The ICJ and Genocide Joe

The ICJ ruling came and went, but the actions of the Zionist state in Israel continued as before, as did the backing of it from the regime of “Genocide Joe” Biden, in the US, Sunak and Starmer in Britain, Scholz in Germany, and the other EU leaders who act as bit part supporting acts to the leading role of US and UK imperialism. In many ways, therefore, as I had set out before the legal case was brought to the ICJ, it would make no difference to the genocide being undertaken by the Zionists, nor to the imperialist backers of the Zionist's state, for whom bourgeois laws and institutions are things to be manipulated and controlled, and when they fail to do that, to be simply ignored. Yet, as I also noted, that didn't make it useless to bring such a case, because, each time the sham of bourgeois-democracy, and of so called “democratic-imperialism” is exposed, it chips away at the continued support for it, by workers across the world that have been duped by their leaders, into believing it is something it isn't.

The case brought to the ICJ, by South Africa, was so overwhelming, the open bragging about committing genocide and other war crimes by the Zionists, so extensive, from the top of the Zionist state down to the individual grunts, posting videos on social media, that it would have been impossible for the ICJ not to have ruled that there was a prima facie case of genocide taking place. To have not ruled in South Africa's favour would have completely exposed the ICJ for the bourgeois institution it is, and it's subordination to the needs of US imperialism. Yet, the Zionists are correct in saying that, despite its findings, the court did not demand an immediate ceasefire, as the only way in which the continued genocide could be stopped. It gave an amber light for the Zionist state to continue its actions in Gaza, which, of course it has done.

It was an amber light, not a green light, because, the contents of the ICJ ruling, in practice, did amount to a call, not for a ceasefire, meaning a cessation of fighting by two contending armed camps, but for the only really armed camp, the Zionist state, to cease its military attacks on Gaza, which made the fulfilment of its other rulings on ending that genocide impossible to achieve. But that mealy-mouthed formulation, was all the Zionists required to ignore it. After all, this is a Zionist state which has repeatedly ignored UN Security Council Resolutions, requiring it to cease creating illegal settlements in the West Bank, to restore land and respect the 1967 borders, and so on, and does so, not only with impunity, but with the continued full support of US imperialism, and its subordinates in Britain, the EU, and elsewhere.

That it would continue to ignore international law, and to undertake its genocide against the Palestinians was inevitable, because the Zionists understand the vital role that their state plays in the Middle East, strategically for US imperialism. After all it was “Genocide Joe”, who years ago declared, in the US Senate, that if Israel did not exist, to represent US interests in the region, the US would have to create it. Of course, in reality, the US did create it, and continually recreates it with its massive funding and provision of arms to that state. 

But, the ICJ ruling, in declaring the prima facie existence of genocide being committed in Gaza, by the Zionist state, does present a significant problem for Genocide Joe, and for his international gang of butchers that have not only allowed that genocide to continue, but have actively been complicit in it! It is the 2,000 lb. bombs, supplied by the US, that have been dropped on tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians that have slaughtered, now, over 30,000 men, women and children. It is the other weapons and support, supplied by the US, UK and EU that have enabled the Zionist state to undertake its ground offensive, in Gaza, systematically destroying hospitals, schools, residential communities, and infrastructure, as part of that genocide, leaving not only more than 30,000 dead, a large proportion of them children and babies, but another 70,000 injured, in conditions where no health facilities are left to treat them, but also, in which, according to the WHO, tens of thousands more will die from disease, and famine.

The Genocide Convention requires all signatories to it to act to prevent genocide where it is taking place. The Houthis in Yemen could legitimately claim to be doing that, by acting against shipping in the Red Sea, supplying the Zionist state, and supporting its genocide. You do not have to have any illusions in the thoroughly reactionary nature of the Houthis, who support and have reintroduced slavery and so on, to accept that. Nor do you have to have any illusions in the reasons that the Houthis have undertaken such action. They are part of the contending imperialist camp to US imperialism consisting of Russia, China, and Iran. They are no more friends of the working-class than is Genocide Joe, and Slimey Starmer. Yet, it exposes the hypocrisy, and duplicity of Biden, Sunak, Starmer and the other mouthpieces of imperialism, when, rather than acting to end the genocide in Gaza, they not only continue to finance and enable it, but they also launch their own regional war against the Houthis, for doing so.

The ICJ ruling in declaring the prima facie case of genocide in Gaza, gave legal support for the action of the Houthis in trying to prevent supplies to the Zionist state required for the continuation of that genocide. At the same time, it undermined the legal case of US and UK imperialism, in launching their military strikes on the Houthis for having done so. But, of course, since the ICJ ruling, the US and UK have not acted to end their support for the Zionist state, and its genocide, and nor have they desisted from their attacks on the Houthis. On the contrary, they have sent additional war ships to the Red Sea, engaged in further missile strikes on Yemen, as well as, now, undertaking missile, drone and air strikes in Syria and Iraq.

The mass of evidence of the active complicity of US imperialism, and its international subordinates, in the Zionist genocide against Palestinians, is now nearly as overwhelming as the evidence, provided, from their own mouths and social media feeds, of the Zionists themselves. Genocide Joe, weeks ago talked about having seen himself the videos of babies being beheaded in the October 7th attacks by Hamas. But, he lied. He could not have seen any such videos because none exist, because the event he describes did not happen. Only one baby died in the October 7th attack, and it was the result of being shot in its mother's arms, a tragic and brutal fact in its own right. But, time and again, Biden, and the other liars of US imperialism have simply parroted the lies and propaganda pumped out by the Zionist state, despite the fact that, not only are those lies often palpably blatant, but have, time and again, been comprehensively exposed.

Now, as the Zionist state has begun its final assault on Rafah, the imperialist facilitators of that genocide appear to be trying to protect their arses from the inevitable calls for them too to be brought to book for their role, as South Africa, considers bringing a case against the US and UK, also, to the ICJ, and Nicaragua has brought a case against Canada, UK, and Germany. But, the fact is that, just like the empty words over decades about supporting a two-state solution, the words of imperialism, now, are thoroughly meaningless, and duplicitous.

Again what the current genocide against Palestinians shows is just how ridiculous the demand for a Two State Solution always was, as I set out 40 years ago, nearly all of which has been confirmed in the years since. Any Marxist analysis, as against the bourgeois, nationalist, and moralistic bleating behind the Two State Solution, could see why it was a dangerous delusion. In reality, what is it that was created in Gaza, and in the West Bank, other than a state in everything but name only? In Gaza, divisions within the Palestinian bourgeoisie, led to Hamas becoming dominant, and driving out their political opponents in Fatah, with the support, in fact, of Netanyahu and the Zionist state. In the West Bank, what is the Palestinian Authority, with its own police and security forces, and so on, its own permanent bureaucracy etc., with its own seat at the United Nations, other than a state?

Yet, everything about those states in all but name, confirms what I wrote 40 years ago, and why, far from providing any solution, it would lead only to further conflict between Jewish and Arab workers, perpetuate their misery and oppression by their respective ruling classes, and threaten to drag the whole region, into perpetual warfare. The puny Palestinian statelets, like the Northern Ireland statelet, and others across the globe, could not exist without external support from other larger states, meaning that, in reality, such statelets are simply vassal states, forever the pawns of those upon whose support their continued existence depends.

The Zionist state was never going to allow these statelets to act free from its interference, any more than any other weaker state is always subject to the interference of more powerful states, and even well established states pursue their own interests, by periodically going to war with other similar states. As I wrote forty years ago. A condition of any such state, would be that it acted as policeman against its own citizens who continued to oppose the oppression and lack of political rights of the 700,000 Palestinians living in Israel. It would be a Quisling state, and effectively that is the price that the Palestinian Authority has had to pay for its continued existence, such as it is, and is also why, it has no support amongst Palestinians living in the West Bank, leading to it fearing even putting itself up for election.

The result has been that the conditions have been created for Palestinians to look instead to the only other forces that seem to offer them resistance to continued Zionist oppression – the reactionary, anti-working class forces of Hamas. The only real options, now, appear to be that the Zionist state will continue its genocide and butchery, until effectively all Palestinians have been wiped from the map of the area, or US imperialism pressurises Egypt and other Arab states to accept them, in another mass exodus, and a continued misery for Palestinians reduced to refugees, dispersed across the region.  Genocide Joe will probably not be around to have to account for that, or if he is will have the defence of being designated mentally incompetent, but Sunak, Starmer, Scholz, Van Der Leyen and the other butchers will be.  The international labour movement should prepare to haul them in front of the ICC, as the war criminals they are.