Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
United States: One of the two people killed in the Washington shooting is believed to be an Israeli embassy employee.
United States: Two people killed in shooting near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
Occupied Palestine: A fire broke out in the courtyard of Al-Awda Hospital in the Tal al-Zaatar neighborhood in northern Gaza after IOF fired directly at diesel tanks.
Israeli ambulance: A settler was injured while running to shelter after a rocket was fired from Yemen, and the sirens were activated.
Occupied Palestine: The IOF besieges Al-Awda Hospital in Tal al-Zaatar, north of Gaza, with 160 people inside, including medical personnel and wounded.
Occupied Palestine: IOF: A missile was detected and launched from Yemen, and air defense systems were activated.
Lebanese Health Ministry: One martyr, one wounded in IOF strike on Yater, South Lebanon.
Palestinian sources: Arab-European committee including 30 ambassadors, consuls came under fire by occupation forces in Jenin Refugee Camp, northern West Bank.
Pope Leo XIV: I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid [into Gaza] and to put an end to the hostilities
Palestinian Resistance factions: Occupation expanding its genocidal war through what it calls "Gideon's Chariots" will end in failure just like its former plans.

ICJ Contests Assertions of Unassailable Moral Purpose, Shaking Western Power-Structures

  • Alastair Crooke Alastair Crooke
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 31 Jan 2024 00:22
  • 15 Shares
4 Min Read

The explosive issue at the focus of the ICJ rulings likely will become the pivot to the new era -- likely one of struggle and schism in the West.

  • x
  • ICJ Contests Assertions of Unassailable Moral Purpose, Shaking Western Power-Structures
    In the wake of the ICJ ruling, people will feel freer to speak-out on sensitive issues, where repression of speech has been in practice (Illustrated by Mahdi Rteil to Al Mayadeen English)

The cornerstone to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rulings made this Friday is that they revoke the ‘Israeli’ project’s assertion of unassailable moral rectitude.

Judged by the West’s own ‘Rules-Based Order’, an overwhelming majority of international judges found that there is first, plausible evidence that "Israel" has the intent to commit genocide; and secondly, that there is plausible evidence that "Israel" is committing genocide. The ICJ did not make a final decision (yet) on the charge of genocide, but stated that there was sufficient substance to order "Israel" to cease those acts that plausibly appear genocidal.

This is a stunning outcome that ultimately will shift the global power-balance. The asserted unassailability and moral irreproachability to Israeli conduct finally has been judged to be (plausibly) genocidal -- and illegal.

The ‘Israeli Project’ has been planted at the very core of Western foreign policy. The subsequent ‘industrialisation’ of the notion of unassailable moral rectitude drew on this (imputed) incontestability to justify, not just Israeli actions per se, but to spawn proxy power-structures across the Westernised world.

The latter essentially took the centrality of the moral rightness of the Israeli State to project a moral superintendency over the US and European Western political matrix.  This power-structure -- loosely called the ‘Lobby’ --  inserted itself into the wider polity, assuming disproportionate influence through conflating US interests as congruous with -- and participating in -- the probity of the Israeli ‘cause’.

Related News

We too are Hamas: Zimbabwean Friends of Palestine

Germany: Sacrificing academic freedom for the sake of 'Israel'

The moral unassailability claim by key Western power-centres has been punctured, perhaps for good by the ICJ. This has profound implications: The Global South can now voice feelings,   and articulate their own histories of repression, that in an earlier era would have been disallowed and whose utterance would have ensured severe penalties.

In Western states, there has come about an informal ‘Holy Inquisition’: Prominent figures in the US are similarly ‘Put to the Question’: Have you ever aligned with unrighteousness? Have you publicly denounced Hamas?

Should the response be equivocal or insufficient, the respondents -- be they Presidents of prestigious US universities or other public figures -- will no longer be tortured (the early ‘lie-detector’ test) and burned alive should they fail; but yet they will be denounced, humiliated and have their careers destroyed (for their near heresy).

Of course, in the Western sphere, the ICJ orders are being ‘disappeared’ from public discourse,  and a deaf ear is turned. Politics will not change overnight. Yet everyone in the non-West, and millions in Western societies, owning one of the five billion of extant smartphones, will have had access and watched the succinct and clear rulings handed down by the ICJ’s supreme justice.

The rulings may turn to be absent from the pages of Western MSM, yet they will return, for there is the thirty-day time limit by which "Israel" is required to report back to the Court on the actions taken to prevent all aspects of conceivable genocide. If the report-back is inadequate, the rulings likely will make their appearance at the UN Security Council.

This is a devastating occurrence for certain power-structures in the West: In the wake of the ICJ ruling, people will feel freer to speak-out on sensitive issues, where repression of speech has been in practice. And no one can miss the symbolism of Gaza: Whatever rights or wrongs that have occurred there (maybe plenty), a tiny people are standing defiantly against the overwhelming might of powerful states, seeking liberation.

The explosive issue at the focus of the ICJ rulings likely will become the pivot to the new era -- likely one of struggle and schism in the West -- as the forces of repression continue to impose their régime over those forces against them. The essentials to this conflict will, as it were, go global.

 

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
  • Palestine
  • Gaza genocide
  • Gaza
  • ICJ
Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke

Director of Conflicts Forum; Former Senior British Diplomat; Author.

Most Read

All
The new wave of ‘fact checkers’ and AI machines are mostly extensions of existing media monopolies, which aim to reinforce key messages of the Western hegemonic cartel. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

How Western fact checkers promote fake news

  • Opinion
  • 8 May 2025
Although the background information does not indicate direct US involvement, considering the broader geopolitical context, it is plausible that the US would have an indirect impact. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

Did 'Israel', US fight a proxy war with China in South Asia during the India-Pakistan escalation?

  • Feature
  • 19 May 2025
Israeli manpower shortages offer a firm reckoning of its Gaza genocide

Israeli manpower shortages offer a firm reckoning of Gaza genocide

  • Analysis
  • 9 May 2025
It is clear that the Israeli project in Syria is not over and that Tel Aviv seeks to use what it sees as a historic opportunity to divide the country and achieve “Greater Israel”. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

The Israeli Syria Dilemma

  • Opinion
  • 15 May 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

More from this writer

All
The Nakedness of EU ‘Geo-political’ Ambitions Will Be Revealed - As the Ukraine War Melts Away

The Nakedness of EU ‘Geo-political’ Ambitions Will Be Revealed - As the Ukraine War Melts Away

The Slow-Motion Advance to the Edge of the Abyss

The Slow-Motion Advance to the Edge of the Abyss

Already, "Israel" has the White House committed to support an Israeli military operation against Hezbollah. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

Does 'Israel' want war?

The European Mutiny: The Consequences are Just Beginning

The European Mutiny: The Consequences are Just Beginning

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS