The Arab league demolishes US and UK arguments at The Hague: Marwan Bishara

you're watching Al jazer English it's just gone 10:25 GMT that's 25 P1 here in Doha you have been watching dror Ralph wild the senior Council and advocate for the league of Arab states he spoke shortly after Abdul Hakim El Rafi the shaj defair and perent mission of the league of Arab states uh in Brussels a very detailed legal setting out of exactly uh what the occupation means uh for Palestinians uh in uh occupied Gaza and the West Bank um and what the legal obligations are for Israel as an occupying State um it has been a morning of uh speeches and presentations two weeks uh over eight days um of over 50 countries and three uh human rights organizations who have been presenting uh their cases to the international court of justice in the ha today we heard from the ambassador of turkey uh the solicor general of Zambia and later on we will hear uh from the organization of Islamic cooperation called and man bashara to discuss this further he was sitting in and listening to what was being said uh by Dr wild we were listening intently but our ears pricked up on one particular statement which was when Dr wild talked about how certain countries uh want us to think the law is in a particular party's favor he said the law as you like it should not be determined by the law as it is a very direct uh and and and comprehensive you might say sit up and take note don't be taken in by what's being said the laws written down here and you've got to all 15 judges have got to take note of it I thought he took aim at uh the United States and the United Kingdom rather cleverly I should say basically telling them that there is the international law and there is your attempt at expropriating international law for your own ends you can do that but don't call it international law that wouldn't be international law and trying to treat Israel as Su generous as a unique issue in terms of its occupation of Palestine is not acceptable but I thought in general that this was the best argumented most comprehensive argument thus far that we've heard he unpicked it very cleverly didn't he I think he did and I think there are two reasons why I'm saying that one it's because he put the occupation of the Palestinian territories after 1967 in its historic context this is the best possible argument against the United States and United Kingdom that say let's leave it to the parties to resolve the dispute and this is could be by by Nature temporary even if it's more than five decades what the what the what Dr wild has said is that there's a pattern there's a process and there is context and the context is that Israel has been doing this not since 1967 it's been doing this since 1947 and that the same thing basically that it did in the Galilee in the triangle and the nagab area within Israel against the Palestinians after 1948 it's doing now to the Palestinians in the occupied territories that are occupied after 1967 hence there's a pattern hence what Israel is doing in the occupied territories is not random and it's not incidental It Is by Design and it is meant as an annexation hence the building of the settlements and the proliferation and expansion of those settlements the second point that I thought that has been very very clear and let's remind ourselves this is a lawyer that speaks for the Arab League I mean the Arab League as an organization in reality has been kind of useless but here in terms of representing a consensus against a a settler Colonial entity in an Arab region I think it's key and hence the two points that he made that I thought summarized the entire thing was saying one that the Israel illegal use of force in the occupied territories that is meant to protect its settlement Enterprise and annexation is a form of aggression it is unlawful second by doing that it is denying the Palestinians the right for self-determination on whatever pretext including the pretext of self-defense that he took a while in explaining why this is not acceptable according to international law one of the issues that we've spoke spoken to to many contributors who've been on alaz over the past four months we're media folk we we speak to analysts we speak to politicians how important are proceedings like this for the public who are watching aler now and have been watching this court presentation that they listen to the facts and the historical context for themselves and make their own decisions because we're seeing these Global protests from people around the world who have got one opinion or the other but when you hear the facts and they're putting context on what is legal and what is illegal all right Mr wild is speaking on behalf of the league of Arab states but Israel has its supporters in that Court too and they will speak as well how important is it to listen to what these people are saying it's tremendously important uh and not just to the Arab League uh uh legal uh advisor here but also to what the United States said and UK because this is a very important issue that's been with us for a century now and that has become a a an inflaming Point uh for an entire region and a threat to world peace and security now of course in in the in the world of global media as you know very well soel since you are a seasoned journalist um the we are more attached to infotainment nowadays than we are to something that almost resembles a lecture at a university in this case the University of London so this might be difficult to follow for people who are not expert in the issue but I would suggest the following at least that this needs to be saved archived and taught at the universities that this should be used by every documentarian by every journalist as a background important factual legal argument about this issue that we call Israeli occupation of Palestine it is so well argued it is so factual and it speaks to the spirit of the law now why is this important speaking to the letter and the spirit of the law because in Conflict like the Arab Israeli conflict in situations of aggression aparted and colonialism you have one of two solutions either resistance as the Chinese argued could be resistance by force or popular resistance and that could take years decades and months in the case of Algeria and South Africa that we also heard from in the first day this took millions of casualties in the case of Algeria we speak about almost a million deaths in liberating Algeria from the French settler Colonials the other way is the International Community defending international law that's the other possibility for how we can end situations as in Israel's occupation and aparted in Palestine so either it has to be local Regional resistance that could lead to Bloodshed major Bloodshed as we see in Gaza today or it could be the International Community coming together not led by Hypocrites and double standards but by responsible growth UPS who can see that after 75 years of dispossession aggression and occupation that the two parties don't have a dispute that as we've heard from Dr wild that there is one party that has been aggressing another party for 75 years through the use of force and oppression this actual proceeding was already you might say on the on the timetable had octob October the 7th not happened Maran would this have got the publicity would it have got over 50 countries and three human rights organizations involved in proceedings because who dare I say it unfortunately it's coincidental that this particular case was already going to be heard anyway regardless of what happened on October the 7th you know one of the reasons one of the sad and uh unfortunate reasons for the justification for the October 7 attack was the Palestinians and Gaz of the likes of Hamas were saying we have been forgotten we have been marginalized we have been neglected under occupation Under Siege under oppression for decades now and not only that the world has forgotten us the Arabs have forgotten us not only the Arabs have forgotten us the Arabs or a good number of them good number of their regimes have stabbed Us in the back by normalizing relations with Israel at our expense so you can imagine that Gaza has revolutionized basically have uh it's like a it's like a a little hand grenade thrown in thrown in international law and International Community saying pay attention here you cannot continue to ignore this issue and who was the first leader who responded to this what I would call a gruesome attack against Israel on the October 7 but also the subsequent many October 7s that happened against Gaza it was President Biden President Biden that was basically complicit throughout his political career meaning 50 years with Zionism and with Israeli aggression and occupation complic after October 7 he said 3 weeks later in October 27 he said basically telling the Israelis we cannot go go back to the status quo auntie we cannot go back to the pre-war status quo we must now readdress and we must try to resolve this issue we can't ignore it anymore so if the American president start paying attention right if America the UK and everyone start paying and they're coming to testify here it goes a long way to show you that suddenly unfortunately after the death of 10 T of thousands of Palestinians over the past four or five months that the world's starting to pay attention but I tell you so and I tell our viewers around the world pay attention because in these dark times the conspirators are not letting go and those who wish the Palestinians ill and do not seek Justice in the Middle East are arguing against the international law making itself evident in the question of Israel Palestine and it does becoming more and more evident certainly in those public pres uh public demonstrations that we're seeing globally as well people are not not so much not believing but they're just losing trust in their lawmakers the people that they vote for and we're seeing that be interesting to see with so many major elections coming up in 2024 be interesting to see how much this plays into uh that dialogue what I did want to go back and something you touched on was you know the countries that have presented their cases here at the icj you know over the two weeks we start you know we saw South Africa Algeria Saudi Arabia just want to bring those in along with Ireland you know we've talked about South Africa as a partied we know about algeria's colonialist passed by the French I want to bring in the role of Saudi Arabia because as you just said you know there've been a political uh hand grenade bomb thrown into the Middle East say wake up our countries you haven't supported us you've stabbed Us in the back Saudi Arabia's presentation was incredibly strong um and it sort of made me think about the conversations before October the 7th was Saudi Arabia going to recognize Israel what was Saudi Arabia's position various Arab countries were and for against what Saudi Arabia would do Saudi Arabia takes a step all the other Arab Muslim countries follow how do you position Saudi Arabia in all of this now because they remained a little bit quiet but very vocal here well there is in terms of analysis there is the optimistic analysis and there is the pessimistic analysis let's start with the pessimistic analysis the pessimistic analysis the bad news is that a good number of Arab regimes and Western regimes are hoping for this war to end with the defeat of Hamas the containment of Gaza pacification of Gaza total Destruction of Gaza in order to go back to the Abraham Accords and normalizations of relations between a good number of new Arab countries with Israel that's what they're hoping and all of them are praying that Israel finishes the job already that's why Americans and Brits and others are frustrated with the Israeli government not because it's killing people in Gaza it's not because it's not finishing the job in a bit more civil way right May perhaps 5,000 10,000 15 20,000 dead but not 30 plus thousand not 100,000 casualties right so clearly the isra the Americans and others would wish this to end

Channel: Al Jazeera English

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Keywords: Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Arab League, ICJ, ICJ Hearing, ICJ considers Israeli occupation, ICJ on Israeli occupation of Palestine, International Court of Justice, International Law, Israel, Israel Palestine Conflict, Israel illegal occupation, Israeli occupation of Palestine, Palestine, The Hague, War crime, al Jazeera, al jazeera English, al jazeera live, al jazeera video, aljazeera English, aljazeera latest, aljazeera live, aljazeera live news, latest news

Id: b1QbO6RkIHA

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2024