Europe

EU should not rely on International Court of Justice to hold Israel to account, says academic

Lack of efforts to stop weapon sales to Israel following invasion of Gaza criticised at European Parliament event

An Israeli soldier takes up a position outside the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City last week. Photograph: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv/New York Times
An Israeli soldier takes up a position outside the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City last week. Photograph: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv/New York Times
Jack Power in Brussels
Wed Apr 03 2024 - 18:50

The European Union should not put “all of its eggs” in the basket of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) holding Israel to account for its actions in Gaza, an academic has told MEPs.

Janina Dill, professor of global security at the University of Oxford, said there was already “every indication” that Israel’s conduct in Gaza had violated international humanitarian law.

Earlier this year the ICJ made an interim order directing Israel to take all possible measures to avoid genocidal acts in the conflict. The country had been accused of genocide in a case taken by South Africa to the United Nation’s highest court, following the ground invasion of Gaza, which has seen more than 32,900 Palestinians killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Observers have said the court will likely take years before making a decision on whether genocide has been committed in the conflict.

Speaking at an event in the European Parliament, Prof Dill said the international community should not “hide” behind the fact the court case was ongoing. “We often hear lawyers correctly point out that one cannot definitively diagnose a war crime or genocide from afar,” she said.

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“We all can and must say when it looks like conduct violates humanitarian law,” she said. The introduction of an arms embargo and the withdrawal of diplomatic and financial support could “rein in Israel”, she said.

The court had set an “impossibly high bar” by stating genocide must be the only intent of the actions under scrutiny, she said. A finding that genocide took place would be “very hard to establish”, particularly when it was alleged to have been carried out by a state, the academic said.

Prof Vaios Koutroulis, from the international law centre at Université libre de Bruxelles, said there had been a “paucity” of efforts to stem the sale of weapons to Israel since the outbreak of the conflict. This was in stark contrast to concrete measures introduced targeting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, he said.

Giulia Pinzauti, a former ICJ legal associate officer, said trying to address the persecution of Palestinians in the genocide case would be like fitting a large foot into “Cinderella’s glass slipper”. There were separate but related issues such as the previous lengthy occupation of the Gaza Strip and settler violence in the West Bank, she said.

“This case is probably going to take years if it is going to reach a ruling on the merits, if ever,” she said. “Israel is using starvation of the Palestinians as a weapon of war. The situation couldn’t be more urgent,” she said.

The European Parliament event was organised by Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews and Soraya Rodríguez, a Spanish MEP, who said Gaza had gone from an “open air prison” to an “open air cemetery”.

Jack Power

Jack Power

Jack Power is acting Europe Correspondent of The Irish Times