On Friday, 26 January, the International Court of Justice, one of the organs of the UN, delivered its interim ruling on the case against Israel brought forth by South Africa. Israel must “take all measures” not to commit the acts which fall under the 1948 Genocide Convention’s second article. The ruling also explicitly identified Palestinians as a “protected group” in danger of genocide. The measure the ICJ did not take was to order a full ceasefire, as South Africa had requested.
Compare this with a previous ICJ case from 2022, concerning Ukraine and Russia, in which the ICJ at The Hague voted 13 to 2 that “The Russian Federation shall immediately suspend the military operations that it commenced…” Clearly, such a ceasefire did not happen.
Meanwhile, the US, Canada, the UK, Italy, and Australia announced their suspension of funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees. Israel claims members of the organization were involved in October 7, so naturally measures must be taken.
What are students and young people in this country to make of these rank double standards by imperialist states and their international venues? Many American students may be studying civics and government for the first time. Perhaps teachers, counselors, parents, and celebrities have told them how they are on the cusp of taking on “civic duties.” 2024 will be a massive year for elections, with electoral processes scheduled in over 60 capitalist states. Surely the youth should be mobilized to boost the turnout in our own general election cycle, and “save democracy” once again.
Only Israel’s shocking butchery of the people of Gaza, their pogroms against the people of the West Bank – all with the full-throated verbal, diplomatic, and military support of the US-NATO imperialist bloc – has changed the situation. The events after October 7 are unraveling the faith in bourgeois institutions held by students.
And how could it be otherwise? Universities have cracked down on pro-Palestine organizations, smearing advocates as bigots, and leaving the student body open to Zionist harassment and doxxing. Administrators have shown no interest in protecting the democratic space on campus, let alone basic physical safety. Consider the incident at Columbia University earlier this month, in which pro-Palestine students were reportedly attacked with chemical irritants. The low politics of campus Zionism, committing ferocious thuggery against students while parading their victimhood in the media, have been on full display.
The crown jewel of the clownery taking place within American universities must be the December “anti-Semitism” show trial of the presidents of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT, presided over by Elise Stefanik, who seized on a convenient diversion after the debacle created by her political dependent, the ex-Rep. George Santos, known for cracking Hitler jokes in private. It was an audition that may prove to be worthy of the role of Trump’s Vice President.
So many young people are witnessing first-hand the dysfunction, demagoguery, and distortion of truth emanating out of every pore of every organization, establishment, foundation, and center that characterizes modern imperialist society. But what about those who were already politicized within liberal horizons? Young organizers pounded the pavement and turned out in the primaries for the reformist Bernie Sanders—not once but twice—only to be completely disillusioned by his sympathy for Israel. Students dedicating their college years to studying the politics and theory of decoloniality now witness ineffectual silence on the current massacre from their professors and advisors, if not hostility and punishment. “Decolonize New York!” “Decolonize your mind!” Everything has been colonized—except, apparently, for Palestine.
What young people and revolutionary students are learning firsthand is that “Democratic values” in our imperialist society are nothing but a hypocritical fig leaf for the most unprincipled deal-making between bourgeois actors. The President offers “democracy” to the electorate in one hand, but he keeps his other hand behind his back. That hand is open to whatever ultra-nationalists, semi-fascists, and other reactionary forces the bourgeoisie needs to maintain their dominance.
The rulings of the ICJ have no legal guarantee of enforcement, but what exactly does “international humanitarian law” mean in a social system where IDF reservists gassing students on campus are seen as the victims, while Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are treated as suspects? What is the meaningful distinction between combatant and civilian in a world in which Israel bombs hospitals? The laws of war only protect people in so far as they protect the labor force of capitalists. Their chief objective is to protect private property and secure the mode of production. The economic foundations of a future Palestinian state are either puppeteered by the Zionist state through the Palestinian Authority, or outright strangled, as in the Gaza Strip. In the cold Malthusian mentality of the imperialists, there is nothing in Palestine to protect. Behind the propaganda urging us to vote, here is the genuine tutelage of the ruling class.
It remains to be seen how Israel’s aggression will figure into the US general election later this year. But it is safe to assume that the familiar yapping dogs of imperialism will be back on their tried-and-true ideological blackmail: “You think Biden is bad, just give Trump another chance!” Perhaps they’ll graduate from blackmail to outright threats. They assert that Trump is the worst outcome. But consider the White House Statement of 26 January calling for more border control: yet another pragmatic bourgeois compromise with odious political corners. So far, it looks like “saving democracy” for the centrist Democrats means building the wall and calling it something else.
However, while the ICJ at The Hague is unwilling to directly condemn or exonerate the state of Israel, the court case is certainly part of a larger process, as the tide of public opinion turns against the Zionists and their duplicitous arguments. As organizers in the student movement, we must do all we can to accelerate this turn, continue to rally the camp of solidarity for Palestinian liberation, and educate fellow students about Israel’s colonial project and its role as an outpost for US imperialism in the Middle East. Capitalism will only continue to bring war, starvation, poverty, displacement, and crisis on masses of the world’s people. The path to a brighter future lies in bringing political power to the working masses of all nationalities, in a struggle against an imperialist ruling class that is itself multi-national.
May Day Student Organization 