While international law can, at times, seem an ephemeral creature, vulnerable to manipulation, neglect and outright dismissal, its strictures can surprise. The evolving body of law stripping back the immunity of heads of state for gross human rights abuses, the potential complicity of third parties and powers in aiding such heads of states and their armies, are salutary reminders to politicians and officials the world over: mind your obligations, abide by your duties.
Few more onerous obligations exist in this canon than the prevention and punishment of genocide, as outlined by the United Nations Genocide Convention. While claims that it is taking place against the Palestinians as a feature of Israeli policy have been dismissed by the United States and a core group of ministers in the European Union, the human rights fraternity are increasingly convinced: genocide is, and has taken place, in Gaza.
Even if genocide were not ultimately found to be taking place by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the South African lawsuit against Israel, the broader scope of war crimes and crimes against humanity would be hard to rebut, from policies of deprivation and starvation, to the hefty civilian death toll.
This makes the continued arms sales to Israel not only problematic, but potentially criminal in a secondary liability sense. As with the United States, the EU adopts a preferential approach to Israel on the issue of imposing arms embargoes, leaving the matter to individual member states. In no small part is this due to the EU being Israel’s second largest arms supplier after the US. The European External Action Service’s COARM database reveals that between 2018 and 2022, EU member states sold arms to Israel to the value of 1.75 billion euros.
As reported in Al Jazeera, certain states – Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Belgium’s Wallonia – have made chirpy announcements on suspending arms transfers to Israel, though these have been tardily followed up. In any case, the measures are only temporary or partial in nature, a form of decorative diplomacy.
While the European Union dithers and stalls on responding to this subject, despite the ICJ’s interim rulings that there was a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide, bureaucrats have been busy. The EU special representative for human rights, Olof Skoog, has been particularly prominent in this regard in penning a harsh assessment of the conflict for EU ministers ahead of their November 18 council meeting. This was intended to inform debate about a proposal by the then EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on whether political dialogue should be suspended with Israel. Borrell had hoped such a decision would bring pressure to bear on Israel to adhere to international law.
The move encountered resistance, with Germany promising ahead of time it would oppose it. Little surprise, then, that the ministers eventually opposed Borrell’s suggestion, along with any move to ban arms sales to Israel.
Skoog’s assessment, obtained by The Intercept, runs the whole gamut of evidence on the warring conduct by Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah since October 7, 2023 when the Hamas-orchestrated assault killing of 1,200 people precipitated the current, unceasing phase of conflict. The origins of the paper are found in a request made in February 2024 by Spain and Ireland to the European Commission on whether Israel’s military actions in Gaza violated the human rights provisions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
In October, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was still waiting for a response. “The European Commission must respond once and for all to the formal request by two European countries to suspend the association agreement with Israel if it is found, as everything suggests, that human rights are being violated,” the Spanish PM told an event held in Barcelona.
With the European Commission refusing to entertain the matter, Skoog was commissioned by the European External Action Service to conduct a review. This led to an initial assessment in July, one that was subsequently updated in November.
Skoog takes Hamas and Hezbollah to task but lashes the Israeli Defense Forces for failing to adopt a sterner, more discriminating position between civilian and military objects. “Given the high level of civilian casualties and human suffering, allegations focus mainly on how duty bearers, including the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), have seemingly failed to distinguish between civilians and combatants and to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects against the effects of the attacks, in violation of the fundamental principles of IHL [international humanitarian law].”
As with a burgeoning number of reports, legal submissions and the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the “dehumanizing language” used by Israeli officials vis-à-vis Palestinians draws special attention. “Incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence – such as that made in statements by Israeli officials – constitutes a serious violation of international human rights law and may amount to the international crime of incitement to genocide,” Skoog notes.
On the subject of arms sales, the suggestion is made that export licenses be denied in cases where “there is a clear risk that the military technology or equipment to be exported might be used in the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
From the standpoint of culpability, this is significant. As Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and secretary-general of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 reasons, EU ministerial ignorance can hardly be pleaded in this case were the ICC to find Netanyahu and Gallant guilty of violating International Humanitarian Law. “The world now knows that they knew they were in breach of international law because they were explicitly told so by the EU’s own special representative on human rights. History will judge them harshly. And perhaps so will the ICC.” Lawyers across Europe are already drafting their briefs in anticipation, even as reputations get shredded and people continue dying.
Further reading: ‘The Peasants are Revolting – again !’
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It’s obvious that Western governments are intent on supporting Israel and trying to force acceptance of genocide (for no explained reason) onto the people. I don’t know how they expect that will work, because we all know that under their rules, we could all be Palestinians tomorrow, if we stand in the way of lust for power and greed. So it’s clear, our governments no longer represent the people. Are we going to do something about it next election? Or are we simply going to vote the way we’ve always voted, for one of the two major parties? In other words, are we smart enough to save ourselves, or are we still the sheep we’ve always been?
In a post colonial world, the former colonisers are backing the neo colonial Israel.
European sense of superiority, that which covered the evils of colonialism remains shrouded by a thin veil of humanitarianism. Palestinians are just Arabs, a lesser form of human, more clearly described by Natenyahu and others in positions of power in Israel as Human Animals. The other rationale is the Islamaphobia, that not being true believers either of Judaism or Christianity, the claim to be chosen by god cannot apply to Muslims, they are heretics, unbelievers, not worthy of the salvation so clearly taken by those superior beings.
So to make a few dollars selling bombs and other armaments to kill those human animals is ok, there is after all a Dollar or Euro or two to be made.
The ultimate driving force is racism and religious bigotry.
Again I reference that song, Where have all the flowers gone….. closing line is When will we ever learn.
What these warmongers need to watch is that, while they arm Israel so that it can wage war against the rag-tag Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis, that whilst these groups have no access to war planes, tanks and superior bombs and missiles, the worm may turn.
Israel moved very quickly to bomb and destroy the superior armaments of the Assad regime realizing that these could be turned against them by the new Syrian rulers.
Israel has had no real opposition comparable to the level of armaments it attracts from Europe and the US but if these adversaries were to achieve comparable fire power and equivalent arms just watch out: a level playing field is the last thing Israel wants.
Dumbing down? Generically and reflexively blaming western government’s while ignoring actual perps, it allows both corrupt codependent narcissistic Netanyahu and Hamas regimes off the hook, which have also benefitted Putin (for a short breather) and Trump’s campaign.
Related to the latter, much of the pro-Palestinian or Gazan posts on X etc. stopped after Trump prevailed, and only a minority of accounts remain active, probably the authentic supporters.
One Australian faux anti-imperialist tankie who’d been active posting anti-Ukraine agitprop, then switched Oct 7 to pro-Gaza/Palestine and deleted previous anti-Ukraine X posts (but not realising that X comments remain in Google search).
European analysis has the latter RWNJs as key beneficiaries through Anglosphere media and social media campigns blaming the latest symptoms (of past generation) on the left, Biden/Dems, Starmer/Labour (even before they were in govt.) and Albanese/Wong/ALP, while relationships on the right in the background are ignored esp. Netanyahu’s from Putin through GOP.
Meanwhile ignoring the dodgy allies of the perps eg. Netanyahu’s Anglo allies are the GOP, Tories, LNP, Tone’s chum PM ‘mini Putin’ Orban and Murdoch led media; leads onto claims the the centre through left are anti-semitic, but not the right’s white Christian nationalist supporters?! Orwellian media and electoral tactic emerging from the right claiming ‘black is white and white is black’.
Then the cynical media performance that continued domestically with Murdoch, wife and Bolt visiting the Melbourne Synagogue that was firebombed (still no suspects?), with little publicity considering many pejorative comments made about the (Caulfield) locals by Bolt (without starting on Keith Murdoch Snr….)?
There were only two outlets which reported, ignored by ABC etc., one SMH and The Oz hidden behind paywalls, but a PR collaborator of the right is now US MSN which actually published the SMH article (guess by mistake?).
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/rupert-murdoch-visits-firebombed-melbourne-synagogue/ar-AA1vIej4
The article has been removed
All of the ‘West’ could easily at any time have decided to back and protect the ‘citizen’ movements in their push towards freedom and democracy. Movements that surged in the ‘Arab Spring’. But it was apparently not their objective in leveraging that ‘Arab Spring’. To me, it is now clear that their objective was to destabilize and create chaos, to arm the chaos, in particular by opting to deal with the dictators / totalitarian / ethno-religious regimes of their choosing – those with their hands on the levers of their treasuries, and to increase the levels of bloodshed and division in the communities, by both ballistic and psychological warfare.
Thus the ‘West’ could claim that the ‘barbarians’ eliminated themselves, and that the ‘cleared way’ required the ‘West’ to come in and ‘tidy it all up’ – a euphemism for expansion of the collaborative hegemon of the ‘West’. An evil, subjugating, brutal, supremacist, paranoid, puritanical, monocultural oblivion pushed by opportunistic adherents of the olde imperia, and the babbling fools of the oligarchic USA and its captured flunkies.