On the Legality of The Use of Force Against Israel

Article By : Sami Amraoui

“This is a text-book case of genocide. The European, ethno-nationalist, settler colonial project in Palestine has entered its final phase, toward the expedited destruction of the last remnants of indigenous Palestinian life in Palestine. What’s more, the government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe, are wholly complicit in the horrific assault. Not only are these governments refusing to meet their treaty obligations “to ensure respect” for the Geneva Conventions, but they are in fact actively arming the assault, providing economic and intelligence support, and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s atrocities.”

Writing an article about International law during these times might feel cynical, as since the beginning of the War on Gaza on October 2023, international lawis nowhere to be seen. Especially if we are talking about the law of waror humanitarian international law which is a set of rules and principles that seek to limit the effects of armed conflict and protect those who are not or are no longer participating in hostilities.The Israeli government does not seem to be bound by any of these rules and consider Israel to be living in a world of its own, outside the international community or living in different times before modern civilization. Indeed, it is unrealistic and almost dystopian how could one State, in the twenty first century, violate every single rule of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, while all of it is being broadcasted live by the mainstream media and the social media, in complete impunity and without any consequence. Therefore, this is probably the best time to learn about international law and observe how these set of rules, long used as a tool for western imperialism, could be one of the instruments used in this war against injustice and tyranny. In this article, we support the idea that in light of recent events, the use of force against Israel by the international community is not only permittedunder international law but it is required and mandatory.
Israel is already considered as a “rogue state” by international law scholars, this term describes a nation or state “regarded as breaking international law and posing a threat to the security of other nations”. How can we not think of Israel as a lawless State? To begin with, the current borders of Israel do not conform to the original UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 181 of 1947, which proposed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Israel expanded its territory through ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement, dispossession and military occupation.In this context, we would like to remind that the Proclamation issued on 6 December 2017 by the US President Donald Trump who decided to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, is a violation of international law and to the Security Council resolutions, according the UNGA.Second, if we look at Israel’s relationship with international institutions, we notice that this entity has violated numerous UN Security Council Resolutions from 1968. From the demand to reverse the annexation of East Jerusalem (Res. 252) to the demand to withdraw for the Golan Heights (Res. 497) andthe demand to cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory (Res. 2334), Israel do not consider the resolutions of the most important international institution in the current world legal order as binding. We must note that those resolutions are not recommendations, they demand actions by states and must be respected. Otherwise, a State who does not respect those resolutions exposes itself to sanctions. Israel is also constantly ignoring all recommendation from the UNGA and any other specialized body such as United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), who condemned this entity more than 95 times since 2006 which is more than all the other member states combined.
Secondly, Israel refuses to ratify a number of universal treaties that regulatestates’ conduct in many important fields that are essential to maintain peace and security. For instance, Israel did not ratify the first and second protocols of the Geneva conventions of 1977 that further regulated protection of civilians, property and the environment during war,the nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993) and Biological Weapons Convention (1972) and finally, the Rome Statute of 1998 that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). This observation could only reveal that this entity refuses to adhere to the rule of modern international law and to be part of the international community like any other civilized nation.