PORTLAND - In December of 2023, the Republic of South Africa lodged a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel for the crime of Genocide, a case that has been joined by many member countries of the United Nations (https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192). As the case has been moving ahead at the world’s highest court, two countries—Israel and the United States—have not been silent but in contravention to global opinion have attacked the Court and its proceedings. 

While a final decision from the Court is not expected for months and most likely for years, it is hypocritical for the United States, a country that brags about its support for the international rule of law, to voice such admonitions against the court as it proceeds with a case brought to its attention by so many member countries of the United Nations.

The United States supports Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war in every imaginable way.

What is also striking about this case, but not directly brought to the attention of the Court, is that the United States is a country that is fully complicit in these crimes but has dodged legal scrutiny. Anyone with eyes and a brain cannot escape from this fact. The United States supports Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war in every imaginable way:

The U.S. arms, and continues to arm, Israel with its most sophisticated lethal weapons of war and with little or no oversight and scrutiny—restocking arms that Israel has needed to continue its carnage.

The U.S. shares, and continues to share, its most sensitive intelligence with Israel.

The U.S. donates, and continues to donate, financial assistance to Israel, a country that has a higher per capita GDP than France or Germany.

The U.S. gives, and continues to give, political supports to Israel—at the UN Security Council, by vetoing any and all reprimands of Israeli crimes, most of which contravene international rule of law.

The U.S. pressures, and continues to pressure, countries around the world to refrain from any actions that might force Israel to change course, such as the imposition of sanctions (something that the U.S. itself uses with abandon as a policy tool).

The U.S. has shown its willingness to intercede on behalf of Israel, even in a case where Israel was the instigator and aggressor action, potentially directly embroiling the United States in future wars.

After all is said and done, if the United States does not support Israel’s war, the savage war, would end in short order. Yes, the U.S. publicly urges Israel to avoid civilian deaths as it supplies Israel with more 1,000 and 2,000 pound bombs that are not targeted but kill and destroy indiscriminately over a wide area! And Israel brands Hamas as terrorists and feels free to do as it will, with little regard for innocent human lives.

Around 42,000 Palestinians are known to have been directly killed in Gaza. About 70-75 percent of the dead are women and children, thousands more lie buried under the rubble that is now Gaza’s landscape and even more are dying every day from the fallout of the war—from lack of nutrition and water, simple medicines and medical care to treat disease and infections. Israeli carnage is not limited to Gaza, under the cover of the Gaza war Israel’s illegal settlers in the West Bank are killing Palestinians in the hundreds with the complicity of IDF forces and are evicting many from their land and homes with impunity.

The United States uses its bully pulpit and power to protect Israel’s intransigence to a ceasefire something Israel had initially agreed to with the return of some hostages brokered by the United States. The U.S. media, by and large, refrains from covering the horrors of Israel’s carnage of civilians and from criticizing its policies in order to preempt a domestic backlash to U.S. government policies.

What we are witnessing is a global humanitarian disaster. It is our collective shame.

What we are witnessing is a human crisis, not just Palestinian or Israeli but a global humanitarian disaster. It is our collective shame. We are witnessing an ongoing genocide and we are doing little to prevent it. We cannot credibly say that we didn’t know. We knew and we know. It is particularly ironic and horrific to witness the role of Israel and the United States. Jews were victims of genocide under Nazi rule and now they are the party that is committing the genocide! The United States, always the sanctimonious, was a bystander to the genocide of Jews but is now the shameful enabler in chief of today’s genocide! Israel and the United States seem to be oblivious to their past and the lessons of history!

Several conclusions are evident. If there is not a radical shift in U.S. policies, Israel will continue to do as it has done up to now. 

Israel will not listen to world opinion or to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Israel is akin to a spoilt child of wealthy and powerful parents who does as he wishes knowing full well that mommy and daddy will bail him out. 

The United States will not rein in Israel unless it is under overwhelming pressure to do so. The United States has essentially subcontracted its Mideast policy to Israel because of pro-Israeli domestic pressures, brandishing criticisms of Israel as anti-Semitism to mute valid discourse, and even appointing a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to negotiate a ceasefire along with a cadre of officials sympathetic to Israeli policies serving in the U.S. Department of State and in the National Security Council.

How can we put an end to hostilities and uphold humanity? 

If Americans will not force a change in Washington’s policies, Arabs, Muslims and even the rest of the world must step up to the plate.

If Americans will not force a change in their government’s policies, Arabs, Muslims and yes even the rest of the world must step up to the plate. Arabs and Muslim countries must pressure their rulers to refer the U.S. to the ICJ for complicity in Israeli crimes. The evidence for such a case is compelling and is based on the strong South African case. One or more Arab or Muslim countries could appoint a few accomplished legal minds to draft the necessary case that piggybacks and mimics the South African case to show how the United States’ entangled web of assistance is directly connected to each and every Israeli crime. This will require some courage as most rulers in the global south are reluctant to face an American president head on. Although any single member of the United Nations can lodge a case, the fear would be greatly lessened if a few countries could unite and file a joint case. While this important step by itself may not directly rein in Israel, it would put pressure on the United States to act as it would be a dramatic wake up call to the United States and all Americans—how they are sleep walking into an ongoing genocide and harming the United States as nothing has ever done before.

While this action would in my opinion bring about the needed change to restore balance to U.S. Mideast policies and rein in Israel, Arab or Muslim countries could also indicate and initiate a number of other policies to further pressure the United States:

The few Arab or Muslim countries that have relations with Israel should suspend them

All Arab and Muslim countries could recall their ambassadors to Washington

They could close U.S. bases on their soil  

The United States could not tolerate such isolation and it would be forced to do a U-turn in its pro-Zionist policies.

Israel is doomed if it continues with its ongoing genocide and policies of settler colonialism; and it could take the United States and maybe even the world down with it. 

We must unite to save humanity from itself! After addressing the genocide of Palestinians head on at the ICJ, the world should find the courage to bring other cases, such as the carnage in Sudan and its foreign participants, to the attention of the Court. The world must begin to act instead of looking the other way.

A dear friend yesterday made an apropos comment to me: Israel has a case of bad timing. If it had been around and had started its colonial settler project 150 or so years ago, it would today be in good company with the likes of the United States, Australia, Canada, England, France, Belgium, Portugal…Just a bad case of timing!! 

How the world conveniently forgets and moves on!

Hossein Askari is an emeritus professor of business and international affairs, George Washington University