THE actions of Israel, whether the planned evictions in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, attacking Al-Aqsa Mosque or the bombing of Gaza, do not merely constitute aggression against the Palestinians.
They are acts of contempt and hostility against the entire international system of law and order, the framework for governing the conduct of nations, and all global norms of justice.
It is too often dismissed as merely a critical adjective when Israel's brutality is described as "illegal", but this classification matters.
When we refer to Israel's control of East Jerusalem as an occupation, that represents a kind of
legal "benefit of the doubt", where the international community acknowledges that Israel militarily invaded the territory in 1967 and exists there as an occupying army.
This term obliges Israel with duties and responsibilities of any foreign force "temporarily" overseeing land they have invaded.
Israel, however, does not consider East Jerusalem an occupied territory. They regard it as seized land that belongs to Israel. Which is to say they bluntly affirm that their presence in East Jerusalem is what international law explicitly defines as illegal, specifically the crime of conquest.
This is a point that mustn't be overlooked. According to international law, as well as multiple United Nations resolutions, Israel has no legal jurisdiction in East Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa compound and the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Nor does Israel have the right to alter the demographic composition of the territory, whether by population transfers of inhabitants out of the area or by moving settlers in.
Furthermore, Israel is not permitted to supplant local institutions necessary for sovereignty, replacing or overruling them with the institutions of the occupying force, thereby systematically annexing the seized land through the expansion of the occupier's de facto jurisdiction.
In short, everything Israel is doing in East Jerusalem is illegal and demonstrates a defiance of both moral consensus and the foundational laws to which the civilised world is committed.
Of course, this belligerence is not new. Only last month, Israel declared it would not cooperate with an investigation by the International Criminal Court into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the occupied West Bank.
Ariel Sharon, "the Butcher of Beirut", famously scoffed at global outrage over the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982, saying "Israel could teach the world about peace and human rights". Sharon was found guilty by the UN of war crimes and genocide in Lebanon, only to subsequently be elected Israel's prime minister rather than be tried at The Hague. Indeed, Israel's history has been a chronicle of contempt for international law.
What Israel is doing today and what it has been doing for decades is an affront to civilised nations of the world. It is time the international community defended the principles of justice and the codes of law upon which peace, order and human rights all depend and which carry the authority of global acceptance.
The authority of every international institution of law is under attack along with Al-Aqsa. Israel is threatening to evict the very precepts of modern civilisation along with the residents of Sheikh Jarrah. Our shared moral credibility is being fired upon in Gaza.
If Israel is allowed to flout the rules with impunity, how can enforcement against other regimes be justified? Unless we collectively renounce these laws and principles and allow every nation to pursue flagrant aggression against every other, we must act now.
The writer is founder of the Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra)
