Legal battles amid genocide accusations against Israel
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) found it plausible that Israel violated the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in Gaza, a ruling that has provided new momentum to the struggle to stop governments and corporations from assisting Israel's assault on Gaza.
An unprecedented number of lawsuits and motions have been submitted to national and international courts from lawyers, activists, organizations, and states who believe that international law and conventions that prohibit genocide mean something and must be implemented.
This new frontier in the battle between Palestinian Arabism and Zionism is significant because it promises a more level playing field where traditional military-political strengths and weaknesses are neutralized or even reversed.
The Israeli government is seeking help from Western allies to fend off accusations, and the Israeli army has established an international law department to handle the legal challenges.
Mainstream Western media has mostly stayed away from covering this important story in depth, perhaps because the United States and many other Western governments are charged as complicit main backers of the crime of genocide in these cases.
South Africa's case against Israel at the ICJ revealed many uncomfortable truths about Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza and the 75 years of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Nicaragua urged the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada to immediately halt the supply of arms, ammunition, technology, and/or components to Israel, giving them written notice that it would adopt all appropriate legal measures to guarantee respect for fundamental international law.
Various parties have also approached the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has the mandate to try individuals and entities accused of atrocities. In March, Australian lawyers referred Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the ICC for possible complicity in genocide.
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit in a California court on behalf of Palestinian families in Gaza and the United States, accusing President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin of failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
A Dutch court of appeals ordered the government to stop the delivery to Israel of spare parts for the F-35 fighter jet, citing a clear risk of violations of international law.
Berlin-based lawyers filed an urgent application on behalf of Palestinian families in Gaza to stop the German government from approving contracts for weapons sales to Israel, which they believed uses them in violation of laws against genocide and war crimes.
Lawyers, activists, and organizations are exploring using a variety of legal avenues to halt the genocide as quickly as possible, including public demonstrations, petitions, lobbying, and activism.
A time will come when Western complicity in the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians will become impossible to cover up, and media organizations would do well to at least report honestly on the surge of global litigation against Israel's genocide.
Otherwise, they run the risk of being swept up in the tide of the many political and corporate accomplices now being named in courts around the world.