International Court of Justice orders Israel to end military operation in Rafah
The International Court of Justice on Friday ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire for the enclave.
While Israel is unlikely to comply with the order, which resulted from an appeal from South Africa, the order could ratchet up pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
ICJ president Nawaf Salam, describing the humanitarian situation in Rafah as “exceptionally grave,” read the ruling as a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside the court in The Hague.
Although the court has broad powers to order an end to the Israeli military campaign and any such ruling would be a blow to Israel’s international standing, it does not have a police force to enforce its orders. Russia, for example, has ignored a ruling from the same court to halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As the ruling came down Friday, Palestinians watched the proceedings on TV from the makeshift Abu el Ezz Cafe in Khan Younis. Several said they welcomed the decision, but weren’t hopeful it make an immediate difference.
“This court is an established court and it represents humanity and international law, so to us, we are honoured that there is an international body in the picture,” Abdel Malik Al-Madhoun, 45, told CBC News in Khan Younis.
“But if there’s no obligation to [Israel to comply], nothing will change.”
Shadi Al-Hourani, 35, said he was “fed up” of symbolic rulings.
“These decisions are not fruitful at all unless we see actions on the ground,” he said in an interview. “We hear about decisions but we don’t see any action on the ground.”
Attacks on Oct. 7 in southern Israel led by Hamas, considered a terrorist group by several Western nations including Canada, killed around 1,200 people. Several of the dead were Canadian citizens.
Israel has said the operation in Rafah is necessary to continue to degrade the capabilities of Hamas and free dozens of hostages still believed to be held there. Ahead of the ruling, an Israeli government spokesperson said that “no power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza.”
“Israel has not and will not carry out a military campaign in the Rafah area that creates living conditions that could lead to the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part,” the Israeli government said in a statement.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he agreed Israel should not continue its assault on Rafah.
“Canada’s position has been clear for many many weeks now: We need an immediate ceasefire. Hamas needs to lay down its arms [and] release all hostages, but there also must be no more military operations in Rafah by Israel and certainly no escalation of military operations in Rafah,” he said Friday.
Speaking after the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel should halt military operations in the southern Gaza community of Rafah, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there should be no escalation in the area by Israel and called for immediate access to more aid.
Opening of Rafah crossing urged
Israel’s offensive since the war began has killed more than 35,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and has caused a humanitarian crisis and a near-famine.
Fears the court expressed earlier this year about an operation in Rafah have “materialized,” the ruling said, and Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive” in the city and anything else that might result in conditions that could cause the “physical destruction in whole or in part” of Palestinians there.
The International Court of Justice is expected to issue a decision on South Africa’s request to order Israel to cease its military operations in Gaza.
Rafah is in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt. More than one million people sought refuge there in recent months after fleeing fighting elsewhere, with many of them are living in teeming tent camps.
Israel has been vowing for months to invade Rafah, saying it was Hamas’s last major stronghold, even as several allies warned an all-out assault would spell disaster.
Israel started issuing evacuation orders about two weeks ago as it began operations on the edge of the city, but the court said it found evacuation and humanitarian plans were not sufficient.
Since then, the army says an estimated one million people have left as forces press deeper inside. Rafah is also home to a critical crossing for aid, and the UN says the flow of aid reaching it has plunged since the incursion began, though commercial trucking has continued to enter Gaza.
Order ‘underlines the gravity of the situation’
The UN court on Friday ordered Israel to keep the Rafah crossing into Egypt open “for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
The court’s order “underlines the gravity of the situation facing Palestinians in Gaza, who have for months endured the blocking of basic services and humanitarian aid amid continued fighting,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
“The ICJ’s decision opens up the possibility for relief, but only if governments use their leverage, including through arms embargoes and targeted sanctions, to press Israel to urgently enforce the court’s measures.”
The ceasefire request is part of a case filed by South Africa late last year, accusing Israel of committing genocide during its Gaza campaign. Israel vehemently denies the allegations. The case will take years to resolve, but South Africa wants interim orders to protect Palestinians while the legal wrangling continues.
In January, ICJ judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive. In a second order in March, the court said Israel must take measures to improve the humanitarian situation.
The court also ruled Friday that Israel must ensure access for any fact-finding or investigative mission sent by the UN to assess the genocide allegations.
In its statement, Israel characterized the allegations regarding genocide as “false, outrageous and disgusting.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed the World Court’s order but said he remained concerned the United Nations Security Council had not succeeded in reducing human suffering in Gaza.
The ICJ rules in disputes between nations. A few kilometres away, the International Criminal Court files charges against individuals it considers most responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
On Monday, the ICC’s chief prosecutors asked its judges to approve arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three top Hamas leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Published at Tue, 21 May 2024 08:01:50 +0000
Political murders eat away at democracy in Mexico as elections near
Guarded by more than a dozen police officers equipped with semi-automatic rifles and donning a helmet and bulletproof vest, Ramiro Solorio looks more like he is leading an armed raid than running for local political office.
But in parts of Mexico, where scores of local political candidates have been murdered ahead of national elections on June 2, the risk of violence and assassination is so high that many feel they have no choice but to campaign alongside armed guards or wear flak jackets and move around in armoured cars.
“We are afraid of being murdered,” Solorio, 55, said, as he greeted residents in one of Acapulco’s poor outskirts, the underbelly of this glitzy tourist spot, where streets stink with overflowing garbage and pools of stagnant water. He is protected by 15 members of the National Guard after federal authorities found significant risks to his safety.
More political candidates — six — have been killed in the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, than in any other in Mexico.
From September to May, across Mexico, 34 candidates or aspiring candidates have been assassinated. Security analysts say the killings are mostly linked to drug cartels seeking to influence local elections.
Reuters talked to more than a dozen candidates and party heads to understand the impact of the violence on local elections and the fears many aspiring politicians face.
Solorio, who is running for mayor of Acapulco for the Social Encounter Party, is particularly concerned because he has made security a core issue of his campaign. Frequently dressing as a Mexican wrestler in a blue “lucha libre” mask, he has dubbed himself “El Brother,” as he goes door to door promising to get tough on crime and corruption.
“The coexistence between the government and crime is a reality,” Solorio alleged, vowing to clean up local government and restore law and order.
Although the ruling Morena party is expected to comfortably win the presidential election, the violence against local candidates is a significant blot on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s legacy and one that underpins criticism that he has failed to improve Mexico’s security situation. Lopez Obrador will leave office this year when his term ends. His successor is to be chosen on June 2, the same day as the violence-hit elections for local governments.
Lopez Obrador has dismissed data showing an increase in attacks as “sensationalism.” The president defends his record on security, pointing to a five per cent fall in homicides last year compared to 2022. But murders still hover around 30,000 a year and more people have been killed during his presidency than during any other administration in Mexico’s modern history.
“There are areas that candidates definitely can’t enter,” said Eloy Salmeron, head of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) in Guerrero. In some parts, the party has not fielded any candidates. “There is a lot of fear,” he said.
‘Unprecedented’ violence
This election campaign has already seen the highest number of violent incidents reported against candidates, according to the risk consultancy Integralia. It counts 560 incidents, way above the previous high of 389 during the last presidential election, even if the number of murdered candidates is slightly below the 2021 gubernatorial elections.
“The violence that the electoral process is facing is unprecedented,” Armando Vargas, an expert at Integralia said.
Safety concerns have led to dozens of aspiring candidates dropping out in Mexico, and countless more have decided never to run.
Polling stations cancelled or moved
The impact on municipal politics in particular has put the very functioning of democracy at risk in certain states.
For example, in Tumbiscatio, Michoacan — a violence-ridden town where cartels have used drones armed with explosives — authorities have decided the town is not safe enough to host a voting booth and voters will have to travel to a neighbouring town to place their ballot for mayor and other municipal posts.
Across Michoacan state, the locations of 11 originally planned voting booths have been cancelled due in part to security concerns, according to an electoral authority spreadsheet seen by Reuters.
“It’s an attack on democracy itself,” said Vicente Sanchez, a security expert at the public research institute Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef) in Tijuana. Organized crime groups are effectively choosing local officials by threatening or assassinating those they oppose, he said.
Flak jackets and armoured vehicles
In Michoacan, which borders Guerrero, Francisco Huacus is running for congress for the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). He campaigns in an armoured vehicle and wearing a flak jacket.
“We have to campaign as if we were in a war zone,” he said.
Huacus says his colleagues running for local office are in even more danger than he is, with organized crime groups most interested in exerting local influence that enables them to help control trafficking routes.
In the face of the attacks, the Mexican government has extended security protection — usually involving armed guards — to around 500 candidates throughout the country who have said their lives are at risk. That’s only a tiny fraction of the total candidates running for more than 20,000 political posts in the June vote.
Back in Acapulco, Solorio puts on his blue lucha libre mask and pulls a wrestler pose — knees bent and biceps tensed.
“We will fight for justice in Acapulco,” he shouts. Behind him armed guards keep watch.
Published at Fri, 24 May 2024 14:10:37 +0000