar, and human rights attorney; and Daniel Levy, a British/Israeli analyst, commentator, and former advisor to the Israeli government. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute, moderated.
Download the full webinar transcript here: https://quincyinst.s3.amazonaws.com/w…
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Can’t help but feel people like Noura Erakat and the (fraud) ‘squad’ types (like AOC and her clique) are part of the problem.
And in the UK, its the social democrats and socalled Labour Party socialists. When will JVL get some analysis with the likes of Rania Khalek, Asad AbuKhalil or even from some of the actual Marxists, such as the CPGM-ML ?
For Britain to maintain its shabby little role in the vile horrors around Israel, our own self-determination has been undermined, in fact stolen from us.
About ten years ago, I did not know what Zionism is. Now we observe unrestrained Zionism freely murdering the indigenous inhabitants of the lands which it has colonised. About ten years ago I was puzzled by what we now know to be a big lie, which was continually repeated by establishment politicians and establishment mass media, about ‘antisemitism’ amongst socialist members of the Labour Party. The following-on purge of socialists here was (and is) of course to facilitate the genocide being done by Israel.
Thought this was very good. Levy particularly good. I could not understand Hassan’s comment above. Why attack Noura in this supercilious way? I have always felt people who gun for those who passionately support the weaker victim, undermine any potential for victory over the oppressors. Who does this commentator think so-called Labour Party socialists are? I do not think the CP has anything much to bring to the table myself and to bring someone in who does not believe Israel should exist at all like Khalil is like asking a hand grenade to join in a dynamite party -pointless and intellectually nihilistic.
Israel should not exist, it should never have been created. There should be one country for all the inhabitants of that land with equal civil rights for all. None of the inhabitants should be treated in any way special.
All who have participated in the destruction of the Palestinian people should be held to account.