Please see PABA's summary of the July 19, 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the matter of Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Apartheid is prohibited under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“CERD”) of 1965. Article 3 of CERD provides as follows: “States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction.” On July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”), the highest court in the world on international legal issues, ruled that “Israel’s legislation and measures impose and serve to maintain a near-complete separation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between the settler and Palestinian communities. For this reason, the Court considers that Israel’s legislation and measures constitute a breach of Article 3 of CERD.” ICJ Opinion, ¶ 229.
The ICJ’s landmark decision is consistent with earlier findings of international and Israeli human rights groups:
RESOURCES:
PABA honors the memory of over 50,000 Palestinians killed in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and occupation of the West Bank, including our own family members. We also remember many thousands more injured or buried under the rubble, unjustly imprisoned, and threatened daily by illness, starvation, and continued bombardment with no end in sight. Please view our statement on the one year anniversary of the beginning of the genocide in Gaza.
Legal Definition of Genocide
According to Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (“Genocide Convention”), genocide means acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” including: “(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; [and] (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.” Article III of the Genocide Convention prohibits genocide.
International and U.S. courts have expressed concern that Israel’s recent actions in Gaza may amount to genocide.
International legal experts and human rights organizations have argued that Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza constitute genocide.
PABA is alarmed by the prevalence of anti-Palestinian racism in the United States and around the world. As explained in an important report published by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, "anti-Palestinian racism is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives."
Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms including:
In April 2024, the Institute for the Understanding of Anti-Palestinian Racism (IUAPR) published the results of a national survey that explored the impact of anti-Palestinian racism on both Palestinians and their allies in their daily life. The results revealed key insights into how racism and discrimination against Palestinians have harmful effects on Palestinians and non-Palestinian allies advocating for Palestinian rights in the United States.
RESOURCES:
PABA supports students and allied protesters courageously exercising their right of peaceful assembly and engaging in peaceful acts of civil disobedience on university campuses across the United States.
These students and allies are protesting the ongoing human rights violations inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza — which human rights organizations, a California federal court, and the International Court of Justice have found may plausibly constitute a genocide — and university investments supporting weapons used by Israel in carrying out these human rights violations.
PABA condemns any efforts by universities across the United States to suppress the rights of pro-Palestine student protesters and allies as well as law enforcement’s use of unnecessary, disproportionate, and excessive force against peaceful protesters. PABA also condemns the failures of many universities to take measures to keep pro-Palestinian student protesters and allies safe and the unjustified suspension of university-affiliated student organizations for exercising their rights.
PABA also condemns these universities’ failure to protect students and allies against anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic intimidation that silences and creates a culture of fear for those communities. Likewise, allied students and protesters should not be deterred or punished for expressing their solidarity with Palestine.
Universities have an obligation to protect all of their students and foster a safe educational environment. Engaging law enforcement to exercise disproportionate and grossly excessive use of force against peaceful protesters is a failure not only to their students’ safety, but also to democratic principles that universities should be safeguarding.
The legacy of campus activism protesting against Jim Crow, the Vietnam War, South African Apartheid, and the Iraq War, among other historic examples, reminds us that student protests have been fundamental to advancing freedom, justice, peace, and democracy. Students across the country who are opposing the genocide against the Palestinian people are courageously joining those ranks in history.
We urge all universities to follow the lead of universities that have chosen to be on the right side of history by negotiating with student organizers instead of subjecting them to violent repression. Furthermore, any university that has used or authorized the use of force against peaceful protesters should conduct an independent investigation into the circumstances around the decision to use force and all harm done to students. Lastly, we implore all universities that have suspended, dismissed, or otherwise not permitted students to complete courses and remain students, to revaluate such drastic and draconian measures and immediately reinstate their students.
RESOURCES:
contact@pabalaw.org