At the risk of writing a numbed monotone in response to fifteen months of reported Israeli war crimes in Gaza l note here some of the lesser known efforts to resist the genocide in Gaza.
No legal system has countered the atrocities against civilians, civilian infra-structure, humanitarian support, medical and health care, Palestine’s culture, Gaza’s habitat. Governments which have signed the Convention on Genocide have not intervened. And the U.S. has vetoed U.N. and Security Council resolutions toward peace and impeded application of international laws which might prevent the genocide.
The International Criminal Court and the Court of International Justice at the Hague are delaying decisions which could risk countries allied with or supplying Israel with armaments, to prosecution for complicity in genocide. Donald Trump as U.S. President, will likely try to destroy international courts or force them to drop allegations of genocide against Israel and its leaders.
If for genocide resistance one looks to the American military which helped liberate the Nazi concentration camps of WWII, current U.S. policy prefers to assign the New Jersey National Guard to protect oilfields in Syria rather than starving Gazans. U.S. military law is interwoven with the laws of warfare, forbids war crimes, and avoids overt political statements.
Canadian law is inter-reliant on and subject to international law. An ally of U.S. foreign policy Canada is vulnerable to retribution from international justice where the U.S. is not. By ignoring Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide Canada’s Liberal government risks charges of complicity. Former General Romeo Dallaire, a hero to Canadians for his efforts to stop a Rwandan genocide, has called Israel’s actions in Gaza, a genocide.
As government efforts fail, nonviolent attempts to stop the genocide in Gaza rely increasingly on people. There is adequate verifiable evidence to present cases in individual countries under domestic laws, to bring to justice Israeli acts and atrocities.
In Canada a case was brought on October 6, 2024 in Ontario Superior Court, which addresses the issue of genocide directly. The Coalition for Canadian Accountability has alleged that Canada has failed to act to prevent genocide in Gaza, violating rights of Canadians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Since early November little information about the case appears in the press or alternative media. The independent human rights organization Just Peace Advocates (mouvement pour une Paix juste) provides resources for concerned activists.
In the U.S., November 2024, Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden was brought in Federal District Court, Oakland California, attempting to sue U.S. officials Biden, Blinken and Austin for complicity in genocide so that arms shipment to Israel might be stopped. The case was put aside by a familiar legal technicality; the essential allegation was not refuted.
On December 19th 2024, a “Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief” was brought in Northern California District Court by taxpayers against their Congresspeople, Seth Donnelly et. al. v. Mike Thompson, and Jared Huffman, a complaint charging the lawmakers with complicity in genocide through the misuses of taxpayer money in funding the Israeli military. I find no U.S. or international media news coverage of the case until January 3rd, 2025, in Marjorie Cohn’s thorough article (“‘We Have to Act’: Taxpayers Suing Congressmembers for Funding Genocide Speak Out,” Marjorie Cohn, Jan. 3, 2025, Truthout) appearing in alternative media.
These brave instances also suggest
1. the failure of the U.S. or Canadian legal systems to address domestically atrocity crimes committed by U.S./Israeli joint citizens;
2. the failure of the U.S. legal system to address complicity in the crime of genocide directly;
3. a North American fear in reporting actions that resist government crimes;
4. a generalized fear of physical retribution, economic retribution, professional retribution and criminalization of those resisting.
The legal systems of other countries are allowing application of laws against war crimes, where Canada and the U.S. are not.
The Hind Rajab Foundation, located in Belgium is possibly the most effective group currently attempting to bring to justice those committing war crimes in Palestine. In October 2024 it filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against a thousand named Israeli Defense Forces soldiers as war criminals in Gaza. And it has brought over fifty cases against IDF reservists in for example South Africa, Morocco, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Thailand, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Serbia, Cyprus, Argentina.
A Hind Rajab Foundation’s leader is identified by the Israeli press as pro-Hezbollah, ie. partisan ‘on the other side,’ which is a way of avoiding the basic issue of human rights as transgressed by atrocity crimes. Pro-Israeli interests consider all opposition pro-Palestinian rather than as defenders of human rights. As “enemies” they risk retribution by IDF forces throughout the world. Israel’s policy of containing reports of its war crimes is apparent in the ban of foreign journalists in Gaza, the targeting of journalists, and the abnormally high casualty rate of media workers.
Since the commission of atrocity crimes is not normal human behavior the Israeli Defense Forces are being stripped of their own humanity to commit crimes they will eventually be prosecuted for.
To say that IDF military are “free” human beings is not true. To say that an entire nation of Israelis is being enslaved by its own war crimes is worth some thought. There is little evidence of attempts from within Israel itself, to counter genocide. When international law is understood as the most humane way to protect against the greed of some powerful elite, the genocide in Gaza may stop.
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