For anybody that follows the events in the Middle East, and particularly relating to Israel, whether it be the wars waged by its neighbors and the response of Israel, or the ongoing battle between the Palestinians and Israelis, one thing is certain to stand out: the regularly and reoccurring claims that Israel is breaking international law and must be held accountable.
This subject is raised again and again, whether its through binding UN resolutions which are considered international law that single out Israel's actions in protecting its citizens while ignoring those who Israel is defending against like Hezbollah or Palestinian terrorists, UN institutions like the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), whose members regularly include those countries best known for violating Human Rights like Iran, Libya and Saudi Arabia, or those countries that have enacted laws that grant themselves what is known as the "Right of Universal Jurisdiction," whereby " states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other relation with the prosecuting country."
Indeed, almost any accusation made today in the world of court opinion and in the media try to suggest that Israel is in violation of international law and must be brought to justice. And what's truly remarkable is the proportion of accusations against Israel in breaking "international law," as compared to other countries in the world. For example, of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel. Can you imagine, more than half of all UN resolutions were against Israel? With more than 190 countries in the world, many of which deep in war that see large scale massacre of civilians and persecution of their minorities, its of all places Israel that has garnered so much international ire.
But law is law, right? And the law must be enforced to protect the innocent. The funny thing is that in the Western World of democratic nations and for those who believe accountability is a fundamental principle of justice, law needs to be applied without regard to race, religion, nationality, gender or sexual orientation. In America, the Blind Lady of Justice holding her scales is the picture we all have of the judicial system, she's both objectively weighing the evidence at hand, and doing so equally for all peoples.
However it seems that in the international court of justice, whether that be the UN, courts in Spain, the UK or Belgium that have granted themselves the right of Universal Jurisdiction, or otherwise, justice isn't blind. In fact, as we can see with UN resolutions, international law is selectively applied, with the vast majority of focus falling upon one country in this world, Israel.
Think about the Goldstone commission. Not only was it created to investigate Israel's actions during wartime while no similar commission has ever in the history of the UN been created to investigate American, British, Russian, Chinese, Iranian or Sudanese actions during wartime.
This same commission's mission was set up to ONLY investigate Israel's actions during wartime and their result. Their mandate did not include investigating the reason why Israel took the actions it did, which was to stop a barrage of thousands of missles from being launched at their population centers over the period of years, it also didn't bother to investigate the other side of this conflict, Hamas, an internationally labeled terror organization, who with every missles they launched broke international law, who not only targeted Israel's civilian population, but used their own population as human shields. I mean, can you imagine?
Let's look at this from another angle. Imagine if American laws were only applied to African Americans, would you call that justice? No, it wouldn't be justice, as a matter of fact there's a term for it, and it's called discrimination. Some may even justifiably call it persecution. Furthermore, imagine if not only were laws applied to only black Americans, but when events happened, such as a fight taking place between an African American and a white American, the circumstances weren't examined, or taken into account. Imagine if members of a White Power movement attacked an African American family, and the father of this family fought back to protect them, and in the process injured or killed one or more of the White Power group. Yet the only thing that was investigated as part of the crime was how many of the white men were killed, how they were injured, while completely ignoring the fact that it was a clear case of self defense. And those members of the White Power group that attacked the black man were let off scott free, while the black man was prosecuted for the "crimes" he committed in injuring and killing others.
Sadly enough, most American's don't need to imagine this. This was the law for generations, and unfortunately it still happens today, albeit much less than it did just 60 short years ago.
And yet, Israel's treatment in the international court of law and public opinion is much the same. All too often propaganda is published in the media as fact, quotes from "witnesses" that are unsubstantiated are disseminated, and Israeli citizens are even arrested based on unsubstantiated claims, for example, in the United Kingdom. This is what the United Kingdom calls Universal Jurisdiction. A claimant can walk into any court in the UK and make unsubstantiated charges of war crimes against a visiting foreigner with no proof whatsoever, and the UK court system has the right to issue an arrest warrant for that individual. This law has been used regularly in the UK to harass Israeli officials with the threat of arrest and detention. Apparently the British call that law, where I come from that's call persecution.
So when the United Nations is used regularly to propagate resolution after resolution against Israel, and when the media regularly calls to prosecute Israelis for war crimes, while ignoring dozens of states which live by the sword and regularly murder and oppress their own populations both during peace time and war time, it is discrimination.
And selectively applying international law not only equals discrimination, it is nothing less than outright persecution. And Israel is the victim of clear and undeniable discrimination in the international justice system and international media.
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