the Disillusioned kid: Writing On The Wall
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Saturday, July 24, 2004

Writing On The Wall

The past week or so has seen a resurgence of the controversy over the Israeli "security fence"/"Apartheid Wall". This has been fuelled by the "advisory opinion" of the International Court of Justice (not to be confused with the International Criminal Court, the former is for disputes between states, the latter for cases against individuals) on its legality and the UN General Assembly vote calling for Israel to comply with it. 

I, like most of the world, have no problem with Israel building a wall to prevent or reduce terrorist attacks. If they want to make it a mile high, top it with barbed wire, patrol it on both sides, dig a moat, that's fine with me. I happen not to think it's likely to have the effect its proponents claim (most suicide bombers come from the Gaza Strip, quite apart from those who originate within the more than a illion strong Israeli Arab population living within 'Israel proper'), but that's by the by. The problem is the route which has been chosen. This goes some way into the West Bank and is widely understood as a way of consolidating Israeli control over Palestinian land and resources (including water).

The West Bank was one of the territories along with the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai (later returned to Egypt) captured during the 1967 war. It is almost universally accepted as Palestinian land and would form a Palestinian state, along with Gaza, in a two-state settlement. Many have argued that the wall would form the basis of a border in any future agreement.  

Unsurprisingly the Israeli government have not responded positively to the ruling and subsequent UN vote. They claim, rather bizarrely that only the Israeli High Court has the authority to make rulings on international law. Indeed, that body has already ruled that 30km of the wall northwest of Jerusalem/Al-Quds must be rerouted, because its effect on the Palestinian population in the area. Nonetheless they intend to continue construction of the wall with only limited modifications to its route.

Neither the ICJ ruling nor the General Assembly vote are binding. Only the UN Security Council has the power to impose sanctions or take more serious action and the US would veto any such moves (the five permanent members of the Council have the power to veto any resolution), which means that no-one is likely to even propose such a resolution in the chamber. It is to be hoped that the ruling and vote will increase pressure on Israel, but there is little guarantee that it will have much effect. During the 1980s Nicaragua took the US to the ICJ and obtained a ruling that the superpower's support for Contra paramilitaries, who it was arming, equipping and training to undermine the left-wing Sandinista government, was illegal. The ICJ ruled that the US must cease its actions and compensate Nicaragua. The US, of course, simply ignored the ruling, with the effect that it was consigned to the dustbin of history and it remains little-known outside of dissident circles.

If the Palestinians are unable to have their grievances dealt with satisfactorily in the for a of international law is it any surprise that so many of them support armed resistance to the Israeli action, perhaps even terrorism against civilians? Unless they have some hope of achieving justice through other means, do not the calls of our leaders that they renounce violence sound a little hollow? The primary purpose of the various structures of international law is to reduce the levels of conflict in the world. The preamble to the UN Charter begins, "We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind." Unless there is some hope that the weak and not just the strong can use international law there is little chance of this aim being achieved.

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.