How Algeria Undermined the ICJ Orders and Put Hamas in an Oslo-like Process
The Madrid Conference of 1991 was supposed to be based on UNSC resolutions. Oslo gutted that. The ICJ orders should have re-asserted international law, but so far the opportunity has been squandered.
Some people are still telling me about how great the Algerian government has been during this genocide.
So, let’s clarify what has happened, especially as imperial Israel is ethnic cleansing Gaza City in the next stage of its genocide.
On May 25, 2024 the ICJ issued emergency orders for Israel to stop its invasion of Rafah.
On May 28, the Algerian government, which is on the UN Security Council, reportedly drafted a resolution said its ambassador Amar Bendjama to implement the orders of the ICJ, which a properly functioning Security Council would have passed.
But on May 31, Biden made a phony proclamation that Israel had agreed to a ceasefire.
Instead of insisting on a vote on a resolution to implement the ICJ orders, Algeria incredibly backed the Biden plan. The US would of course have vetoed a UNSC resolution implementing the ICJ orders, but that would have been valuable in getting the General Assembly to step up with a Uniting for Peace resolution to implement the orders.
Instead, the Security Council then ridiculously adopted a US resolution on June 10 which made no mention of the Court orders and gave its blessing to the phony “ceasefire proposal”. Algeria and 14 other UNSC members incredibly voted for the obvious ruse. The Russian representatives talked about how phony the resolution was, but didn’t veto it, just abstained, apparently because the Algerians and other Arab states asked them not to.
Many — and even Hamas — “welcomed” the resolution, Reuters reported: “The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, its ally the Islamic Jihad group and the rival Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas’s welcomed a U.N. Security Council resolution backing a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.” (A month later, China would host “Palestinian Factions Sign Beijing Declaration on Ending Division and Strengthening Palestinian National Unity”.)
I objected to this, including Algeria’s move, extensively in real time. As did Francis Boyle. On May 24, I was on a DAWN X Space and on May 31, I published an in-depth piece about Uniting for Peace being the next stage of the Genocide Convention process. And see my June 4 piece for example: “The US Government is Using ‘Ceasefire’ Rhetoric to Try to Obstruct International Law in Gaza.”
On June 25, when I was finally able to get a question in at the State Department about this, I highlighted the chicanery, see video.
So the US government effectively assaulted the ICJ orders and international law. And most alleged critics of Israel were either clueless about many of the machinations or actually facilitated the farce.
Still, South Africa (as well as Nicaragua in its case against Germany’s backing of Israel’s genocide), can be urged to push for additional orders. Other nations could do likewise.
If any of that sounds familiar to regular readers, it’s largely lifted from a piece I wrote in December.
I then noted:
And countries like Algeria (which becomes president of the Security Council in January) should be pushed to get proper resolutions through the Security Council to implement those orders. The US government would obviously veto such resolutions, but its criminality should be exposed more and more.
Critically what’s needed is for the UN General Assembly to pass resolutions using Uniting for Peace with teeth to make Israel stop. These could include an arms embargo, economic sanctions, even the use of a peace keeping force.
(I should note that the South Africa case is continuing at the ICJ, but could take years. Little is stopping requests for more emergency orders, like the one in May that the US stopped from being implemented. And the General Assembly has passed other resolutions, but they so far are lacking in actual teeth.)
We’ve seen no serious push by Algeria or any other delegation at the UN. Just more rhetoric. No moves for more emergency orders. A resolution passed overwhelmingly in June of this year called on all Member States to “take all measures necessary” to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law, but has resulted in virtually no concrete action.