Introduction:
Due to the heavy Israeli influence (through powerful Zionist
lobbyist organizations) on the United States Congress, which impacts domestic
law and foreign policy, to include billions on billions in annual foreign aid
packages issued by the United States government to the nation-state of Israel,
Palestine has been a continuous field of study for me. I do not think it does the Palestine-Israel
issue “justice” to analyze Palestine’s status of statehood according to
so-called international law in the age of capital globalization without first
understanding the historical usage of international capital, Zionist and
Christian Zionist, in establishing the modern nation-state of Israel as a
military hegemon in the Near-Middle East region and ensured an international
political coalition to hinder the official international recognition of Palestinian
statehood. In order to offer that
background of historical development which I consider imperative to
understanding the limited Palestinian position on the international stage,
especially concerning statehood and international law, I provide links to
previous papers that I have written on the subject in order to establish a
historical timeframe on Palestine:
Liberal Policies of the Ottoman Empire Concerning
Immigration and Foreign Land Purchasing
The British in Palestine: The Exploitation of the British
Empire
Zionist Historical Documents - Herzl "What is a
State", Balfour Declaration, Faysal-Weizmann Agreement
Historical British Documents on Palestine: Churchill White
Letter, Peel Commission Report, British Policy Letter 1939
Palestine: The Usurped Non-State
Current Legal Status of Palestine under so-called International
Law:
On November 29, 2012 the United Nations General Assembly
voted to grant Palestine the status of Non-Member State observer status. The decision to seek Non-Member State observer
status through a General Assembly vote which neutralized U.S. veto power came
after “a failed bid to achieve full UN membership in 2011” due greatly in part
to the threat of a United States United Nations Security Council Veto [1]. The 2012 General Assembly vote on Non-Member
Observer State status for Palestine “passed 138 to 9 with 41 abstentions”, with
the United States and Israel, of course, voting against the proposal [2]. The vote “upgraded Palestine’s status without
prejudice to the acquired rights, privileges and role of the Palestine
Liberation Organization in the United Nations as the representative of the
Palestinian people” from the previous recognition “as an observer entity in
1974” prior to the UN recognition of the Palestinian declaration of
independence in 1988 [3].
On the day following the historical UN Vote in November of
2012 “Israel declared plans to expand settlements in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem” [4]. These settlements are
largely viewed as a violation of international law by many members of the
United Nations General Assembly. Why
does Israel (and thus, the United States) attempt to block and impede
Palestinian efforts for Palestinians to achieve non-member state status or
actual UN Member State status? One of
the main reasons is “concern in Israel that non-member state status would
empower Palestinian officials to seek recourse at the International Criminal
Court” and that “Palestinians could use the forum in order to bring action
against Israel for what they view as violations of international law regarding
their treatment in the West Bank and Gaza, including war crimes and the
construction of Jewish settlements” [5].
The Question on Whether Palestine is a State:
I tend to agree that, as far as can be established under
naval blockade and “restrictions on the movement of Palestinians within the
West Bank”, that Palestine is a state [6].
I agree with Professor Quigley’s points that Palestine declared
statehood in 1988 and the United Nations responded to that declaration, that
many United Nations General Assembly member states recognize and support
Palestinian statehood, that there are no other claimants to the Gaza Strip and
the West Bank, and that “sovereignty devolved upon the Palestinian people when
the British Mandate ended, thereby establishing a “continual statehood” for the
Palestinians” [7]. Considering the
historical developments of the Arab population of Palestine before and after
the establishment of the internationally recognized state of Israel, and the
international prevention of a recognized Palestinian statehood member status in
the United Nations, I question the justice of the inactivity of the International
Criminal Court based on a flimsy rejection using article 12 (3) of the Rome
Statute: “If the acceptance of a State
which is not a Party to this Statute is required under paragraph 2, that State
may, by declaration lodged with the Registrar, accept the exercise of
jurisdiction by the Court with respect to the crime in question” [8].
Article 5 of the Rome Statute declares that the
International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over crimes of genocide, crimes
against humanity, war crimes, and the crimes of aggression [9]. Anyone who takes the time, without political,
ethnic, or religious bias, to review Israeli actions toward the Palestinian
territories and population over the past 15 years, to include the creation of
illegal settlements, can clearly see that the Palestinians have reason for
requesting international jurisdiction under the International Criminal Court. The problem for the Palestinians remains to
be the lack of protection and constant vulnerability to Israeli military aggression
due to the legal terminology of article 12(3) of the Rome Statute which insists
on statehood for consideration, while Palestine is denied both recognized
statehood and International Criminal Court Jurisdiction due to greater
political and economic powers preventing it.
We have already discussed the (always) looming threat of the
U.S. United Nations Security Council veto (on behalf of Israel) preventing
official recognition of Palestinian statehood, and this is not the only
political ‘blockade’ in recent history that has been implement by the United
States and Israel. In 1989, the
Palestinian Liberation Organization “applied for membership in the World Health
Organization (W.H.O.)” only to be rejected after “the United States informed
the W.H.O. that if Palestine were admitted as a member state, the United States
would withhold funding. At the time, the
United States contributed one fourth of the W.H.O. budget.” [10].
As for the response by Robert Weston Ash to Professor
Quigley’s argument that Palestine should indeed by recognized as a state by the
International Criminal Court, I can only say that Ash is obviously pro-Israeli
in ideology and used the most trivial ‘he said/she said’ points, along with
weak terminology twisting, against Quigley’s strong historical references [11].
Conclusion:
Being prevented from internationally recognized statehood by
the United States and Israel, and second-hand state actors and NGOs with
economic ties to both, what rights or duties do the Palestinian people actually
have? They are internationally isolated
and basically ignored by the international community while forced to incur the
most economically damaging, humiliating, and oppressive policies instituted by
the state of Israel, who is heavily funded by the by the United States. If there is any chance of true international
justice for Palestine, perhaps it is time to reassess the concept that “much of
international law can be applied and enforced only by states” that are
recognized by full membership in the United Nations [12].
International law, whether in the United Nations or the
International Criminal Court, has an owner, and that owner is capital. It clearly states as much on the
International Criminal Court website in the admission that while “the Court’s
expenses are funded primarily by States Parties, it also receives voluntary
contributions from governments, international organisations, individuals,
corporations and other entities” [13].
Wouldn’t it be very interesting to see a breakdown of that funding
amounts and funding entities?
International organizations?
Corporations? Individuals? And other entities?
Notes:
[1] Robert
McMahon, “Palestinian Statehood at the
UN, Council of Foreign Relations,” Council on Foreign Relations, November 30,
2012, http://www.cfr.org/palestine/palestinian-statehood-un/p25954
[2] Robert
McMahon, “Palestinian Statehood at the
UN, Council of Foreign Relations,” Council on Foreign Relations, November 30,
2012, http://www.cfr.org/palestine/palestinian-statehood-un/p25954
[3] United Nation
General Assembly, “General Assembly Votes Overwhelmingly to Accord Palestine
’Non-Member Observer State’ Status in United Nations, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/ga11317.doc.htm
[4] NPR staff, “Now
What? The State of Palestinian Statehood,” NPR, December 1, 2012, http://www.npr.org/2012/12/01/166313016/the-state-of-palestinian-statehood
[5] Robert
McMahon, “Palestinian Statehood at the
UN, Council of Foreign Relations,” Council on Foreign Relations, November 30,
2012, http://www.cfr.org/palestine/palestinian-statehood-un/p25954
[6] Robert
McMahon, “Palestinian Statehood at the
UN, Council of Foreign Relations,” Council on Foreign Relations, November 30,
2012, http://www.cfr.org/palestine/palestinian-statehood-un/p25954
[7] John Quigley, The
Palestinian Declaration to the International Criminal Court: The Statehood
Issue, http://lawrecord.com/files/35_Rutgers_L_Rec_1.pdf
[8] Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,
Article 12(3), http://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/add16852-aee9-4757-abe7-9cdc7cf02886/283503/romestatuteng1.pdf
[9] Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,
Article 12(3), http://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/add16852-aee9-4757-abe7-9cdc7cf02886/283503/romestatuteng1.pdf
[10] John Quigley,
The Palestinian Declaration to the International Criminal Court: The Statehood
Issue, p. 3, http://lawrecord.com/files/35_Rutgers_L_Rec_1.pdf
[11] Robert Weston
Ash, Is Palestine a “State”? A Response
to Professor John Quigley’s Article, “The Palestine Declaration to the
International Criminal Court: The Statehood Issue, http://lawrecord.com/files/36_Rutgers_L_Rec_186.pdf
[12] Gerhard von Glahn and James Larry Taublee, Law Among
Nations: an Introduction to Public International Law 9 (2010), p. 104.
[13] International Criminal Court Website, About the Court, http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/about%20the%20court/Pages/about%20the%20court.aspx
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