Palestinian protests, the ICC & the Rules Based International Order
On Saturday 18th May the fourteenth London demonstration in support of the Palestinians since October 7th 2023 attracted 250,000 people. As several people have pointed out it is an astonishing record of mass mobilisation unparalleled as far back as the first mass protest of the modern era at Peterloo on 16th August 1819.
Moreover it was far from the only Palestinian protest in the UK on that day- this is a country wide movement- and its also framed by student protest camps at a growing number of Universities inspired by US students.
Comparison has been made with 1968. It might be argued that this is a far broader movement, although students were then and are now a key element. It has not yet reached the level of the French General Strike of May 1968 which almost brought down the Government
Its impact can be seen in the decision by the International Criminal Court to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on 20th May.
Israel, which like the US (but unlike the UK) does not recognise the Court has so flouted what used to be known as the rules based international order, and created in doing so such a powerful opposing protest movement that to retain any credibility it had to act.
Of course there is a problem
Perry Anderson in New Left Review 143(Sept/Oct 2023) wrote on the Standard of Civilisation a detailed analysis of the theory and practice of international law.
He notes:
Naturally enough, the icc—staffed by pliable personnel—declined to investigate any us or European actions whatever in Iraq or Afghanistan, concentrating its zeal entirely on countries in Africa, according to the unspoken maxim: one law for the rich, another for the poor.
The problem comes when Israel so rips up any concept of international law including the one bit that had until then actually worked, when Israel bombed an Iranian diplomatic building, something had to be done. The ICC has duly done something and Biden has called it an ‘outrage’. But if trying to uphold any concept of a rules international order is condemned where does that leave the legitimacy of US imperial endeavours.
Expect protests to continue and grow and more history to be made.
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