When established institutions refuse to respond in the face of genocide, the mandate for justice falls to the people. This tribunal is a global grassroots movement taking the international law into its own hands.
Just days after the Zionist entity of “Israel” signed the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, numerous violations were already reported, including the firing on civilians, the blocking of the full amount of daily aid convoys promised, and failure to withdraw soldiers from all areas stipulated in the ceasefire. After two years of outright genocide and over 75 years of an openly racist settler colonial regime enacting apartheid law, there is little to be surprised about regarding “Israel’s” behavior.
The question is not why "Israel" has repeatedly violated its own agreements and international law, as that is to be expected from a rogue entity committing genocide. Instead, the question is why have the international institutions that purportedly stand to enforce international law, such as the United Nations, allowed “Israel” to do this unchallenged?
The dire urgency to halt the Zionist genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza has inspired more actionable statements from UN bodies in the last two years. Most notable have been the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide brought by South Africa and the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against “Israeli” Primer Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Yet, the ICJ case has been long drawn out as justices and lawyers glaze over official legal and diplomatic terms while 2 million Gazans are systematically starved and children are torn to pieces by US-provided bombs. Meanwhile, Netanyahu has toured the world and visited multiple countries that have refused to honor the ICC arrest warrant against him, despite many of these same countries actively advocating for and supporting arrest warrants for African leaders and others with ICC warrants, exposing the double standards and white supremacist attitude of Western heads of state.
It is therefore not in the hands of the international institutions but in the hands of the people that true justice lies, as decades and even centuries of people’s struggle and mass mobilization from below have shown as they’ve challenged imperial rule and forced international action against their oppressors. Occupations have never ended due to political pressure alone, but by militant and steadfast struggle from the oppressed masses themselves.
It is in this spirit of the right to resist occupation, enshrined within international law and aspired for by all freedom and peace loving peoples, that the International Peoples' Front, the International League of Peoples' Struggle, and the People's Coalition for Food Sovereignty have launched "Right to Resist: The Palestinian People vs. The Zionist Occupation and the US Government," an International People's Tribunal set to be held in Barcelona this coming November 22 to 23. The Tribunal will put the US and Israel on trial for US-Backed Zionist Occupation's war of forced starvation and ecocide in Palestine.
The Tribunal will be a forum for projecting the perspective of the people, and will not be limited by tedious, protracted, belated, complicated and even inadequate traditional rules of procedure and evidence. It is both a legal and political platform initiated by the people as a credible alternative and/or complement to existing legal and political measures and actions undertaken to hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes against humanity, such as genocide, ecocide, and forced starvation.
Most importantly, the Tribunal will bring together people and organizations from around the world to not only shine the light on the genocidal crime of ecocide and forced starvation, but will show that it is only through the Palestinian people's own resistance that the genocidal assault will end. It will arm the Palestine solidarity movement around the world with the tools to expose their governments' and other institutions' complicity while asserting full-heartedly the right of the people to fight back.
We are not merely witnessing a military conflict but a concerted attempt at erasing a culture, a people, and a land. The language employed by the occupiers and their imperialist backers seeks to redefine the aggressor and the victim, blurring the lines to create a false narrative that serves their brutal objectives. This reasoning makes initiatives like the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine all the more important for intervening in this narrative and making it harder for the UN and other international institutions to remain inactive as increased global outrage asserts more pressure on these bodies.
The Palestinian struggle for self-determination is not simply an issue of territorial disputes but a fundamental fight against both imperialism and settler colonialism that seek to maintain their grasp over global resources and populations. The stark contrast in how the occupier and the occupied have conducted themselves during this latest ceasefire agreement is telling for anyone following the Palestinian resistance’s actions. The resistance has complied with its agreements, returning all living Israeli captives and the bodies of the deceased. The returned hostages have testified to being treated fairly, even being provided with items for Jewish worship.
This has stood in shocking contrast to the treatment of Palestinian prisoners released by the Zionist entity. They have emerged showing clear signs of systematic torture and profound psychological abuse, while the bodies of murdered Palestinians were returned displaying visible signs of torture, scars that further exemplify the depth of the Zionist entity’s inhumanity, if any more evidence was needed.
The Zionist entity has made it clear time and time again that it holds international law in contempt, confident that the US will provide diplomatic cover and military support. The role of the US in this genocide is undeniable, and its attempt at “peacekeeping” does not convince anyone to doubt its unwavering support of the continued oppression and destruction of the Palestinian people. Therefore, it is imperative that international solidarity efforts be directed towards exposing the Zionist occupation and US government’s crimes while advocating fully for the just cause of Palestinian liberation and self-determination, as the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine will do.
Since October 7th, 2023, the Al Aqsa Flood operation has been an expression of bravery and a boldness to struggle, reaching unprecedented heights and challenging the impenetrability and invincibility of the Zionist entity, a fascist military regime completely armed and protected by US and European imperialism. While the Al Aqsa Flood has been painted as a "terrorist operation" by hypocritical colonial powers, the US-Zionist-European coalition is arguably the number one terrorist alliance in the world today. The Al Aqsa Flood is seen by the vast majority of the world's struggling peoples as a shining example of what it means to assert one's collective right to resist and live on one's own land by any means necessary.
The spirit of Al Aqsa Flood continues to inspire solidarity initiatives worldwide, and the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine is no exception. Throughout every stage of the Tribunal and the actions that will follow, it shall memorialize the struggle of the Palestinian people and freedom-loving peoples of the world for the historical record and as moral inspiration for political action. It shall contribute to the cumulation and snowballing of resistance and protests worldwide.
As the Tribunal assembles, it serves as a vital instrument to confront the genocidal war crimes of the US-Zionist occupation head on. The exposure of ecocide and the horrors inflicted upon the Palestinian people must become a rallying point for revolutionaries and progressive-minded people across the globe.
The people of Gaza have shown remarkable resilience; their struggle is the world’s struggle. Justice will not come from the negotiating tables occupied by the perpetrators and their sponsors. True justice can only be achieved through unwavering global solidarity and genuine sovereignty over one’s land.
Through the Tribunal, the Palestinian people, with international solidarity, will exercise their mandate to try the perpetrators of these crimes. This is part and parcel to amplifying the Palestinian people's collective right to self-determination and the struggle for national liberation to the world. It is an expression of the Palestinian people’s inherent right to resist.
About the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine: The IPT for Palestine is a civil society initiative organized by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), International Peoples’ Front, and the Peoples’ Coalition on Food Sovereignty, with the cooperation of endorsers including the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and Palestine Land Studies Centre, among others. It aims to establish a historical record of crimes against the Palestinian people, mobilize international solidarity, and exert moral and political pressure on complicit governments and international institutions. Learn more about the tribunal: https://internationalsolidarity.org/tribunal/
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