Considering the continued impunity with which Israel deprives the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, their right to be protected from genocide, and the manifold other fundamental rights and protections to which they are entitled, this paper addresses some of the key obligations third States have with respect to the economic activities sustaining – in whole or in part – the relevant internationally wrongful conduct by Israel.
The underlying wrongful conduct
There is a belated[i] – but ever-wider – acknowledgment from the broader international community that Israel is engaged in violations of multiple peremptory norms of international law (ius cogens[ii]), including violations of (a) the basic rules of international humanitarian law;[iii] (b) the prohibition on torture;[iv] (c) the prohibition of crimes against humanity;[v] (d) the prohibition on apartheid and racial discrimination;[vi] (e) the prohibition of the crime of aggression through Israel’s maintenance of its unlawful occupation, which constitutes an unlawful use of force;[vii] (f) the right to self-determination;[viii] and (g) the prohibition on genocide.[ix] While many governments, especially in the global north, deny or refuse to acknowledge multiple of the above violations, the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) numerous findings in its Advisory Opinions and Orders;[x] the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issuance of arrest warrants;[xi] and States’ own public statements[xii] are further rendering such denials implausible.
The widespread nature of the offending conduct, and the scope of activities sustaining it
The nature of the above crimes is such that, where they occur – and especially where they do so in tandem – they usually entail the involvement of most, if not all, arms of government of the perpetrating State. In the case of Israel, they involve a concerted State policy to which all arms of government participate. For example, Israel’s Ministry of Interior retains …….
