International law cannot be applied “selectively” to Ukraine while Palestine remains under “prolonged, belligerent criminal occupation” and where war crimes are “not accountable”, a leading Palestinian human rights lawyer has said.
“They [the EU and US] are sanctioning Russia and supporting Ukraine, legitimately. That’s international law. But what are they doing for Palestinians?” asked director and co-founder of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Raji Sourani. “In Palestine we have criminal occupation, we have war crimes, we have crimes against humanity, we have persecution, we have genocide. And what’s happening?
“They are not only against the accountability of Israel, they are supporting it with the arms we are killed with. You cannot act like ancient Rome – that there is a law for masters and no law for slaves. We are not the slaves of the 21st century.”
A human rights lawyer who has dedicated his career to defending the rights of Palestinians, Sourani visited Dublin this week to speak at a conference in Maynooth University and to meet Government officials to discuss the continuing bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the efforts needed to end the conflict.
Sourani fled Gaza with his family in late 2023 and all three offices of the human rights centre he runs have been destroyed in the war. However, more than 40 staff members continue to work inside Gaza, documenting human rights abuses in the region.
A member of the South African delegation at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide hearing at The Hague in January, Sourani questioned how the “ethics and standards” of rule of law had disappeared since October last year, when Hamas-led militants crossed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli estimates. Israel’s subsequent assault has killed more than 38,000 people, according to Gaza medical authorities.
“This is the first time ever that genocide is broadcast live, in real time, and the whole world is watching. But American and European governments still blindly support Israel’s right to self-defence. They are providing full legal political cover for them and they are supporting them financially with arms. Palestinians know it’s American and European bombs and fighter jets [in Gaza]. This is Kafkaesque.
“What’s happening is the rule of jungle, it’s not rule of law. What’s happening is selectivity and the politicisation of international law.”
In December last year, South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel at the ICJ over the war in Gaza. The ICJ subsequently ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and to do more to help civilians. Israel has denied the allegation of genocide.
Speaking after Tuesday’s Israeli air strike on a camp for displaced people outside a school in southern Gaza, Sourani said the attack was just the latest example of “first-class war crimes” that are now “evident” and “clear”. Footage aired by Al-Jazeera shows children playing a football match in a school playground near the southern city of Khan Younis in Gaza, when the air strike hit. Palestinian health officials reported at least 29 people – mostly women and children – were killed in the attack. The Israeli Defence Forces said it was targeting a terrorist from a Hamas military wing but that it was also reviewing the incident.
[ Number of Palestinians killed in Gaza may reach 186,000, three academics sayOpens in new window ]
Sourani said every aspect of life in Gaza has been destroyed since October 2023. “Entire areas have been erased – hospitals, schools, shelters, bakeries, water plants. And the army keep saying you move from this place to that place. But while you are moving, you’re bombed.
“There is no basis for life there. That’s what the Israelis want to tell you, that you cannot live in Gaza. There is this blanket of death, destruction, fear.”
Sourani described himself as “one of the lucky 5 per cent in Gaza” who owned a number of properties before the latest conflict broke out – these have all been destroyed. He fled Gaza in late 2023 with his family and is currently based in Cairo. “If I go back, I’d have no place to go. I don’t have water, electricity, sewage. I don’t have a bakery, a hospital, a school.”
Despite living all his life in Gaza, and having witnessed numerous conflicts in the region, Sourani admits he remains stunned by the sheer destruction of this latest war. “It seems I was either stupid or naive but I never in my life thought the Israelis would bring genocide to Gaza.”
Sourani praised the Irish Government for joining Spain and Norway in recognising Palestinian statehood, noting that Ireland “knows what colonialism is, what racism is. They have paid heavily to be liberated and have their dignity and freedom”. However, he urged the Government to push back against the UK’s legal challenge over the International Criminal Court’s right to seek an arrest warrant against Binyamin Netanyahu for war crimes. Ireland should also call on the EU to suspend its association trade relations agreement with Israel, said Sourani.
Asked how much longer he believed the conflict would continue, Sourani said the war in Gaza did not begin in October 2023. “Everybody is talking as if the conflict began on October 7th – that there was no belligerent, criminal occupation, no blockade, no 2008 or 2009, no 2012 or 2014, no great march of return.”
Palestinians are “romantic revolutionaries” who “cannot give up”, he said. “We cannot lose hope. We don’t want the rule of jungle because we are civilised and we want to fight for rule of law. Palestinians deserve dignity and freedom.”
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