2
1
1
Israeli Occupation, Colonialism and Apartheid: Crimes Against Humanity - by Stephen Lendman
Israel breaches international law with impunity with help from Washington.
Colonialism and apartheid are especially serious international law breaches because they fundamentally violate core legal principles and values.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed self-determination as an essential principle of international law. All states must respect and promote it. Colonial occupation is in clear violation.
The 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (the Declaration on Colonialism), condems "colonialism in all its forms and manifestations," including illegal settlements.
According to the 1973 International Convention for the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (the Apartheid Convention), this practice is state-sanctioned discriminatory "inhuman" racism "committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them."
Apartheid is an international crime. The above definition builds on the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
In addition, the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court calls apartheid a crime under the Court's jurisdiction. Israel is flagrantly guilty but yet to be held accountable.
International laws prohibiting colonialism and apartheid are "peremptory." As a result, they're recognized by the world community as standards permitting no derogation. Every country is legally bound to respect and observe them. They must also:
- work cooperatively to end individual state violations;
- not extend recognition to lawless ones; nor
- provide them aid in any form.
Moreover, international law recognizes:
- Palestinians' right to self-determination;
- that Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegally occupied;
- that Israel has no sovereignty over these Territories, only an earlier temporary administrative right no longer applicable;
