Defending the indefensible? Israel, Palestine, and the Ugandan Judge
By Femi Olugbile
On the 19th of July 2024, the International Court of Justice, sitting at The Hague, Netherlands, gave an Advisory Judgement in a case titled ‘Legal Consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.’ This followed the communication to the court by the Secretary General of the United Nations of a decision taken by the General Assembly to submit questions raised in its resolution 77/247 to an advisory judgment of the ICJ regarding whether the behaviour of the state of Israel was in conformity with International Law.
After concluding that it had jurisdiction over the matter and that there was no compelling reason for it not to give the Advisory Judgement requested of it, the court decided, among other things, that the State of Israel was under an obligation to bring to an end its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible, that it had an obligation to cease all new settlement activities on ‘Occupied’ land, and to pay reparations for natural or legal persons concerned, and that the United Nations, and the Security Council should take further action ‘to bring to an end as rapidly as possible the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’.
There were fifteen judges sitting in Judgement, and the Judgement was carried with an overwhelming majority. However, one member dissented on the essential points of the judgement and went on to write a minority judgement which queried the logic of treating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a judicial matter. She averred that only a political solution was possible, through negotiation. This lone voice was Justice Julia Sebutinde, Vice-President of the Court, who hailed from Uganda.
The din of the outrage that has followed Justice Sebutinde’s Minority Report is yet to subside, several months after the judgement. Arab critics have hinted, without any shred of evidence, that she may have been suborned. Some accused her of acting as a mouthpiece for President Museveni. Although Uganda was a strong member of the African Union, which has been generally supportive of the Palestinian cause, it was known to have strong economic ties with Israel.
The huge amount of public interest in Justice Sebutinde’s judgement could be understood in the context of events that have been taking place in Israel and the Palestinian Territories since the Hamas attack of 7th October 2023, and the massive reaction of Israel with the invasion of Gaza, which is till ongoing.
It could also be seen in the context of the daring case filed by South Africa with the ICJ in December 2023 regarding Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip, following its invasion, which has resulted in an extreme humanitarian crisis, with accusations of mass killings amounting to genocide. Emotions are rife over the sheer amount of force and destruction. Nothing is spared – hospitals, health workers, women, children, the elderly. The repeated forced relocations, and the trivialisation of human life have been appalling to many people, including some in Israel itself. The arrival of the Donald Trump government and the prevailing climate of ‘might-is-right’ has made things worse, and there appears to be no end in sight to the human tragedy.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), which is also based at The Hague, last November indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and his onetime Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of committing crimes against humanity, and ordered their arrest. This last action, which is more symbolic than real, upset the Israelis and their powerful friends. Officials of the ICC have been subjected to threats and sanctions. The USA and some nations in Europe have disdained and disparaged the court’s indictment.
And so the endless war between Israel and Palestine continues unabated on the ground, where Israel is massing up its military muscle for another full-scale invasion of Gaza. The body count of men women and children killed in undefended air raids and drone attacks ratchets up beyond the fifty thousand mark. On mainstream news media Israel and its friends use the muscle of ownership and subtle coercion to slant the news in its favour, appropriating the word ‘antisemitism’ to smear every criticism of the Jewish state, and rationalising and ‘sanitising’ even the most despiccable behaviour, such as the recent massacre of fifteen ambulance crew in Gaza. Social media, on the othet hand, as well as public protests, where they are allowed, reflect near-universal public sympathy for the people of Palestine as victim and underdog, but often fail to take cognisance of Hamas’ atrocities inflicted on their enemies – as shown in the frenetic butchery of 7th October 2023 where over a thousand Israeli men women and children were killed or taken hostage, and tyranny on their own people through violent rule that foreclosed any possibility of democratic change once they came into power in Gaza.
One of the most profound mysteries of studying Freudian psychoanalysis is the received notion that a proposition and its opposite may be simultaneously right. Justice Sebutinde’s conclusion that the cause of the Palestinians against Israel cannot be won by legalistic argument, no matter how compelling, and that the crisis, being political, can only be resolved by political negotiation perhaps deserves a second look, instead of just attracting threats, insults and unsavoury insinuations against the hapless Ugandan lady.
On the other hand, the clearly established case articulated by the South Africans, themselves long-term victims of Apartheid, and the ICC prosecutors, that Israel is practising Apartheid and committing what can only be described as genocide, cannot be wished away by threats of Trumpian ‘tariffs’, visa bans or efforts to bully and intimidate people away from believing the evidence daily presented before their eyes.
That a ‘Final Solution’ cannot be imposed by an Israel empowered with bunker-bursting bombs and impunity by Donald Trump, or by chaos fostered by Iran, the Houthis and millions of people across the world who sympathise with the underdog in Palestine, is evidence that something has to give so that all the world is not ultimately consumed. The real question is – What?
