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Israel and the Illusion of International Justice

(Ha'aretz) Gerald Steinberg and Anne Herzberg - The dominance of nondemocratic and Islamic nations in international organs such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), the UN Human Rights Council, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the increasing politicization of these bodies, virtually guarantees that no justice will be done when it comes to Israel or even NATO countries. In such morally corrupt frameworks, international law and human rights have become political weapons, disconnected from legitimate judicial processes and legal systems in democratic societies. The ICJ's handling of the 2004 case regarding Israel's security barrier is a telling example. The suit was initiated by the UN General Assembly at the behest of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. European-funded advocacy groups, aided by NGO superpowers Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), were central to this effort. The ICJ's resulting advisory opinion negated Israel's right of self-defense and displayed an utter lack of sympathy for terror victims. Hardly an independent judicial inquiry, this distorted proceeding encouraged subversion of the rule of law by allowing for political manipulation of the judicial process. Following the Gaza war, the PLO pressured ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to open a case against Israel, even though "Palestine" is not a state and doing so would be a gross violation of the court's treaty. Moreno-Ocampo has admitted to working closely with the Arab League in this process. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, funded primarily by European governments, is also deeply involved in this one-sided effort, as are Amnesty and HRW. Refusing to be a party to this sort of legal travesty does not mean Israel is insensitive to international law or human rights, or that the Jewish state does not wish to be a member of the international community. To suggest that Israel could exert any influence on bodies where nondemocratic regimes wield excessive power, however, is a pipe dream that has no connection to today's unfortunate reality. Gerald Steinberg is a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University and president of NGO Monitor; Anne Herzberg is NGO Monitor's legal advisor.
2010-01-15 08:38:21
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