It’s not usual to witness the murder and starvation of populations in real time. In the Gaza Strip, Israel has the means, the weapons and the sheer gumption to do so and Palestinians in Gaza find themselves with few options for survival.
The Jewish state’s strategic objectives, which involve the elimination of Hamas, have been shown to be unattainable. This is leading to failed policies of de-facto annexation and occupation coming back into its national security jargon.
In yet another round of proceedings, this time initiated by a UN General Assembly resolution, the International Court of Justice is hearing from 40 states and four international organisations on Israel’s complete blockade of Gaza since March 2.
Also featuring prominently are Israel’s efforts to attack the United Nations itself, notably UNRWA, the relief agency charged with aiding Palestinians.
Counsel for the Palestinians, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh outlined the central grievances. The restrictions on “the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, [Israel’s] attacks on the United Nations and on UN officials, property and premises, its deliberate obstruction of the organisation’s work and its attempt to destroy an entire UN subsidiary organ” lacked precedent “in the history of the organisation”.
Ní Ghrálaigh said these actions are not only “antithetical to a peace-loving state”; they were also “a fundamental repudiation by Israel of its charter obligations owed both to the organisation and to all UN members and of the international rule of law”.
Israel has closed all relevant crossings into the Strip and seemingly planned “to annex 75 square kilometres of Rafah, one-fifth of Gaza, to [its] so-called buffer zone, permanently. This, together with Israel’s continuing maritime blockade, cuts Gaza and its people off from direct aid and assistance and from the rest of the world”.
Ní Ghrálaigh went on to document the plight of Palestinian children, 15,600 of whom had perished, with tens of thousands more injured, missing or traumatised. Gaza had become “home to the largest cohort of child amputees in the world, the largest orphan crisis in modern history, and a whole generation in danger of suffering from stunting, causing irreparable physical and cognitive impairments,” she said.
South Africa, which has an application before the Court accusing Israel of violating the UN Genocide Convention, pointed to the international prohibition against “starvation as a method of warfare, including under siege or blockade”.
Its representative Jaymion Hendricks insisted that Israel had “deployed the full range of techniques of hunger and starvation” against “the protected Palestinian population, which it holds under unlawful occupation”.
The decision to expel UNRWA and relevant UN agencies should be reversed and access to food, medicine and humanitarian aid resumed.
In a chilling submission to the Court, Zane Dangor, director general of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, detected a scheme in the cruelty. “The humanitarian aid system is facing total collapse. This collapse is by design.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that Israel would not participate in oral proceedings he derided as a “circus” and restated that UNRWA was “an organisation infiltrated beyond repair by terrorism”. He said the courts were once again being abused “to try and force Israel to cooperate with an organisation that is infested with Hamas terrorists, and it won’t happen”.
He then shamelessly evoked Émile Zola’s “J’Accuse” note of 1898, penned during the convulsions of the Dreyfus Affair, saying: “I accuse UNRWA. I accuse the UN. I accuse the Secretary General, I accuse all those that weaponize international law and its institutions in order to deprive the most attacked country in the world, Israel, of its most basic right to defend itself.”
Amir Weissbrod of Israel’s foreign ministry reiterated the claims that UNRWA had employed 1400 Palestinians with militant links. Furthermore, he said, some had taken part in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks.
That such a small number had participated was striking and should have spared the organisation the savaging it received. Israel has longed for the expulsion of an entity that is an accusing reminder of its ongoing policy of oppression and dispossession.
In her moving address to the court, Ní Ghrálaigh urged the justices to direct Israel to allow aid to enter Gaza and re-engage the offices of UNRWA. Doing so might permit the re-mooring of international law.
Israeli officials' somewhat fanatical reaction to these proceedings in The Hague suggest that anchoring international obligations, notably concerning Palestinian civilians, is off their list.
[Binoy Kampmark currently lectures at RMIT University.]