Israeli Genocide destroys the façade of International Law

Ensuring Socio-economic Justice

Crescent International

Sha'ban 20, 1445 2024-03-01

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

As the zionist regime continues to deliberately murder civilians in occupied Palestine, the repercussions of its genocidal actions will soon boomerang on the entire western imposed global political and legal order.

Western regimes like to flaunt the term ‘international law’ in order to dress up their hegemonic policies as benevolent and orderly.

What is often, and perhaps deliberately overlooked is that the concept of international law, unlike domestic law, lacks a clear legal hierarchy and its formulation is dependent on the conduct of state entities.

Their actions create precedent, and these get informally enshrined into the international legal framework as customs.

While this might seem superficial in considering the ongoing genocide in Palestine, it is quite substantive.

The horrific actions of apartheid Israel will now formulate the footing for other states in using force.

It should be remembered that the centuries-old debate about international law is centered around the idea of whether it is law at all or is it a custom.

The custom feature of international law makes it particularly vulnerable to bad precedents.

How does this relate to the current situation?

Twenty years ago, western regimes had almost total monopoly on initiating conflicts and using force to achieve their interests, whether strategic, political or economic.

In the multipolar global order where western dominance is in decline, other states will also now feel free to use force to advance their interests and principles, as is the case of Yemeni actions in the Red Sea.

Decline of western dominance is not speculation but a fact acknowledged even by the proponents of west-centric hegemonic order.

Analyzing the Munich Security Conference held in February 2024, Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, wrote:

“The era of Western dominance has indeed definitively ended. While this has been theoretically understood, we have not always drawn all practical conclusions from this new reality.”

One of the primary practical conclusions Borell and other western officials should draw is that when others resort to using force to degrade western and Israeli interests, they will cite the impotence and spin put by western regimes on downplaying Israeli genocide in Palestine.

As western regimes choose to downplay and give carte blanche to Israeli genocide of Palestinians, what they do not realize is that Israel’s actions will be used as a precedent in future conflicts.

When western regimes are on the receiving end of a conflict, no one will listen to their cries of international law and norms.

By blindly backing Israel’s genocide in occupied Palestine, western regimes have not only obliterated their soft power, they have also become catalysts for breaking down an already shaky international legal system.

In the past, this system provided some minimal control mechanism over unruly political entities.

Those who assume that Israeli crimes are unlikely to boomerang on the global scale, should look at the US violation of Iraqi sovereignty and consider Russia’s framing of its actions in Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine is the clearest manifestation of how violation of Iraqi sovereignty boomeranged against the western geopolitical sphere.

Its preliminary legal precedent was set in motion by the west in Iraq.

Overall, future wars are likely to be more brutal and total, “thanks” to powers that enabled and downplayed the Israeli genocide in Palestine.

Another aspect that should be kept in mind is that it is simply a matter of time before hard power tips in favor of the Palestinians and the regional socio-political forces supporting them in their struggle for liberation.

When that moment arrives, it will be impossible to attempt to try to convince the Palestinians to restrain themselves when powerful regimes actively enabled their genocide and did not care about any legal norms of war.

By deliberately targeting civilians, the zionist regime has demolished the myth of rules-based order.

It has also set in motion a time bomb against its own collateral damage which it will never be able to defuse.