Senior Humanitarian Law and Policy Consultant; Special Advisor @NRC_Norway @NRC_Geneva. All views my own unless expressly stated otherwise.
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Nov 25 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
ALERT: Time to call #Israel's bluff on domestic investigation and prosecution of war crimes, and argument of complementarity (alleging inadmissibility before the @IntlCrimCourt, and precluding international criminal justice). A short thread based on today's @Haaretz expose: 1/4 In February this year, the Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi sent a confidential letter to Israeli military commanders in which she writes: "#Israel's use of force, in general, is professional and lawful. However, we have encountered breaches of orders and norms, which include the use of force not justified by military necessity, including against [#Palestinian] detainees; pillage, including seizing private property with no military necessity; and the destruction of civilian property against orders. The instances cross from disciplinary infractions into criminality."
Nov 18 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
What should the UN Security Council #UNSC do to ensure human security and peace in #Palestine before the Trump inauguration, mid-January? A short thread about how the agenda can be shaped for the next four years: 1/6 The International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ called on the Security Council to "consider what further action is required to put an end to the illegal presence of Israel, taking into account the present Advisory Opinion."
Nov 4 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Member of #Israel's parliament Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism, with Smotrich as party leader) tables a draft bill to formalize (circa) 140 settlement outposts across the unlawfully occupied West Bank. A thread: 1/4 The draft bill, tabled this morning, calls for the formalization of settlement outposts - at the vanguard of settler violence and the corrolary forcible transfer of #Palestinians - within two years, doubling the number of Israeli settlements in the oPt to 280.
Nov 1 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: #Israel's government adopts the 25'-26' State Budget, with an upsurge of military spending indicative of a protracted, high-intensity, armed conflict in #Gaza, the West Bank and beyond. A thread: 1/3 In 22', Israel allocated 90 billion ILS (24 billion USD) to military and security-related spending, which includes the cost of its belligerent occupation of #Palestinian territory (determined to be unlawful by the @CIJ_ICJ in July 24').
Oct 3 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: UK government to complete the decolonization of the Chagos Archipelago and reverse sovereignty to Mauritius. A short thread on how international law, and the International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ, in particular, managed the resolution of conflict, and a timely lesson for the decolonization of occupied Palestinian territory.1/3 In February 2019 the #ICJ rendered an Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, asserting that the UK was under an obligation to bring its presence to an end "as rapidly as possible," and that all States are under an obligation to cooperate in accomplishing that. Similar language was used in the July 2024 Advisory on Israeli practices in occupied Palestinian territory, calling for Israel to end its unlawful presence.
Sep 27 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
There is a cynical political calculus behind #Israeli rejection of ceasefire arrangements in #Gaza and #Lebanon. A short thread on how the adoption of Israel's State Budget and #USElection2024 fate these efforts to deescalate: 1/5 Israeli constitutional law provides that a State Budget is tabled by 31 October 24', and approved by 31 March 25', or else the government defaults to general elections. Netanyahu and his coalition partners push for a biannual budget to ensure long-term political survival.
Sep 12 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: The Government of #Israel submits to the High Court of Justice that after 11 months of - debilitating and atrocious war in #Gaza - it has not accomplished 'effective control' in any part of Gaza, has not displaced any of Hamas's governmental functions, and is therefore not the occupying power (with commensurate obligations under #IHL).
Facts described are either an admission of a colossal military failure that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the wanton destruction of Gaza, or entirely false. As the International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ ruled in July: before October 23' and even more so since, Israel had effective control of Gaza.
Sep 3 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Last night #Israel's #Netanyahu showcases a map outlining the annexation of the occupied #WestBank, and a similar fate awaiting #Gaza. The @CIJ_ICJ determined Israel's presence in #Palestinian territory to be unlawful, an act of aggression that must end. Israel must be induced to comply.
The assertion that #Israel will maintain alien rule over #Palestinians is matched by an inflammatory battle cry on settlers' social media, targeting the few Israelis in solidarity with Palestinians: "On the path to expel or annihilate all enemies, foreign and domestic."
Aug 26 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Does #Israel issue 'evacuation orders' to #Palestinians in #Gaza? It does not. What it does is forcibly transfer them, in grave breach of #IHL. A thread to explain the factual and legal inappropriateness of using the term 'evacuation' with respect to Israeli conduct. 1/5 Art. 49 (1) of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides that:
"Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory (...) are prohibited, regardless of their motive."
Aug 18 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: This afternoon, Bezalel Smotrich - the Minister overseeing #Israel's unlawful occupation of #Palestinian territory - visited the outskirts of Bethlehem, vowing to bring an unprecedented wave of demolitions upon Palestinian homes, livelihoods and donor-funded humanitarian aid.
In its recent Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ determined that #Israel’s planning policy in relation to the issuance of building permits, and in particular its practice of property demolition for lack of a building permit to be in serious breach of international law, and inate to its continued unlawful presence in #Palestinian territory.
Aug 15 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Settler violence against #Palestinains is attributable to the State of #Israel and its central and local government: 1. Settler violence is instructed, directed, and controlled by the state. 2. Settler violence is committed by persons exercising government authority. 3. Settler violence is aided and supported by State organs, including Ministries, regional and local settlement councils.
The law of State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts attributable to it allows the international community as a whole to employ lawful countermeasures to ensure Israeli compliance with peremptory norms of international law, seriously and systematically breached through settler violence.
Aug 12 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: This evening (Monday) would-be-settlers plan a massive public prayer in the heart of occupied #Gaza, along the 'Karni-Netzarim Corridor,' a 7 long road severing Gaza controlled by #Israeli armed forces.
In anticipation of settlers coming into occupied #Gaza under the guise of prayer and attempting to stay indefinitely to colonize it, the military commander issued a closed military zone order.
Aug 11 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Appearing before the #Israeli Parliament Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this morning, the Military Advocate General reportedly referred to the investigation of torture of #Palestinian detainees as an "effort to shield them and the armed forces from international tribunals (@IntlCrimCourt, @CIJ_ICJ)."
When the unlawful #Israeli occupation of #Palestinian territory will, one day, end, the final account will show that Israeli government lawyers and judges holding pens did more harm to Palestinians than Israeli soldiers holding guns. Case in point:
Aug 7 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I find this picture of #Israeli coordination with humanitarian organizations in #Gaza (posted just now by COGAT) disturbing. Is the very visible presence of #US military personnel - outnumbering their Israeli counterparts - that of humanitarians or that of co-belligerents?
The International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ established in past months (through orders of preliminary measures, and recently in an Advisory Opinion) that #Israel is the occupying power in #Gaza, with a responsibility towards its #Palestinian population.
Jul 19 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Given its widespread and systematic disregard for international legal norms in its control and
exploitation of #Palestinian territory, #Israel cannot be considered a "lawful occupant," but instead the @CIJ_ICJ should find its prolonged occupation to be in serious breach of peremptory norms of international law.
An @CIJ_ICJ determination later this afternoon that #Israel has become an illegal occupant - whose actions deny #Palestinian self-determination and result in exacerbated humanitarian needs - would elevate the duty of the international community to end the occupation. Such a determination by the #ICJ would re-establish the framework of international law as the guiding path to a just and
durable resolution to the question of #Palestine.
Jul 13 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Considering t the attack in Al Mawasi #Gaza earlier today - which has led to multiple civilian fatalities - I remembered hearing #Israel's Head of International Law at
the Military Advocate General’s Corps during a 2017 @IIHL_Sanremo conference.
He said at the time that military commanders, when considering Art. 57 of AP I ("constant care shall be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects") should not give it precedence over military gains.
Jun 24 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Today, #Israel is to report to the @CIJ_ICJ on the implementation of the order of provisional measures (24 May), including:
* Immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the #Rafah Governorate
* Maintain open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic
services and humanitarian assistance
* Ensure unimpeded access to the #Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the @UN @UN_HRC
* Since 24 May, 1,631 Palestinians were killed, and 6,453 were injured in Gaza, many of them in and around Rafah
* The Rafah crossing was destroyed by Israeli forces and remains inoperable
* Israel rejected the recent report by the HRC Commission of Inquiry and remains noncooperative
BREAKING: @CIJ_ICJ decides by a vote 13-2 that #Israel shall immediately halt its military offensive in #Rafah.
The Order issued by the Court is without appeal, and according to Article 94 of the UN Charter, "Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice in any case to which it is a party".
May 23 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
While international attention is given to atrocity crimes committed by #Israel in #Gaza, its Parliament preceded - in a preliminary vote - with committing the crime of aggression - annexing the southern parts of the West Bank along with its numerous settlements.
The draft bill redefines the geography of the Negev Desert (in red) to include the metropolitan territory of #Israel and the "area", a synonym for occupied #Palestinian territory. The ancillary note explains the "desire for equality and non discrimination" between Israelis.
May 22 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The journey to #Palestinian political independence and #statehood, a few milestones worth recalling in view of the decision of #Norway, #Ireland, and #Spain (and other WEOG states soon to follow):
1. In 1974, the UN General Assembly decided that the Palestinian people are the principal party to the question of political independence and permanent sovereignty of #Palestine, invested with a right to external self-determination and represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization #PLO.
May 21 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
In 2019 I recovered this 7 July 1967 condimental memo from Theodor Meron, #Israeli MFA legal counsel, on the application of the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention to territories just occupied by Israel and the prohibition on annexation.
If only legal counsel Meron was listened to then, Judge Meron would not have to conclude now that the evidence presented by the @IntlCrimCourt Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC "provides reasonable grounds to believe that #Netanyahu and #Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity."