{"id":301439,"date":"2025-08-25T12:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T11:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=301439"},"modified":"2025-08-19T10:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T09:28:15","slug":"gazas-urgency-and-lessons-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/08\/gazas-urgency-and-lessons-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza\u2019s Urgency and Lessons for the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

17 Aug 2025 – Responses to questions posed by Naman Baka\u00e7, an independent journalist in Turkey. The interview was published by <\/em>FOCUS, an independent online media platform: https:\/\/www.fokusplus.com\/roportaj\/prof-dr-richard-falk-bm-ve-kuresel-hukuk-filistin-halkinin-haklarini-koruyamadi?s=09<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

**************************************<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

1. Let\u2019s start with your book \u2018Genocide in Gaza: Voices of Global Conscience,\u2019 which<\/strong> you co-edited with Ahmet Davuto\u011flu and was published in June 2025. The book<\/strong> includes articles by more than 30 politicians, academics, diplomats, intellectuals, and<\/strong> statesmen from 17 countries. Who are the contributors in this book? What motivations<\/strong> led to the creation of this book? What message do you aim to convey to the global<\/strong> public through this book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Response<\/strong>: As we explain in the Preface, the contributors were selected from a
\nmuch larger group of distinguished signatories of a Declaration of Conscience,
\ndrafted by the former Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu and myself,
\nand issued in late 2023 not long after the October 7 events. The Hamas-led
\nattack was designed to be an anguished protest against the failure of
\ngovernments and the UN to bring what seemed to us almost from its outset
\nto be a transparent genocide carried out in real time and by digital
\ntechnology brought to the awareness of the eyes and ears of the world. The
\nissuance of our Declaration was met with unexpected enthusiasm from
\nfrustrated citizens in many countries that resulted in the private funding of a
\nconference in London on 27 March 2024.<\/p>\n

By coincidence, the conference was held the day after the International Court of Justice made its historic initial interim rulings in response to requests from South Africa that had submitted
\na legal dispute with Israel as to whether Israeli violence was of a nature that
\nviolated the International Convention on Genocide, as well as whether Israel
\nwas legally obliged to stop obstructing the international delivery of
\nhumanitarian aid to the civilian population of Gaza. Naturally, we were
\nencouraged by these ICJ rulings to the effect that Israeli indiscriminate
\nviolence against the civilian population of Gaza coupled with the Israeli official
\ndecrees prohibiting entry of food, fuel, and water made allegations of
\ngenocide \u2018plausible.\u2019<\/p>\n

As well, the ICJ in a second near unanimous judicial
\nruling ordered Israel to stop interfering with the delivery of urgently needed
\nhumanitarian aid. These ICJ rulings encouraged us to continue our effort to
\nmobilize civil society on the basis of a justice-driven interpretation of law to
\nengage with this unfolding human tragedy through the activation of
\nnonviolent solidarity initiatives.<\/p>\n

If a single message emerges from such a multi-authored book gathering
\nbetween its pages distinguished public personalities from around the world\u00a0with diverse perspectives on global issues, yet united in condemning the
\ngenocide, it is this: when the existing normative order of rules, procedures,
\nand institutions established by governments and international institutions,
\nespecially those falling within the UN System, fails to meet an urgent
\nchallenge to peace and human rights, it is time for the peoples of the world to
\nact in resolute opposition.<\/p>\n

In our search for participants, we wanted to focus on people whose view were similar to ourselves who were not presently holders of high positions in governments or inter-governmental institutions but were widely respected as moral authority figures. Our influence and \u2018weapons\u2019 were of the
\nmind, heart, and spirit that were best expressed by engaged citizenship, trust
\nin the guidance of conscience, and existential belief in the power of people in
\nthe service of truth. We hope our book conveys that message, which includes
\nthe conviction that conscience in extreme situations demands action as well
\nas rhetorical utterances. Words unsupported by action in the face of genocide
\nis an unacceptable form of silence. We regard our efforts as playing a small
\nbut determined part in an emergent global solidarity movement of people in
\nsupport of the Palestinian struggle for basic rights, above all, the right of self-
\ndetermination.<\/p>\n

From the London Conference devoted to exploring the implications of the
\nGaza Declaration, the idea of a book emerged as a matter of course,
\nencouraged by a publishing commitment by Clarity Press. Our intention was to
\nhave this varied collection of writings exhibit both shared values and diverse
\npolicy judgments, and stimulate creative solidarity actions throughout the
\nworld, thereby confirming the view that the Gaza Genocide is not just an
\nurgent challenge to all of humanity, but is also a test of whether the peoples
\nof the world can develop moral agency to challenge dark challenges to the
\nhuman future.<\/p>\n

As far as the book is concerned, I think the range and quality of the
\ncontributions exceeded our expectations, although admittedly its impacts on
\nhuman behavior remain unknowable, and even after 21 months such
\ninitiatives have not extinguished the need for intensifying activism in support
\nof the Palestinian struggle.<\/p>\n

2. In December 2023, you published a text calling for international justice and <\/strong>conscience conference on Palestine was held in London. Could these civil initiatives<\/strong> you undertook out of a sense of responsibility turn into a global civil movement to enforce international law and order? Has it already turned into one? Can wesay that, while the UN and international law have failed in the face of the Gazagenocide, you are moving from words to action with this civil movement? Afterall, the unifying theme of the London Conference was that words are not enough<\/strong> and action is imperative., which included some of the names in your new book. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Response<\/strong>: <\/strong>Although we were motivated to make what contribution we could to
\nchange the political atmosphere sufficiently to stop the genocide, we had no
\nillusions that our pleas for humane politics would be heeded in the short run. Yet
\nwe felt that silence in its two forms was unacceptable, that is, refusing to name
\nthe violence of the Israeli response as \u2018genocide,\u2019 given its clear intentionality as
\nfurther exhibited in its actions. Since naming gave rise to various forms of
\npunitive pushback, especially in Europe and North America during the months
\nafter October 7, to name the violence \u2018genocide\u2019 was not only a word but
\nbecame an action in defiance of Zionist worldwide efforts to treat evidenced-
\nbased criticism of Israel as a hateful form of antisemitism. As the genocide has
\npersisted now for more almost two years genocide as the accepted descripted
\nterm has been somewhat normalized even in the mainstream media. It is still
\ntrue that few governmental or officials in international institutions of the West
\nspeak of \u2018genocide\u2019 even when condemning the prolonged Israeli violence, and
\neven UN top officials while highly critical of Israel\u2019s behavior continue to refrain
\nfrom characterizing the violence in Gaza as genocide.<\/p>\n

It is notable that Francesca Albanese, the fearless UN Special Rapporteur for
\nOccupied Palestine has been admirably forthright when it coming to naming,
\ndevoting three of her semi-annual official reports to different facets of genocide,
\nincluding the depiction of the Zionist Project as a prime instance of \u2018settler
\ncolonialism\u2019 and complicit behavior of supporting governments and profit-making
\ncorporations as integral to Israel\u2019s criminal responsibility for genocide. It is not
\nsurprising in view of this that Ms. Albanese has been singled out by the US
\nGovernment and sanctioned in her personal capacity, being denied entry to the
\nUS and having her American assets frozen, a vindicative response to truthful
\nwitnessing on behalf of the public good, illustrative of UN functioning with courage and effectiveness despite contrary systemic pressures according to the high ideals of the Preamble to the UN Charter.<\/p>\n

As indicated in my response to your first question, the confinement of criticism of
\nIsrael\u2019s onslaught on Gaza to words of condemnation are insufficient in the face of
\nprolonged and transparent genocide, with cruel and aggravating tendencies for more than 22 months. Action must be proposed and acted upon, whether the actors are governments, institutions, civil society activist, or individuals and collectivities of\u00a0various sorts. The political suicide of Aaron Bushnell in 2023, an American airman in front of Israel\u2019s embassy in Washington is illustrative of an extreme humanistic sacrifice or self-martyrdom, an enactment of the repudiation of
\ngenocide as well as a desperate appeal to others to take action aimed at
\nstopping the genocide. The action of Madleen Freedom Flotilla mission
\nundertaken by Greta Thunberg and other brave and dedicated activists is
\nanother example of anti-genocidal activism, with an emphasis on both highlighting and circumventing Israel\u2019s disruptions of the international delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid, an initiative that combines a care-giving gesture in the context of the humanitarian emergency in Gaza with an unspoken yet powerful appeal to others to engage actively, given their personal situation, in a variety of ways that involves truth-telling and solidarity with the victimized population of Gaza.<\/p>\n

The importance of conscience as a motive for political action is gives rise to expressions of bravery in situations of risk without knowing whether controversial utterances will engender a response from those hitherto on the sidelines that might grow into a
\nmovement with transformative capabilities valuable for their own sake. In that
\nsense, opposing genocide in Gaza is both an intrinsic reaction of conscience and
\na distinct action that has political goals of motivating others to join the struggle.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, it is obvious that from feeble solidarity initiatives early on, a civil
\nsociety movement of many distinct parts has grown to the point where Israel\u2019s
\nlegitimacy as a state is increasingly drawn into question, both symbolically and
\nsubstantively. One manifestation of this solidarity trend is the intensity of
\ngrowing calls for Israel\u2019s suspension from UN activities, as well as proposals for
\narms embargoes, denial of visas to Israeli citizens, boycotts of cultural and
\nsporting events, solidarity fasts and cutting diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.<\/p>\n

Even though Israel has continued to follow its lawless, abusive path, its behavior and
\nidentity has been slowly delegitimized by public discourse even in the most influential
\ncivil society media platforms of the West, reflecting the symbolic defeat of Israel
\nwhen it comes to controlling the high normative ground of law and morality. As I
\nhave argued in the past the side that wins the Legitimacy War fought over
\nsymbolic entitlements of legality and morality tends to prevail politically in the end
\ndespite being defeated on the battlefield due to inferior military capabilities. The
\nPalestinians of Gaza, with the help of global supportive solidarity and Palestinian
\nresistance and sumud, have clearly won the Legitimacy War despite the tragic costs
\npaid by participants in such anti-colonial liberation struggles. As with other anti-colonial
\nuprisings, the uncertainty is whether the Palestinians have the national stamina
\nto gain the fruits of such a victory, that is, national liberation embodying the realization of the ultimate human right, that of self-determination. Israel under the sway of Zionist ideology and the Masada Complex seems prepared to pay a far higher price in blood, treasure, and reputation than have been other recent settler colonial projects to exterminate opposition its goals of eliminating resistance by the native or homeland residents.<\/p>\n

3.The Israel-Iran war raises many questions as to what kinds of changes will it<\/strong> bring to the regional and global order? What do you think is the real reason<\/strong> behind Israel targeting Iran after Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen? What do<\/strong> you think are the geopolitical and the political goals of the Israel-US duo?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Response<\/strong>: Israel has made clear in its foreign policy pronouncements that it seeks to prevent any country in the region from becoming strong or bold enough to challenge Israel\u2019s military preeminence. Its extension of the Gaza combat zone to several Middle Eastern countries signals its resolve to eliminate or severely weaken any Islamic non-state movement that is aligned with the Palestinian struggle for national liberation, the exercise of its long-denied rights of self-determination and perceived in Tel Aviv to pose a challenge to Israel\u2019s strategic and hegemonic ambitions. The inflamed atmosphere caused by the prolonged genocide in Gaza give rise to a context in which rising global discontent with Israel create incentives to strike at its actual and imagined
\nregional adversaries.<\/p>\n

Iran above all is singled out as Enemy No. 1, in part to divert attention from the grim happenings in Gaza and the West Bank, to carry out its long-time strategy of remaking the Middle East to its liking, and to address Iran\u2019s supposed security threat centered on its potential acquisition of nuclear
\nweapons. The Israeli justifications involve preempting security threats before
\nthey can materialize or striking disproportionately (along the lines of the Dahiya
\nDoctrine) in response to behavior perceived as hostile to the Zionist game plan
\nthat features the minimization of a Palestinian presence within an enlarged
\nreconfigured Israel that erases Palestine from the map of what Netanyahu likes
\nto call \u2018the New Middle East\u2019 or \u2018Greater Israel.\u2019 Such ambitions would compel the massive physical displacement and psychological marginalization of
\nPalestinians. It also seeks to coerce the most defeatist representatives of Palestine to agree to the surrender of national political goals, including the most basic rights embodied in international law, especially in relation to human rights.<\/p>\n

The 12-day Iran War exemplifies this approach, with the proclaimed \u00a0goal of
\neliminating, or at least substantially delaying, Iran\u2019s alleged threat to acquire
\nnuclear weapons. A secondary rarely openly acknowledged goal is to stimulate a restive
\nIranian opposition to seize the moment to launch a campaign to achieve regime
\nchange in Tehran. Underlying these, is an unspoken third goal of renewing fear
\nof Israel\u2019s deterrent capabilities and preventive war mindset in a potentially hostile post-Assad Syria feared to emerge as a destabilizing presence in the Middle East. The attack on Iran also created an
\nopportunity that came to fruition to involve the US directly in the coercive administration of Middle East politics. Israel\u2019s dependence on US supplementing its initial attacks by
\nenlisting B2 planes that the US alone possessed delivering Blockbuster Bombs on
\nunderground Iranian nuclear sites demonstrated the strength of Israel\u2019s leverage in Washington and the limits of Israel\u2019s purported military dominance in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The Israel\/US duo in the region has two imperial objectives. The first is assuring
\nfriendly governments control the energy resources of the region. The other is to\u00a0contain the spread of Islam beyond the vital civilizational fault lines in the Middle
\nEast. This second goal helps explain the blind eye that the Western liberal democracies turned toward the prolonged genocidal assault on the civilian population of Gaza while
\nactually exhibiting complicity in the commission of this crime. This crime
\nsimultaneously denied the right to life, right to peace, and a rebuff of
\nfundamental individual and collective legal entitlements of national self-
\ndetermination to all peoples.<\/p>\n

4.You previously served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine. Prof. Michael<\/strong> Lynk, who served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine between 2016 and<\/strong> 2022, recently stated at Bo\u011fazi\u00e7i University\u2019s conference \u2018Rethinking International<\/strong> Law after Gaza\u2019 that international law alone cannot ensure Palestine\u2019s liberation<\/strong> and that there must also be international resolve. What concrete proposals do <\/strong>you have for establishing the resolve to implement the principles and decisions of<\/strong> internation<\/strong>al law?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Response<\/strong>: I share Michael Lynk\u2019s view about the inability of international legal authority to be self-enforcing in situations of defiant non-compliance that Israel has
\nmanifested in all aspects of its relations with the Palestinian people and most
\ndramatically over the course of more than 22 months of a genocidal assault on
\nthe civilian population of Gaza and the devastation of physical infrastructure of
\nGazan society casting doubt of its viability as a place fit for human habitation.
\nThis is especially the case, as here, where the violator enjoys geopolitical support
\nfrom the US and the European Union. There are several steps that can be taken
\non levels of policy and others of a more systemic character.<\/p>\n

Civil Society Solidarity Initiatives<\/strong>. There are variety of ways that people
\ncan act to close the enforcement, accountability, and complicity gaps when the
\nUN and organized normative order fails, as it has in Gaza, and more generally
\nwith regard to protecting the basic rights of the Palestinian people. The struggle
\nagainst the South African apartheid regime illustrates the impact of civil society
\nactivism in the struggle to combat racist criminality. Such initiatives as the BDS
\nmovement, featuring nationalist boycotts of cultural and sporting events by
\nrefusals to perform in South Africa and mounting pressure to exclude
\nparticipation by South African performers and athletes elsewhere contributed to
\nanti-apartheid struggle, as well as seeking to discourage new investments and to
\ndivest from past investments, and sanctions by way of arms embargoes and
\nother punitive actions were expressions of moral outrage directed at the South
\nAfrican regime, and although unacknowledged, are widely thought to have
\ncontributed to the unexpected and sudden decision by South African leaders to
\nabandon apartheid, free Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years, and arrange free elections of all South African inhabitants to select a new leadership and establish a constitutional structure based on racial equality and human rights for all.<\/p>\n

There are a variety of other solidarity initiatives that can be mentioned: waging a
\nLegitimacy War to control public discourse, with the winner controlling the high
\nground of law and morality; exertions of a variety of pressures on media and
\ngovernment in complicit countries; protests by global voices of conscience
\ndemanding arms embargoes; individual actions such as tax refusal and self-
\nmartyrdom in protest.<\/p>\n

Collective Governmental Coalition<\/strong>. The Hague Group, originally formed by
\nstates of the Global South, provides a venue for opposing Israel\u2019s Gaza genocide,
\nincluding a statement of purpose and the recommendation of action-oriented
\nmeasures intended to exert pressure on Israel in relation to its behavior in
\nOccupied Palestine. The Hague Group met in Bogot\u00e1 at an emergency meeting
\nat the joint invitation of Colombia and South Africa. A Declaration signed by the
\n30 participating governments and the adoption of a commitment to impose a
\nseries of anti-Israeli measure by 12 of the participating states. The event is an
\nimportant indication of the emergence of the Global South from a period of post-
\ncolonial passivity and suggests a revival under altered circumstances of the
\nBandung Spirit, which challenged the preoccupations of the Cold War by
\ngiving priorities to liberation struggles and development priorities, and projecting a
\ndifferent conception of global security and international legitimacy at the UN and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

UN Reform<\/strong>. There are variety of UN Reforms that would enhance respect for
\ninternational law and enforcement\/accountability prospects. The most promising
\nreforms to achieve a more effective UN that seek to serve global public interests
\nwith respect to war prevention and global security include the following:
\nempowerment of the General Assembly via implementation of the Uniting for Peace Resolution and Responsibility to Protect (R2P), direct enforcement without recourse to
\nSecurity Council of ICJ judgments; elimination or curtailment of the right of veto
\nin the Security Council and in other decision points in the UN System; expediting
\nICJ proceedings in emergency situations; renaming \u2018Advisory Opinions\u2019 of ICJ as
\n\u2018Authoritative Legal Judgments;\u2019 adding layers of protections to the work of
\nSpecial Procedures to ensure political independence and immunity from
\ndefamation and sanctions. Seldom discussed is the enhancement of status of UN
\nSpecial Rapporteurs, including more explicit responsibilities of the UN Secretariat
\nto offer protection extending to disallowing defamatory attacks by NGOs within
\nUN arenas of appraisal such as the Human Rights Council. Vesting increased war prevention authority in the office of the Secretary General.<\/p>\n

New Pedagogical Paradigm<\/strong>. Legal education is deficient in its approach to
\ninternational law, especially in relation to core public order issues of conflict,
\nhuman rights, and development. It focuses on the vocational preparation of
\nstudents to be practicing lawyers within the confines of nation states.
\nInternational law is seen as a discretionary subject at the margins of the law
\nschool curricula and is not well understood even within democratic societies
\ngoverned in accord with constitutional commitments to uphold the \u2018rule of law.\u2019<\/p>\n

A pedagogy of international law that would be more supportive of a global normative order that was more geared to the realization of values associated with peace, justice, and sustainable development would view legal education as a vital source of civic
\neducation in relation to engaged citizenship. The goals would be to require all
\ngraduates of law schools and other law programs to grasp the relevance of an
\neffective just world order to human interests in overcoming global challenges.<\/p>\n

Educational reform would also include course offerings on the history of
\ninternational relations. Courses would feature critiques of \u2018political realism\u2019 that
\ncontinues to be the shared operational code of planners and advisors that shape
\nthe worldviews and foreign policy of almost all leading governments. The \u2018group
\nthink\u2019 of foreign policy elites create an atmosphere in which strategic ambitions
\nand security calculations take precedence, limiting international law in its
\nregulative role to policy settings in which mutuality is seen to exist. With respect
\nto global security context the propaganda role of international law tends to be
\nparamount, serving as a foreign policy instrument for mobilizing opposition
\nagainst international enemies while dismissing international law when its
\nconstraints are violated by the national government or its allies. Law is not law
\nthat treats equals unequally as was the Global West\u2019s appeal to international law
\nwhen dealing with Russia\u2019s attack on Ukraine and its dismissal when responding
\nto more serious allegations of genocide made against Israel.<\/p>\n

5.What kind of global order and international law was built after World War II such<\/strong> that no power, mechanism, legality, or institution can stop Israel\u2019s genocidal, <\/strong>expansionist, and occupationist policies? If this inability continues, what kind of global<\/strong> order and international law awaits us? As an experienced scholar who has conducted<\/strong> academic and field studies in international law and practices for more than 40 years,and who has written books on the legitimacy of global order, legality, and the future<\/strong> of international law, how do you think the global order and international law will beshaped after Gaza? What kind of world order awaits us? How would you name this<\/strong> new order? Is it similar to past versions of Pax Am<\/strong>erica?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Response<\/strong>: To some extent the last part of my response to the prior question
\nanticipates your concerns here. As suggested, the overriding of international law by
\nthe political realist control of foreign policy results in world order being shaped by
\npower rather than by the restraints and procedures of law and the guidelines of
\nethics and justice, at least in relation to global security and war\/peace issues. More
\nspecifically, what emerged from World War II was not a genuine war prevention or
\nglobal security framework as pledged in Preamble to the UN Charter. Instead, the
\ninternational normative order deliberately marginalized the UN, and international law
\ngenerally, although with certain potentially significant exceptions. The global
\nnormative order that has evolved since 1945 was designed to give the winners in the
\nwar against fascism freedom of action to pursue their strategic interests exempt from
\nthe rule of law and international law by virtue of a right of veto given to the five
\nwinners that also turned out to be the five countries allowed to acquire nuclear
\nweaponry.<\/p>\n

Such a great power hegemonic world system was also evident in the war
\ncrimes trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo, which only prosecuted German and Japanese
\nmilitary and political officials, that is, the crimes of the losers in the war. No legal
\nscrutiny led to investigations, much less prosecutions of the major crimes of the
\nwinners, including indiscriminate strategic bombing and the use of atom bombs
\nagainst two Japanese cities despite their scant military importance. A great liberal
\nshow was made of the limited due process offered to these surviving high officials of
\nNazi Germany and imperial Japan, but the one-sidedness of the legal proceedings
\nmade a mockery of claims that a new of international criminal justice had commenced
\nat the war crimes trials. A further irony is that the agreement to establish these
\ntribunals were set by the Allied Power in London on August 8, that is on the day
\nbetween dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and a second bomb on Nagasaki, a
\nhistoric display of humanitarian insensitivity by the self-righteous winners of World
\nWar II.<\/p>\n

A second phase of such a hegemonic normative order emerged from the collapse of
\nthe Soviet Union bringing the Cold War to an end in the early 1990s with victory by
\nthe West. To fill the geopolitical vacuum that existed, the US proceeded to project its
\npower throughout the planet by becoming the first \u2018global state\u2019 enabled by a network
\nof hundreds of foreign military bases, naval units in every ocean, and an aggressive
\nspace program to safeguard dominance on earth. By so acting, the US ignored the
\npossibilities at the end of the Cold War of achieving nuclear disarmament,
\ndemilitarization, a justice-oriented approach to global policy, and prosperity resting on
\nan ecologically resilient approach to economic and social development. This missed
\nopportunity for global reform has generated chaos, violent conflict, wasted resources,
\nwidening wealth\/income gaps, the rise of chauvinistic autocratic rule in many leading
\ncountries, and dangerous levels of ecological instability affecting adversely global
\nwarming and food security.<\/p>\n

Pax America is most accurately interpreted as an historic period of post-colonialism
\nthat is best described as US dominated Western imperialism.\u2019 It is also illuminating to
\nregard the interval between the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s and the
\nRussian attack on Ukraine in 2022 as an enactment of Pax America, with less Pax and
\nmore America. It featured US armed interventions with the goal of achieving regime-
\nchange, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, followed by lengthy occupations committed to
\nstate-building along capitalist, constitutional lines at great expense, and disappointing
\noutcomes given the motivations of the intervenors. Dubbed \u2018wars of choice\u2019 and
\n\u2018forever wars\u2019 these attempts to impose Western models of pollical and economic
\nstructures and alignments in accord with the postulates of neoliberal globalization
\nwere not only carried out with scant attention to the constraints of international law
\nbut resulted in political failures. The US experience in the Vietnam War is
\nparadigmatic: enduring political defeat despite battlefield dominance.<\/p>\n

6.While the people of Gaza are living through a live genocide under bombs, hunger,<\/strong> diseases, and blockade, as a theorist in the field of global order and international law,<\/strong> how do you think this genocide can be resolved by Netanyahu and Hamas? Hamas<\/strong> and Netanyahu are not stepping back from their core arguments. How can this<\/strong> deadlock be overcome? What is your concrete proposal?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Response<\/strong>: <\/strong>To begin with, Netanyahu and Hamas are not equal or symmetrically
\nsituated. Israel enjoys total military control of the political space and enjoys material
\nand diplomatic support from the NATO members of the UN Security Council, as well as
\nthe backing of these countries in the West on such legal and moral issues as whether
\nIsraeli use of force should be viewed as \u2018genocide\u2019 or \u2018self-defense.\u2019 All \u2018two sides\u2019
\napproaches to the Israel\/Palestine past, present, and future are tainted by their tacit
\nacceptance of master\/slave structures of interpretation and advocacy.
\nHamas has few cards to play when it comes to diplomatic negotiations. The only
\nobvious one, and it is tenuous and contingent, is the retention of Israeli hostages
\ntaken on October 7, some alive, some dead. In addition, Israel\u2019s leaders have
\nmanifested on many occasions that the return of the hostages is not a high priority
\njustifying significant concessions.<\/p>\n

The only just way to manage conflict resolution is to balance a long-term ceasefire
\nagainst an assured path to meaningful realization of the long deferred Palestinian right
\nof self-determination in a form that is not another instance of Israeli\/US \u2018breadcrumb
\ndiplomacy,\u2019 exchanging Israeli territorial expansion for a demilitarized Palestinian
\nBantustan put forward as the fulfillment of \u2018the two-state solution.\u2019 Palestinian
\nrepresentation must be legitimate and endowed with agency at any day-after\u00a0diplomatic process seeking reconciliation. From a detached perspective, for a variety
\nof reasons, a single secular state with equal rights for both peoples seems like the
\nonly durable justice-driven solution, but it is up to Israeli and Palestinians to arrive awhat now appears a \u2018utopian\u2019 solution.<\/p>\n

7. Since October 7, 2023, if we ask you to analyze the stances and actions of the<\/strong> following actors in the face of Netanyahu, Hamas, and the genocide, what picture <\/strong>would you paint for us? The Mahmoud Abbas Government, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Response<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\u2014Mahmoud Abbas Governmen<\/strong>t: At its best, a pragmatic adjustment to
\nthe victimization of the Palestinian people living in the Occupied Territories of East
\nJerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza, privileging a matter of getting on with daily life as
\nwell as possible, while continuing to represent Palestine in international negotiations
\nand endorse to the \u2018two state solution\u2019; at its worst, collaborating with Israel in
\nmaintaining security on the West Bank, supporting anti-Hamas tactics of Israel
\nincluding the punitive blockade on Gaza imposed in 2007 in reaction to the
\nunexpected Hamas electoral victory the prior year; failure to win support from most
\nPalestinians living in foreign countries as refugees or exiles; by and large, the
\nRamallah government operates within the comfort zone of Israel and United States, as
\ndoes settler violence land-grabbing; in my judgment the Abbas government is not
\nplaying a satisfactory role of international representation of the Palestinian resistance
\nfocused on the exercise of basic rights, especially the inalienable right of self-
\ndetermination;<\/p>\n

\u2014Egypt<\/strong>: In keeping with the behavior of other Arab governments Egypt has verbally
\ncriticized Israeli behavior in Gaza, but has carefully refrained from engaging in any act
\nthat might provoke hostile reactions by Israel; in this sense, Egypt has remained
\nnervously on the sidelines, although resisting pressures to date to accept large
\nnumbers of Palestinians forcibly displaced from Gaza; Egypt as aligned with the US
\nand Saudi Arabia exhibits hostility to Hamas as an extension of its domestic antipathy
\ntoward the Muslim Brotherhood within its own borders. Compared to Nasser\u2019s Egypt
\nthe current government has lost popular support and regional respect, especially in
\ncivil society circles of influence;<\/p>\n

\u2014Qatar<\/strong>: As a small country hosting a major US military base and vulnerable to hostile
\naction by other Gulf monarchies, Qatar has few choices, although it has maneuvered
\nskillfully to give itself the unique position of being the Switzerland of the Middle East,
\nuseful to all sides in the multidimensional conflicts that have brought chaos and misery
\nto many countries in the region; Qatar\u2019s leaders have been careful to appear neutral in
\nrelation to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, although it has long provided a\u00a0safe haven for top Hamas leaders living in exile, and extended hospitality to other
\nPalestinian notables, such as Azmi Bishara, no longer to feel secure in Israel; in the
\ncurrent high profile Gaza ceasefire negotiations only Qatar was considered suitable, providing security and facilities;<\/p>\n

\u2014Turkey<\/strong>: Only Turkey has played effectively a somewhat contradictory role. On the
\none side Turkey, as much as any government in the region aside from Iran is second
\nto none in the fierceness of its denunciation of Israel\u2019s behavior in Gaza since October
\n7, with its top leadership in Ankara not hesitant to categorize Israel\u2019s violence as
\n\u2018genocide\u2019 and to provide a domestic setting supportive of the Palestinian struggle for
\nbasic rights, including such initiatives as the Gaza Peoples Tribunal scheduled to have
\nits final session in Istanbul at the end of October; at the same time, Turkey seeks to
\nmaintain good economic and political relations with the European Union and the
\nUnited States. The Turkish government has also been criticized, and accused of moral
\nhypocrisy, due to its failure to shut down the pipeline supplying Israel with oil sent
\nfrom Azerbaijan and supposedly vital for its war effort.<\/p>\n

8. In your book translated into Turkish as \u2018Globalization and Religion: Humanitarian Global Governance,\u2019 you list several reasons for your new idea of \u2018Humanitarian Global<\/strong> Governance\u2019 as follows: \u2018Part of the appeal of religion is an antidote to the<\/strong> homogenizing effects of out-of-control consumerism and pseudo-universalism.\u2019 You also state, \u2018I have never gotten along well with the morality or knowledge system of<\/strong> scientific humanism in my approach to law and politics.\u2019 Could you elaborate on your<\/strong> perspective that religion serves as an antidote? Also, why do you not get along well<\/strong> with scientific humanism? Which paradigm do you currently align with in your<\/strong> approach to law and politics?<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Response<\/strong>: The book\u2019s title and central idea are unfortunately mistranslated. In English the key word is \u2018humane,\u2019 not \u2018humanitarian, which has a different meaning and resonance. Humanitarian or humanitarianism refers to acts of relief, undertakings designed to mitigate human suffering, or simply acts of kindness toward those in need. \u2018Humane\u2019 refers to a worldview animated by love, justice, fairness to all human beings, and an affirmation of the spiritual dimensions of reality. It can be coherently brought to reality or nurtured by certain patterns of governance that reflect shared societal values often transmitted by way of organized religion, but more often betrayed by repressive and corrupt governance and by despiritualized religious institutions and practices.
\nMy ambivalence toward \u2018scientific humanism\u2019 is a consequence of its epistemological
\nstance, which devalues spirituality in all its forms, substituting rationality and scientific
\nvalidation of knowledge.<\/p>\n

These understandable reactions to the shortcomings of religion led to the liberation of superstition and marginalization of metaphysical abstractions (such as \u2018God\u2019) from the workings of society, leading to the substitution of the Enlightenment view of knowledge and to the rise of modernity in the West with its vision of progress reliant on dynamic technological innovation. What was sacrificed in the process was a sense of human community including the ethics of empathy and a
\npolitics of compassion, as well as the denial of spirituality. The aspirations of a
\n\u2018humane\u2019 approach is to restore the virtues of the pre-modern without losing the
\nbenefits of modernity as conditioned by the extension of human rights, the curtailment
\nof militarism and nuclearism, and care for ecological stability.<\/p>\n

To reorient modernity to overcome these dangerous deficiencies is what I intend by
\nthe stress on a \u2018humane\u2019 worldview. It calls for an ethics and politics of moderation,
\nenlivened by spiritual awareness and practices, reflecting a realistic appreciation of
\nglobal challenges. Among governance frameworks, the most congenial for me is that
\nof ecologically conditioned varieties of democratic socialism in a global setting finally
\ninclined toward denuclearization and demilitarization, as well as the repudiation of
\npredatory capitalism and the kind of excessive individualism that arises when the
\nmarket is entrusted with the promotion of human wellbeing in all its facets.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Prof. Richard Falk is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/em><\/a> Editorial Committee Member, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, Chair of Global Law, Faculty of Law, at Queen Mary University London, Research Associate the Orfalea Center of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Fellow of the Tellus Institute. He directed the project on Global Climate Change, Human Security, and Democracy at UCSB and formerly served as director the North American group in the World Order Models Project. He also is a member of the editorial board of the magazine <\/em>The Nation. Between 2008 and 2014, Falk served as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine. His book,\u00a0<\/em>(Re)Imagining Humane Global Governance\u00a0(2014), proposes a value-oriented assessment of world order and future trends. His most recent books are\u00a0<\/em>Power Shift\u00a0(2016);\u00a0<\/em>Revisiting the Vietnam War\u00a0(2017);\u00a0<\/em>On Nuclear Weapons: Denuclearization, Demilitarization and Disarmament\u00a0(2019); and\u00a0<\/em>On Public Imagination: A Political & Ethical Imperative, ed. with Victor Faessel & Michael Curtin (2019).\u00a0He\u00a0is the author or coauthor of other books, including\u00a0<\/em>Religion and Humane Global Governance\u00a0(2001),\u00a0<\/em>Explorations at the Edge of Time\u00a0(1993),\u00a0<\/em>Revolutionaries and Functionaries\u00a0(1988),\u00a0<\/em>The Promise of World Order\u00a0(1988),\u00a0<\/em>Indefensible Weapons (with Robert Jay Lifton, 1983),\u00a0<\/em>A Study of Future Worlds\u00a0(1975), and\u00a0<\/em>This Endangered Planet\u00a0(1972).\u00a0His memoir,\u00a0<\/em>Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim\u00a0was published in March 2021 and received an award from Global Policy Institute at Loyala Marymount University as \u2018the best book of 2021.<\/strong>\u2019 He has been nominated frequently for the Nobel Peace Prize since 2009.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 richardfalk.org<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR HUMAN JUSTICE!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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