There exists perhaps no more exquisite demonstration of the theatrical nature of international justice than the spectacle we have witnessed in recent years: the world’s most august legal institutions solemnly pronouncing judgment upon Israel’s conduct, only to watch helplessly as their verdicts are consigned to the historical dustbin with the same casual indifference one might reserve for yesterday’s newspaper.
45,000 dead Palestinians. That’s the current count in Gaza alone.
The International Court of Justice issues its binding orders, the International Criminal Court brandishes its arrest warrants, and the United Nations passes its resolutions — all while the machinery of occupation, settlement, and systematic displacement continues to operate with the efficiency of a Swiss timepiece and the moral sensibility of a protection racket.
This isn’t some fucking accident. This is deliberate.
Israel has not simply defied the international legal order — it has demonstrated its fundamental irrelevance to anyone possessing sufficient firepower and the right friends in Washington. In doing so, it has exposed the entire edifice of post-war international jurisprudence as little more than an elaborate performance designed to provide the illusion of justice while ensuring that real accountability remains forever beyond reach.
The Court Jesters of The Hague
The International Court of Justice issued provisional measures on January 26, 2024, requiring Israel to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza [1].
Israel’s response? More bombs.
Within 48 hours of the ICJ ruling, Israeli forces killed 195 more Palestinians in Gaza.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking to Israeli troops: “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” [2] This is the language of genocide, spoken openly, while the world’s highest court begs for compliance with the most basic legal obligations.
The Court might as well have issued its orders in fucking Esperanto.
67 hospitals damaged or destroyed in Gaza. 183 schools bombed. 1.9 million people displaced. All after the ICJ’s “binding” order to prevent genocide.
The American Veto Machine
The United States has used its Security Council veto power 42 times to shield Israel from accountability since 1972 [3]. Forty-two times. Not for American interests, mind you — for Israel’s.
$3.8 billion in annual military aid. Every single year. No conditions.
Joe Biden, speaking to a meeting of Jewish leaders in 1986: “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region.” [4]
There’s your realpolitik, stripped of all the humanitarian bullshit.
Each veto represents not merely disagreement with a particular resolution, but a deliberate decision to place Israel above the law that applies to every other nation on earth. The choreography has become ritualistic in its predictability: An international court issues a ruling. The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly demands compliance. The Security Council prepares to act.
And then the American representative rises to deliver the veto that renders the entire exercise meaningless.
146 countries voted to condemn Israel’s occupation in the UN General Assembly. 6 voted against. Guess which six? The United States, Israel, and four Pacific Island nations whose entire GDP wouldn’t cover a week of Israeli military spending.
The ICC’s Hollow Thunder
November 21, 2024: The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity [5].
The American response? Immediate threats of sanctions against ICC officials.
Senator Lindsey Graham: “To any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re gonna sanction you.” [6]
This is how international law dies — not with a whimper, but with a fucking threat.
123 countries are party to the Rome Statute that created the ICC. Not one has arrested Netanyahu.
The result has been a fascinating study in legal acrobatics. Countries that have spent decades pontificating about the importance of international justice have suddenly discovered that their commitment to such principles extends only as far as their willingness to antagonize Washington.
Germany’s response to the ICC warrants? They would “examine” them carefully. Examine what, exactly? The legal obligation is crystal clear. Either you arrest war criminals or you don’t.
Zero arrests. Maximum equivocation.
The Genocide Convention: A Masterclass in Selective Application
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines genocide as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu on using nuclear weapons in Gaza: “That’s one way” to deal with the territory [7].
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich: “We need to deal with the threat just like the United States dealt with the Japanese in World War II.” [8]
This is genocidal rhetoric. In any other context, from any other country, this would be universally recognized as such.
2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. 365 square kilometers. That’s 6,301 people per square kilometer, making it one of the most densely populated places on earth.
And they’re dropping 2,000-pound bombs on apartment buildings.
The contrast with how the Genocide Convention has been applied elsewhere would be laughable if it weren’t so fucking obscene. When Rwanda’s genocide was being planned and executed, no one seriously argued that the Convention didn’t apply. When Srebrenica happened, European powers didn’t tie themselves in knots explaining why systematic murder wasn’t really systematic murder.
But Gaza? Suddenly every principle of international humanitarian law becomes subject to creative reinterpretation.
The Apartheid That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Over 700,000 Israeli settlers now live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. All illegal under international law. All protected by the Israeli military.
The ICJ’s July 2024 advisory opinion explicitly referenced the prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid [9]. Human Rights Watch spent three years documenting Israel’s apartheid system before concluding: “Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” [10]
Amnesty International: “Israel’s system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever they have control over their rights…amounts to apartheid as prohibited in international law.” [11]
Two legal systems. Two sets of roads. Two types of license plates. Different colored ID cards.
If this system existed anywhere else — anywhere — it would be universally condemned. But because it’s Israel, we get endless semantic gymnastics designed to avoid using the word that accurately describes the situation.
18 years old: Average age of Palestinians in Gaza. Half the population are children.
And we’re supposed to believe this is about “self-defense.”
The Humanitarian Charade
$18 billion in humanitarian aid has flowed to Gaza and the West Bank since 2008. Eighteen billion dollars to treat the symptoms while ignoring the disease.
The same countries that refuse to enforce international law against Israel compete to demonstrate their humanitarian credentials by sending aid to Gaza — aid that must then be delivered through the very system that is systematically destroying Palestinian society.
This perverse arrangement serves multiple functions: It allows Western governments to claim they are addressing Palestinian suffering while avoiding any action that might actually stop the source of that suffering. It provides Israel with a convenient narrative about its own humanitarian concern. And it transforms the international community from potential enforcers of international law into accomplices in managed catastrophe.
400 aid trucks per day entered Gaza before October 7, 2023. After the ICJ ordered Israel to facilitate humanitarian access? 50 trucks per day.
Cargo planes deliver supplies to Gaza while fighter jets deliver bombs. International donors pledge millions for reconstruction while Israeli bulldozers ensure that such reconstruction will be perpetually necessary.
It’s charity as complicity. Aid as alibi for inaction.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Let’s talk statistics, shall we? Because while diplomats engage in semantic gymnastics, Palestinians are dying in easily quantifiable ways:
Since October 7, 2023:
- 45,000+ Palestinians killed
- 107,000+ wounded
- 17,000+ children killed
- 11,500+ women killed
- 885+ families completely wiped out
- 69% of casualties are women and children
Israeli casualties since October 7:
- 1,200 killed in the initial attack
- 400+ soldiers killed since
The math is simple: For every Israeli killed since October 7, 37 Palestinians have died. This isn’t war — it’s slaughter.
$17.9 billion: Additional military aid Congress approved for Israel in April 2024. No conditions. No strings attached. Just more money for more bombs.
Meanwhile, UNRWA — the UN agency that feeds Palestinian refugees — faces a funding crisis because Israel accused it of terrorism. 12 countries immediately suspended funding based on Israeli allegations. When Israel makes accusations, the world listens. When international courts make legal determinations about Israel? Crickets.
The Language of Genocide, Spoken Plainly
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” [12]
President Isaac Herzog: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime.” [13]
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir: “My right, my wife’s right, my children’s right to roam the roads of Judea and Samaria is more important than the right to movement of the Arabs.” [14]
This is the language of ethnic supremacy. Of dehumanization. Of genocide.
And yet somehow, when these exact same words are spoken by Israeli officials, they become “tough rhetoric” or “controversial statements” in Western media. Imagine if Putin said Russians had more right to Ukrainian roads than Ukrainians. Imagine if any other leader spoke about “human animals” and collective punishment.
The double standard isn’t subtle — it’s fucking brazen.
The Failure of Liberal Internationalism
What we are witnessing is the complete bankruptcy of the liberal internationalist project.
The UN has passed over 140 resolutions condemning Israeli actions since 1967. Israel has ignored every single one.
The entire post-war edifice of international law, human rights, and multilateral institutions has been stress-tested by Israel’s behavior and found wanting. Not because the institutions lack formal authority, but because they lack the political will to make their authority meaningful.
This failure isn’t accidental — it’s structural. Liberal internationalism was always predicated on the assumption that powerful states would voluntarily constrain themselves. When those states decide their interests require systematic violation of international law, the system has no answer except hollow protests and meaningless resolutions.
$158 billion: Total U.S. aid to Israel since 1948. More than any other country in history.
And what has America gotten in return? A client state that openly defies international law, commits war crimes with American weapons, and drags the United States into diplomatic isolation defending the indefensible.
The result is worse than simple powerlessness — it’s the active corruption of the very concept of international justice.
The Jurisprudence of the Powerful
Israel’s successful defiance of international law represents the emergence of what might be called the “jurisprudence of the powerful” — a system in which legal obligations apply inversely to one’s political importance and military capability.
124 UN member states recognize Palestine as a state. The United States and Israel do not.
Under this system, weak states face immediate consequences for legal violations while powerful states enjoy indefinite immunity. International law becomes a weapon to be deployed against enemies rather than a universal standard applied equally.
The implications extend far beyond Israel and Palestine. If the international legal system cannot enforce its most basic principles against a middle-power democracy with powerful allies, what hope does it have of constraining truly powerful actors?
The precedent being set is clear: International law applies only to those who lack the power to ignore it.
700+ Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank. Each one a violation of international law. Each one protected by American diplomatic cover.
In this light, Israel’s defiance should be understood not as an aberration but as a preview of the post-legal international order that is already emerging. It is a world in which might makes right not through honest acknowledgment of power but through cynical manipulation of legal institutions designed to constrain that power.
The Naked Truth
Israel has not simply defied international law — it has demonstrated its fundamental irrelevance to anyone with sufficient firepower and the right friends in Washington.
Zero consequences. Maximum impunity.
The tragedy is not just Palestinian suffering, though that is tragedy enough. The deeper tragedy is the corruption of the very idea that law might constrain power, that justice might be universal, that international institutions might serve some purpose beyond elaborate stage sets for the theater of the powerful.
And in doing so, Israel has perhaps performed the most valuable service imaginable: stripping away the comfortable illusions that have long obscured the reality of international relations and revealing the naked power dynamics that have always governed the world.
The emperor has no clothes. The court has no power. The law has no meaning beyond what the powerful choose to give it.
45,000 dead Palestinians later, that much should be fucking clear.
References
[1] International Court of Justice. “South Africa v. Israel — Provisional Measures Order.” January 26, 2024. https://www.icj-cij.org/node/204176
[2] Times of Israel. “Defense Minister announces ‘complete siege’ of Gaza.” October 9, 2023. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-electricity-food-or-fuel/
[3] UN Documentation Research Guide. “Security Council — Veto List.” https://research.un.org/en/docs/sc/quick/veto
[4] Jewish Virtual Library. “Biden on Israel: Quotes and Positions.” https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/biden-on-israel-quotes-and-positions
[5] International Criminal Court. “Situation in Palestine: Warrants of Arrest.” November 21, 2024. https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges
[6] Reuters. “US senators threaten sanctions against countries that help ICC.” November 22, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senators-threaten-sanctions-against-countries-that-help-icc-2024-11-22/
[7] Reuters. “Israeli minister says nuking Gaza option, PM suspends him.” November 5, 2023. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-minister-says-nuking-gaza-option-pm-suspends-him-2023-11-05/
[8] Times of Israel. “Smotrich: Israel should deal with Iranian threat like US dealt with Japan in WWII.” March 2023. https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-israel-should-deal-with-iranian-threat-like-us-dealt-with-japan-in-wwii/
[9] UN Information System on the Question of Palestine. “ICJ Advisory Opinion.” July 2024. https://www.un.org/unispal/icj-and-question-of-palestine/
[10] Human Rights Watch. “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution.” April 27, 2021. https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
[11] Amnesty International. “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.” February 1, 2022. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-cruel-system-domination-and-crime-against-humanity/
[12] Times of Israel. “Defense Minister announces complete siege.” October 9, 2023. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-electricity-food-or-fuel/
[13] Israeli Presidency. “President’s statements in interview with Deutsche Welle.” October 2023. https://www.presidency.gov.il/en/press-room/news/all-news/2023/10/the-president-s-statements-in-an-interview-with-deutsche-welle
[14] Times of Israel. “Ben Gvir: Jewish right to Judea, Samaria roads more important than Arab movement.” January 2023. https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-jewish-right-to-judea-samaria-roads-more-important-than-arab-movement/