7 Nov 2023
Video by Decensored News -
On Monday I asked about Israel's genocide against the Palestinians at the State
Department, including if the US government is trying to stop Abbas from invoking
the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice - also known as
the World Court - in the Hague. I also asked if State Department personal may
face prosecution.
International law professor Francis Boyle notes that the US Genocide Convention
Implementation Act stipulates:
d )Attempt and Conspiracy. -
Any person who attempts or conspires to commit an offense under this section
shall be punished in the same manner as a person who completes the offense.
AFP reports: "Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas decried Sunday Israel's
"genocide" in the Gaza Strip amid its war on Hamas militants there, in remarks
to visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken." But Abbas has not tried to
invoke the Genocide Convention.
In response to my question, State Department representative Vedant Patel claimed
that the US government has not been pressuring the Palestinian Authority to not
invoke the Genocide Convention or any other legal mechanism. In fact,
international law professor John Quigley states: "Of course, the US has been
pressuring Abbas for several years not to go to the International Criminal Court
or International Court of Justice for anything."
The record backs up Quigley. The Times of Israel reported in 2021 "Biden
officials privately pushed Abbas to shelve ICC probe against Israel" and Axios
reported in 2022: "Abbas rejects U.S. request to not push for UN court opinion
on Israeli occupation," quoting a State Department spokesperson: "We believe it
is critical for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to refrain from unilateral
steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated
two-state solution."
Regardless of US pressure, the question to Abbas is, why has he not invoked the
Genocide Convention? Moreover, it is quite possible that other countries are
wanting to invoke the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice
(also known as the World Court), but Abbas is holding them back.
That is what Francis Boyle has been recommending as I noted in my questioning,
below. Such a maneuver, Boyle argues, may be the strongest legal avenue since
the International Criminal Court "is rigged and has done nothing for the
Palestinians."
Patel claimed the State Department has a "rigorous process for evaluating
whether something constitutes genocide."
Boyle charged in an email to me that the "Internal State Department Review on
Genocide is always political. For example, after I won my first Order at the
World Court for Bosnia to the Yugoslavians to cease and desist from committing
all acts of Genocide, [then Secretary of State] Warren Christopher started a
propaganda campaign by State to detract and undercut its significance."
Boyle added: "'Diplomacy' by the Biden administration and Blinken in particular
is in fact just their international stage-managing of the Zionist genocide
against the Palestinians."
Patel repeated the US establishment mantra backing "Israel's right to defend
itself against these terrorist attacks by Hamas" but legal scholar Richard Falk
emailed me: "Gaza remains from the perspective of international law and the UN
an 'Occupied Palestine Territory' subject to the Forth Geneva Convention. This
means that Israel as Occupying Power has a primary obligation to safeguard the
safety of the civilian population. It is entitled to take reasonable lawful
means to restore its security in the aftermath of such an attack. As such, it
has no international legal right of self-defense; even if it had a right of
self-defense it would have no legal or moral basis for engaging in a genocidal
assault, the character of which has been strongly confirmed by Israel's top
leaders, Netanyahu, Gallant, and to a more indirect sense, Herzog. ... I do not
share the view that Hamas can be written off as 'terrorist' while Israel remains
a legitimate state despite its record of state terrorism." See Falk's recent
piece "Israel-Palestine war: Israel's endgame is much more sinister than
restoring 'security'".
-- Cont'd at https://husseini.substack.com/p/state-department-claims-they-are
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