11/1/2024–|Last updated: 11/1/202403:29 PM (Mecca time)
Professor of International Affairs at Qatar University, Ahmed Jamil Azm, said that there is a positive thing in the fact that South Africa is the one that filed the case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, amid increasing questions: Why did no Arab country file the case?
Azm explained – in an exclusive interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that the positivity stems from the fact that South Africa is a non-Arab country, which shows that the issue is not just an Arab party against an Israeli party, in addition to the fact that South Africa has very important expertise and experience in the issue of resorting to international law.
He pointed out that this does not prevent the negative and surprising aspect that Arab countries have not exhausted all available legal and diplomatic tools in order to obtain Arab rights.
American pressure
The legal expert continued that the United States had in the past exerted great pressure on the Palestinians so that they would not resort to international law, noting that former US President Barack Obama told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas – when Palestine sought permanent membership in the United Nations, to obtain membership in international organizations and enter… In international agreements – “You are like someone using a nuclear bomb.”
By this, he means that there are written and official American reservations for Israel to work to prevent Palestinians and Arabs from resorting to international law and international organizations, and to prevent Palestine’s membership even in international frameworks.
The professor of international affairs explained that returning to the issue of UNESCO – for example – and other organizations, we will find that the United States withdrew from it and froze its membership in it in response to the organization’s acceptance of Palestine’s membership, and thus Washington also provides legal and political protection to Israel, and not just military support.
He stressed that, based on this, America exerted great pressure on Arab countries not to resort to international law or international organizations.
Previous attempt
Azm stated that Obama agreed at the end of his term to present a draft law condemning the settlements, which was Resolution No. 2334 and submitted by Egypt, at a time when former US President Donald Trump – who had won the elections and had not yet assumed his position – tried to convince the Obama administration to refuse The resolution was used and vetoed, but the Obama administration did not respond.
At that time, Trump asked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi – who had a bad relationship with the Obama administration – for Egypt to withdraw the draft resolution, in exchange for a promise that there would be an attempt to comprehensively resolve the Palestinian issue and improve US-Egyptian relations.
The legal expert concluded that the failure of Arab countries to resort to the International Court of Justice is primarily due to American pressure.
On Thursday afternoon, the International Court of Justice began its first hearing on the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel on charges of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.