“Israel’s Unprovoked Bombing of Iran Violates International Law. Full Stop” is the heading of a new article by Professor of History at the University of Michigan, Juan Cole, published by the Common Dreams news service.
In the article, Cole writes that President Donald Trump “paved the way to this war by trashing the 2015 nuclear deal, but now he must condemn—not support—this brazen and unlawful military campaign.”
He pointed out that Israel’s “reasons” for the attack are also false: “Iran is not assessed by U.S. intelligence to have a military nuclear weapons program, only a civilian uranium enrichment program. The country is allowed in international law to make fuel for its Bushehr reactor, built by Russia, with more planned. Thus, the Israeli attack violates international humanitarian law.”
Professor Cole went on to say that “Israel is now waging war on people in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran, in what appears to be an attempt to establish itself as a regional hegemon and to quash any regional opposition to its plans to ethnically cleanse the over 5 million Palestinians it militarily occupies.
“It is, however, unlikely that Israeli attacks can do more than set back Iran’s uranium enrichment program, since the country has a big establishment by now of nuclear scientists and it has its own uranium, and the know-how it has built up cannot likely be extinguished. Netanyahu does not have a long-term vision for his relations with the Middle East, instead following the fascist prescriptions of the de facto founder of his Likud Party, Vladimir Jabotinsky, who urged that the Jewish settler-colonists in Palestine (he used such terminology) lash out hard at any opposition and crush it. This philosophy set in train the decades of whack-a-mole that the Israeli military plays with regional countries and peoples. It has not made Israel secure, though it has made Netanyahu rich and powerful,” Professor Cole added.
* The United Nations Charter (1945) – Article 2(4) states that “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
This clause makes the use of force in international relations unlawful, with only two main exceptions: self-defense (Article 51 of the UN Charter), or UN Security Council authorization. Israel has neither of these.
The crime of aggression—defined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Article 8 bis)—also codifies the illegality of unprovoked military attacks: “…the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State… in a manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations.” This definition strengthens the prohibition and allows for individual criminal responsibility of national leaders who engage in acts of unprovoked aggression.
