'Out of Balance' by Dr Yousef Rizqa

'Israel' welcomes the decision of Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who said that ICC is not going to investigate the crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza assault for 'Palestine is not a state' and ICC considers claims and complaints made by states only.

Palestine might not be considered a state now, but it is a land and a people who have all the qualities of a state. Further, it was a sate under the British Mandate, until the Israelis occupied it and displaced its people and established the occupation state of Israel in its place. Palestine is one of the most deep-rooted states, not only in the Arab region, but also in the world. What was regarded as a state in the past will also be regarded as such in the future, so long as Palestinians remain committed to return and establish a state.

Palestine might not be formally considered a state, as Ocampo states, but war crimes and crimes against humanity have nothing to do with formalities, for a human is a human, whether he lives in an already-established state or in an occupied one. Human rights are above formalities, for laws are set basically to protect the vulnerable from the aggression of oppressors.

The decision of the ICC is wrong in its content and contrary to the spirit of international law. At the same time, it gives Israel another opportunity for impunity. It encourages it to repeat its aggressive crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza and other districts.

Israel, in cooperation with its allies in Washington DC and the EU, aborted the Goldstone Report, which detailed the crimes of Israel in Gaza. The report, according to the logic of power and racist attitudes, ended up buried, facing the same destiny as other UN reports on Palestine. The Hague Advisory Opinion faces the same destiny as the Goldstone Report. It is now no more than an academic paper used for research purposes.

There is an imbalance in the International Community illustrated by these incidents, and in the legal and judicial facts, which leads me to say that the legal structure of human rights in today's world is imbalanced and wrong. It works for the interests of the strong man, the white man, and the blue-eyed people. The imbalance in the international structure does not mean that the Palestinian and Arab structures are fine.

When power controls the world, the weak should not give up, but rather they should work to regain their strength, particularly when the sources of strength are there in the societies and all that is needed, is mobilization.

Palestinian and Arabic strengths are not evident in Israelis, and maybe others. But the lack of confidence Palestinians and Arabs have in themselves, begging everyone to stand with them and protect them, results in this humiliation. This can be seen in the form of positions and decisions. Ocampo and the court's decision, which refused to look into the Israeli crimes committed in the Cast Lead Operation because Palestine is not a state, will not be the last. Palestinians need not wait for the ICC to be fair to their cause, rather they ought to emphatically fight for their own rights, even in the absence of a Palestinian state.

ENDS

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