Israel keeps ignoring ICJ rulings, as usual
Outlaw US Empire will probably veto UNSC actions, so only strong unilateral sanctions from single states will make Israel falter, as Francesca Albanese suggests.
As you probably read/heard by now, yesterday (24th May 2024) the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its ongoing military operations in Rafah and open border crossings to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid - here is the press release of the ICJ itself.
I will not go into detail, because, as you probably know, Israel had already decided in advance to ignore the ICJ ruling - in fact, just a couple of days ago The Guardian reported that an Israeli government spokesperson issued the following statement:
No power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza.
Not only that, but soon after the ICJ ruling yesterday the Israel “Defense” Forces carried out airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, as reported by The Guardian, as if they wanted to challenge the ICJ.
You have probably read from the mainstream media (MSM), e.g. this article of The Guardian, that the ICJ has no enforcement powers, which is true up to a certain extent (Al Jazeera explains it better than The Guardian). In fact, as pointed out by former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson in his latest blog post, “the ICJ decision will now go to the UNSC [United Nations Security Council] for action”, meaning that, in theory, the UNSC could decide to impose the ICJ ruling by use of force. I emphasized “in theory” because, as highlighted also by Larry Johnson, the Outlaw US Empire is expected “to veto any move to enforce the ICJ decree”.
However, here comes Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, urging states to cut ties with and impose sanctions on Israel, as reported by The New Arab.
Of course, she does not get any space in the MSM, but here is her call on X (formerly Twitter) in her own words:
Following the new ICJ ruling against Israel, if the UNSC fails to take action, as most likely, due to the veto power of the Outlaw US Empire, then single states could/should impose unilateral sanctions (as EU and NATO countries did against Russia), arms embargo and suspend diplomatic and political relations with Israel, until it feels so much pressure and pain that it will have to stop the genocide in Palestine!
Take for instance the embargo that Turkey put in place against Israel on 3rd May 2024: according to The Jerusalem Post, the sudden ban on trade is already “putting pressure on prices in Israel”. If more and more countries decided to follow the same path as Turkey, especially European and neighbouring countries, such as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Israeli economy would suffer even more, thus forcing Netanyahu to stop the genocide in Palestine. (Let’s not forget that the Houthis in Yemen are also straining Israeli economy with their Red Sea blockade for ships with links to Israel, US and UK and/or bound to Israel!)
It is good that European countries such as Spain, Ireland and Norway will formally recognize the Palestinian State on 28th May 2024 (see for instance this CNN article), however this is not enough: only strong sanctions against Israel will make it falter!
The rest of the world has to make Israel stop this genocide in Gaza.