I recently joined Tommy Salmons on his show Year Zero to discuss the role of international law in the existing world order, with a specific focus on the Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinians’ fundamental human rights and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Salmons’ podcast is hosted by the Libertarian Institute, where since March I have been a Research Fellow focusing mainly on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Listen to the audio of our discussion below, or watch the video version here.
Summary
Specific topics we discussed include:
- Why the logical corollary of the libertarian principle of non-aggression is that we must oppose the state.
- Why we should view the existence of international law as a good thing because we oppose the state.
- Why the problem is not that international law exists but that it is utilized as a weapon by the most powerful against the weaker states.
- How the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine violated its own charter.
- How the United Nations (UN) was specifically designed to enable the most powerful states to dominate the rest of the world.
- The applicability of international law to Israel’s occupation of Palestine
- How the US is in a position of bullying the world.
- How US government officials could and should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, but why this is unlikely to happen.
- Why Israel’s assault on Gaza does meet the definition of “genocide” under international law.
- The three reasons why the British government in 1917 expressed support for the Zionist movement in its infamous “Balfour Declaration”.
- How Western anti-Semitism was one major reason for Western support for the Zionist movement.
- Why Americans voting once every four years to supposedly help determine which head of the beast is going to devour us is not a viable strategy to effect any kind of real change.
- How the International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently ruled that not only are a multitude of aspects of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territory in violation of international law, but also that Israel’s occupation itself is illegal.
- Why the ICJ is facing a conundrum whereby it cannot rule that Israel’s assault on Gaza do not amount to the crime of genocide without completely discrediting the entire existing framework of international law.
Excerpted Clips
Here are a few excerpts from the interview:
The League of Nations' Unlawful Palestine Mandate
A Bottom-Up Solution to the Israel-Palestine Conflict
The UN's Role in the World Order
The ICJ on Israel's Illegal Occupation
Obstacle to Peace
To learn more about the role of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the US government in creating and perpetuating the Israel-Palestine conflict, be sure to read my book Obstacle to Peace: The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Signed copies are available exclusively when you buy directly from me on this site.
“Jeremy R. Hammond wrote the definitive scholarly account of the American role in the entire disaster.” -- Scott Horton, Director of the Libertarian Institute
For Utopians the ends always justify the means and the means always seem to end up contradicting the ends directly.