Monday, March 02, 2009

Justice for Gaza?

Despite the Israeli's best efforts, there may yet be justice for their recent indiscriminate campaign against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The International Criminal Court is currently investigating their actions, despite neither Israel or the Palestinian Authority being parties. And they are expected to decide whether they have formal jurisdiction within "months, not years":

The international criminal court is considering whether the Palestinian Authority is "enough like a state" for it to bring a case alleging that Israeli troops committed war crimes in the recent assault on Gaza.

The deliberations would potentially open the way to putting Israeli military commanders in the dock at The Hague over the campaign, which claimed more than 1,300 lives, and set an important precedent for the court over what cases it can hear.

[...]

[S]ources at the ICC say it is considering two potential tracks that would permit it to investigate what happened in Gaza. As well as determining whether the PA is recognised internationally as a sufficiently state-like entity, the head of jurisdictions in the office of the international criminal court's prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is looking at whether the court can consider war crimes allegations on the basis of the dual nationality of either victims or alleged perpetrators whose second passport is with a country party to the court.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross, in their role as guardians of the Geneva Conventions, has made a clear case for war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas. Unfortunately, it will be presented privately to the two parties, rather than publicly with their leaders standing in the dock.

If we want to end these sorts of atrocities, we need to start by holding political and military leaders legally accountable for the orders they give. The international legal framework for doing so exists; all we need is the political will to follow through with it, to choose justice over expedience and unaccountability.