Given the International Criminal Court’s issuing of warrants this week for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes, international law is back in the news. Radio Intifada has therefore decided to rebroadcast an interview we did some time ago with Noura Erakat, a legal scholar and author of the book Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. We discussed both the possibilities and the limits of international law as a tool for the prosecution of crimes against humanity and for the prevention of Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people.
At times, Palestinian appeals to international law and its application have won great gains for the recognition of the legitimacy of their struggle; at others, Israel and its principal backer, the United States, have found ways to evade or modify legal norms and to transform violations of international or humanitarian law into new norms. Recalling that the previous Trump administration recognized Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and declared its settlements of Palestinian lands to be legal in violation of established and reiterated international opinion, Erakat’s reminder that the appeal to law only succeeds when backed by vigorous political movements could not be more timely. Professor Erakat’s insights remain relevant and important to understanding the current context.
Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and assistant professor at George Mason University. She has served as legal counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives and as a legal advocate for Palestinian refugee rights at the United Nations. Erakat’s research interests include human rights and humanitarian, refugee and national security law. She is a frequent media commentator, with recent appearances on CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NPR, among others, and her writings have been widely published in the national media and academic journals. She is also the co-founding editor of Jadaliyya, an independent ezine produced by the Arab Studies Institute.
