The main obstacle that blocks the way towards a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict is the huge gap that exists between justice and reality.
The Friday ICJ ruling and reactions that followed are a clear reminder of how simple justice is and how complicated realities are.
Such unjust realities were dictated through the course of the 37 years of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Reality did not allow Palestinians to challenge settlement building, land grabs, displacement of people, and illegal annexation of parts of the occupied territories. As well, diplomacy failed to provide solutions.
In the case of the separation law, justice is simple; no one can justify building a wall in the neighbor’s garden. To build a wall on your own land does not even need a justification.
A clear, simple, and true base upon which the International Court of Justice denied Israel claims that the wall is built over security considerations.
The uproar created over the court’s ignoring the security value of the wall is irrelevant; the court examined an established route not an idea.
Critics of the court ruling need to be more careful. This is not the United Nations General Assembly, where Israel and its allies can accuse many countries with bias in favor of Palestinians. This is the highest international court, a forum of 15 judges who rule on the bases of International law, which was developed mainly by powerful countries.
Judges could not blind eyes on the obvious fact that the wall route was as well designed to ‘grab more Palestinian land’ and insure the future integration of illegally built West Bank Jewish Settlements into Israel.
Even the U.S. guarantees, which endorsed Israel’s right to hold to some West Bank areas, were based on ‘the American recognition of established demographic realities’ not on any international legal bases.
Even with the monopole world and war against International terrorism, justice is not completely dead, and dictations through using mere power and forced on ground realities are still possible to be challenged.
The bold accusations against the court, from the side of Israeli officials and their allies in Washington, are scary. It shows lack of respect to the most prestigious court in the world and clearly states that ‘no one, no issue, no ethics, and no law, even the ones I signed to, can stand in my way to achieve my goals’; exactly the same way in which international terrorism advances its war.
The message ICJ sent to Israel is simple, to solve your problem with Palestinians through diplomacy, you need to do it through diplomacy not dictations that violates international law.
