The purpose of this chamber is to identify and evaluate the international geopolitical and power relationships that have obstructed a just, durable and compassionate resolution of the Question of Palestine. These relationships, located primarily in the liberal democracies of the Global West, have contributed significantly to the international failure to prevent genocide in Gaza after 7 October 2023, and to the broader impunity enjoyed by Israel respecting its serial violations of international law and defiance of UN resolutions following its establishment in 1948 and its occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza after the June 1967 war.
A related purpose of this Chamber is to explore and critique the dominance of ‘political realism’ as the conceptual foundation of modern foreign policy in the Global West. An integral feature of political realism is the absence of international law and a rights-based morality where these clash with geopolitical priorities. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Global West condemned this as a violation of international law, and it imposed sanctions and supported punitive initiatives at the International Criminal Court. Yet, in the aftermath of Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza after October 7, many liberal democracies in the Global West have opposed the application of international law and economic sanctions on Israel, notwithstanding seminal rulings by the International Court of Justice and widely supported resolutions of the UN General Assembly.
Modern international law provides the substantive rules which strictly govern the conduct of wars, conflicts, occupations and humanitarian crises. It declares the human rights that all peoples, and especially the vulnerable and afflicted, may demand as their inalienable heritage. It proclaims the duties and obligations that each state must obey, and that all states have a responsibility for enforcing. And yet, because international law is not self-executing, the power to demand obedience and to ensure enforcement lies largely within the realm of international geopolitics. An important goal of this Chamber will be to explore the ways in which the international geopolitical order, expressed in part through the unrestricted right of veto by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, has corroded the values of the United Nations and damaged its capacity to address and resolve outstanding human rights and humanitarian crises, including the Question of Palestine.
In the setting of the Gaza Tribunal, the central point will be to clarify the tensions between the adherence to international law and the continuing prevalence of political realism among important states (particularly in the Global West), foreign policy advisors, influential media platforms and academic experts. The identification and assessment of these issues by this Chamber will enable the Tribunal to identify the geopolitical impediments to resolving challenging international human rights and humanitarian crises, and to advocate for the necessary and viable reforms to the geopolitical world order – especially at the United Nations – that will more closely subordinate politics to law, and power to justice.
In its work, the International Relations and World Order Chamber will clarify the history and political narratives, the theories (in collaboration with the History, Ethics, and Philosophy Chamber), the power relationships and the institutional structures of the contemporary international order which have enabled and justified the subjugation of the Palestinians, both before and after the events of October 2023.
As with the other chambers, the mission of the International Relations and World Order Chamber is to produce a comprehensive report which will contribute to the Final Session and to the Permanent Record, highlighting the tension between ‘political realism’ dismissive of law and ethical norms as compared to institutions seeking respect for the normative aspects of world order.
To this end, this Chamber would be responsible for:
- Drafting a background paper on the domestic and international context with respect to the Question of Palestine which proceeded the events of October 2023;
- Gathering evidence which would illustrate the international role of arms transfers, trade and investments; and diplomatic and military relationships which has supported, sustained and become complicit in the various serious crimes committed by Israel during its military campaign in Gaza and which undermined meaningful initiatives by the United Nations to end the horrific violence in Gaza;
- Assessing the role of media, civil society and academic institutions in either opposing or supporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza;
- Identifying the appropriate political roles and responsibilities of third parties and multilateral institutions; and
- Connecting its inquiries and roles with the other Chambers of the Tribunal.